Greg Mankiw

Greg Mankiw
21st Chairman of the Council of Economic
Advisers
In office
May 23, 2003 – February 18, 2005
President George W. Bush
Preceded by R. Glenn Hubbard
Succeeded by Harvey S. Rosen
Personal details
Born Nicholas Gregory Mankiw
February 3, 1958
Trenton, New Jersey
Alma mater
Awards Wolf Balleisen Memorial Prize (1980)
Galbraith Teaching Prize (1991)

Nicholas Gregory Mankiw (/ˈmæn.kjuː/; born February 3, 1958) is an American macroeconomist and Chairman and Professor of Economics at Harvard University. Mankiw is best known in academia for his work on New Keynesian economics.

From 2003 to 2005, Mankiw was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush. In 2006, he became an economic adviser to Mitt Romney and continued during Romney's 2012 presidential bid.[1][2] He is a conservative[3][4][5][6] and he writes a popular blog,[7] ranked the number one economics blog by US economics professors in a 2011 survey.[8] He is also author of the best-selling textbook Principles of Economics. The IDEAS/RePEc overall ranking puts him as 42nd most influential economist in the world today; as measured by the h-index, he is the 14th most productive research economist.[9] In 2007 he was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Along with David Card, he was elected vice president of the American Economic Association for 2014.

Early life and education

Mankiw was born in Trenton, New Jersey. His grandparents were all Ukrainian.[10][11] In his youth, he attended the Pingry School. In 1975, he studied astronomy at the Summer Science Program.[12] He graduated from Princeton University summa cum laude in 1980—being classmates with David Romer—with a Bachelor of Arts in economics.[13] He spent a year working on his Doctor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a subsequent year studying at Harvard Law School. He worked as a staff economist for the Council of Economic Advisers from 1982–83, foreshadowing his later position as chairman of that organization. After leaving the Council, he earned his PhD in economics from MIT in 1984. He returned to Harvard Law for a year but, having nearly completed his PhD and realizing he was not as comparatively good at law,[14] he left to teach at MIT for a year and then became an assistant professor of Economics at Harvard University in 1985 and full professor in 1987.

He was appointed by President George W. Bush as Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in May 2003. He has since resumed teaching at Harvard, taking over the most popular class at Harvard College, the introductory economics course Ec 10.[15]

Career

He has written two popular college-level textbooks: one in intermediate macroeconomics and the more famous Principles of Economics. More than one million copies of the books have been sold in seventeen languages.

Mankiw is a New Keynesian economist. He did important work on menu costs, which are a source of price stickiness. In 1989, he wrote a paper predicting that the aging of the baby boomers would undermine the housing market in the 1990s and 2000s.[16]

Mankiw has become an influential figure in the blogosphere and online journalism since launching his blog. The blog,[7] originally designed to assist his Ec10 students, has gained a readership that extends far beyond students of introductory economics.[17] In particular, he has used it as a platform to advocate the implementation of pigovian taxes such as a revenue-neutral carbon tax; to this end Mankiw founded the informal Pigou Club.[18]

From 2003 to 2005, Mankiw was one of President George W. Bush's top economic advisers, and was chairman of the national Council of Economic Advisers (CEA). In November 2006, Mankiw became an official economic adviser to then-Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's political action committee, Commonwealth PAC.[19] In 2007, he signed on as an economic adviser to Romney's presidential campaign.[20]

The Research Papers in Economics project ranked him as the 25th most influential economist in the world as of August 2011 based on his academic contributions.[9]

In February 2013, Mankiw publicly supported legal recognition for same-sex marriage in an amicus brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court.[21]

2004 Economic Report of the President

Several controversies arose from CEA's February 2004 Economic Report of the President.[22] In a press conference, Mankiw spoke of the gains from free trade, noting that outsourcing of jobs by U.S. companies is "probably a plus for the economy in the long run."[23][24] While this reflected mainstream economic analysis, it was criticized by many politicians[25][26] who drew a link between outsourcing and the still-slow recovery of the U.S. labor market in early 2004.[26]

