Donald J. Harris facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Donald Harris
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Harris in 1974
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| Born |
Donald Jasper Harris
August 23, 1938 Brown's Town, Jamaica
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| Education | University College of the West Indies (BA) University of California, Berkeley (PhD) |
| Spouse(s) |
Carol Kirlew |
| Children | |
| Relatives | Harris family |
| Scientific career | |
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| Thesis | Inflation, Capital Accumulation and Economic Growth : A Theoretical and Numerical Analysis (1966) |
| Doctoral advisor | Daniel McFadden |
| Doctoral students |
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Donald Jasper Harris, who was born on August 23, 1938, is a well-known Jamaican-American economist. He is a retired professor from Stanford University. Professor Harris is famous for using special economic ideas, called post-Keynesian economics, to study how countries grow and develop.
He was the first Black professor to earn a permanent teaching position in Stanford's Economics Department. Donald Harris is also the father of Kamala Harris, who is the 49th Vice President of the United States. She was also the Democratic presidential nominee in 2024. His other daughter is Maya Harris, a lawyer and writer.
Harris grew up in Jamaica and earned his first degree from the University of the West Indies. He then got his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. Before joining Stanford, he taught at other universities like the University of Illinois and Northwestern University.
In 1978, Professor Harris wrote an important book called Capital Accumulation and Income Distribution. In this book, he looked at how money and resources build up in a country. He explored how this affects things like how wealth is shared, how the economy grows, and if it stays stable. He has also worked a lot on helping Jamaica's economy. In 2021, Jamaica gave him the Order of Merit, which is one of their highest national honors, for his work in helping his home country.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Donald Jasper Harris was born in Brown's Town, Jamaica. His parents, Oscar Joseph Harris and Beryl Christie Harris, were Afro-Jamaican. As a child, he was involved with the Anglican Church.
Harris grew up in the Orange Hill area of Jamaica. He went to Titchfield High School in Port Antonio. In 1960, he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of the West Indies. He then moved to the United States to continue his studies. In 1966, he earned his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. His PhD paper was about how inflation and building up wealth affect economic growth.
Career Highlights
Professor Harris began his teaching career as an assistant professor. He taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign from 1966 to 1967. Then, he taught at Northwestern University from 1967 to 1968. In 1968, he became an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
In 1972, he joined Stanford University as a professor of economics. He made history there by becoming the first Black scholar to receive a permanent teaching position in Stanford's Economics Department. During his career, he also visited and taught at other famous universities. These included University of Cambridge and Yale University. He was also part of the groups that reviewed articles for important economic journals. He has been a member of the American Economic Association for a long time.
From 1986 to 1987, Harris led a graduate school program at the University of the West Indies. He also received a special scholarship, called a Fulbright Scholar, to teach in Brazil and Mexico in the early 1990s. In 1