Controversy also arose from a rhetorical question posed by the report (and repeated by Mankiw in a speech about the report):[27] "when a fast-food restaurant sells a hamburger, is it providing a service or combining inputs to manufacture a product?" The intended point was that the distinction between manufacturing jobs and service industry jobs is somewhat arbitrary and therefore a poor basis for policy. Even though the issue was not raised in the report, a news account led to criticism that the Administration was seeking to cover up job losses in manufacturing by redefining jobs such as cooking hamburgers as manufacturing.[28]

2008–2009 Keynesian resurgence

In November 2008, Mankiw wrote in The New York Times:

"If you were going to turn to only one economist to understand the problems facing the economy, there is little doubt that the economist would be John Maynard Keynes. Although Keynes died more than a half-century ago, his diagnosis of recessions and depressions remains the foundation of modern macroeconomics. His insights go a long way toward explaining the challenges we now confront."[29]

Mankiw has expressed skepticism about a trillion dollar spending package in the face of the global financial and economic crisis. He has vigorously criticized Vice President Joseph Biden for suggesting there was complete unanimity of support among economists for a stimulus package.[30]

2011 student walkout

On November 2, 2011, a number of students in Mankiw's Economics 10 class walked out of his lecture. Several dozen of the 750 students participated.[31][32] Before leaving, they handed Mankiw an open letter critical of his course, saying in part:

"we found a course that espouses a specific—and limited—view of economics that we believe perpetuates problematic and inefficient systems of economic inequality in our society today ... Economics 10 makes it difficult for subsequent economics courses to teach effectively as it offers only one heavily skewed perspective rather than a solid grounding on which other courses can expand. ... Harvard graduates play major roles in the financial institutions and in shaping public policy around the world. If Harvard fails to equip its students with a broad and critical understanding of economics, their actions are likely to harm the global financial system. The last five years of economic turmoil have been proof enough of this."[33]

The students concluded their letter by stating they would instead be attending the Occupy Boston demonstration then under way. Counter protesters showed up in that class and Mankiw replied to his students in an article in The New York Times.[34][35] An editorial in the student-run Harvard Crimson condemned the protest.[36] Harvard Crimson in its editorial stated that:

"While it is true that Professor N. Gregory Mankiw, who was lecturing during the walkout, has conservative views and held a position in the Bush Administration, we take issue with the claim that his class is inherently biased because he is the professor and author of its textbook. The truth is that Ec 10, a requirement for economics concentrators, provides a necessary academic grounding for the study of economics as a social science. Professor Mankiw’s curriculum sticks to the basics of economic theory without straying into partisan debate. We struggle to believe that we must defend his textbook, much maligned by the protesters, which is both peer reviewed and widely used.

Furthermore, the students protesting the class who desire that he give more time to other, less accepted schools of economic thought—like Marxism—would do well to remember that such interrogation is the domain of social theory, not economic theory. Supply-and-demand economics is a popular idea of how society is organized, and Mankiw’s Ec 10 never presents itself as more than that. As such, including other theories would simply muddy the waters of what is intended; Ec 10 is an introductory class that lays the foundation for future, more nuanced, study.

That being said, even if Ec 10 were as biased as the protesters claim it is, students walking out to protest its ideology set a dangerous precedent in an academic institution that prides itself on open discourse. This type of protest ignores opposition rather than engages with it. Instead of challenging a professor to back up his claims, it tries to remove him from the dialogue."

Personal life

Mankiw lives in Massachusetts with his wife Deborah and his three children, Catherine, Nicholas and Peter.[37]

Selected bibliography

References

  1. ↑ Romney Taps Bush Hands to Shape Economic Policies, February 24, 2012
  2. ↑ "Harvard Economist Advises Mitt Romney". Retrieved October 5, 2011.
  3. ↑ "Let's pick on Greg Mankiw". The Economist. March 10, 2009.
  4. ↑ Rampell, Catherine (August 29, 2011). "Alan Krueger's New White House Job". New York Times.
  5. ↑ Chandler, Clay (October 2, 1994). "From the GOP, Old Lines for New Times; On Tax Cuts, Capital Gains, the Budget and Other Issues, Republicans Return to an '80s Hit". Washington Post.
  6. ↑ Maggs, John (October 11, 2003). "Deconstructing the Deficit". National Journal.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 For Greg Mankiw's blog, see "GREG MANKIW'S BLOG / Random Observations for Students of Economics".
  8. ↑ Davis, William L, Bob Figgins, David Hedengren, and Daniel B. Klein. "Economic Professors' Favorite Economic Thinkers, Journals, and Blogs," Econ Journal Watch 8(2): 126-146, May 2011.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Economist Rankings at IDEAS – Top 10% Authors, as of August 2011". Research Papers in Economics. August 2011. Retrieved September 20, 2011.
  10. ↑ http://gregmankiw.blogspot.ca/2006/06/my-familys-flatware.html
  11. ↑ http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/mankiw/files/confirm.pdf
  12. ↑ "New Mexico Tech News". New Mexico Tech. June 17, 2004. Retrieved November 29, 2010.
  13. ↑ Andres, Edmund L. "A Salesman for Bush's Tax Plan Who Has Belittled Similar Ideas", The New York Times, February 28, 2003.
  14. ↑ http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2006/06/jd-vs-phd-my-story.html
  15. ↑ "Harvard Course Catalog". Retrieved 18 February 2013.
  16. ↑ Mankiw, N. Gregory; Weil, David N. (1990). "The Baby Boom, The Baby Bust, and the Housing Market". NBER Working Paper. W2794. SSRN 245837.
  17. ↑ "The invisible hand on the keyboard". The Economist. August 3, 2006.
  18. ↑ Greg Mankiw's Blog: The Pigou Club Manifesto
  19. ↑ "Mitt Romney's Free and Strong America PAC". Thecommonwealthpac.com. 2009-11-09. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
  20. ↑ http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2006/dec/21/your_massive_election_central_guide_to_2008_presidential_campaign_staffs
  21. ↑ http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/28/the-pro-freedom-republicans-are-coming-131-sign-gay-marriage-brief.html
  22. ↑ Economic Report of the President - 2004
  23. ↑ "Bush adviser backs off pro-outsourcing comment". CNN. February 11, 2004. Retrieved May 19, 2010.
  24. ↑ Harvard Econ Department - Contact Info for N. Gregory Mankiw
  25. ↑ CBS news.com
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 cnn.com
  27. ↑ Remarks on the 2004 Economic Report of the President to the National Economists Club and Society of Government Economists
  28. ↑ "In the New Economics: Fast-Food Factories?", The New York Times, February 20, 2004. Retrieved March 28, 2008.
  29. ↑ N. Gregory Mankiw, "What would Keynes have done?", The New York Times, November 28, 2008
  30. ↑ Mankiw, Greg (2009-01-23). "Is Joe Biden disingenuous or misinformed?". Greg Mankiw's Blog. Retrieved 2009-05-02.
  31. ↑ Oremus, Will (November 8, 2011). "Harvard Students Stage Walkout in OWS-Like Protest". Slate. where some 70 students walked out of an introductory economics class last week to protest what they saw as biased teachings.
  32. ↑ Isidore, Chris (November 2, 2011). "O.W.S. stages walk-out of Harvard econ class". CNNMoney.com. Jose DelReal, a reporter with The Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper, said about 60 students participated in the walk-out.
  33. ↑ "An Open Letter to Greg Mankiw", 'Harvard Political Review, November 2, 2011
  34. ↑ http://gregmankiw.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/wikipediasigh.html
  35. ↑ Mankiw, N. Gregory (December 3, 2011). "Know What You're Protesting - Economic View". The New York Times.
  36. ↑ http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/11/3/ec-walkout-occupy/
  37. ↑ Mankiw, Gregory (2012). Principles of Macroeconomics (6th ed.). Mason: South-Western. p. VI. ISBN 978-0-538-45306-6.

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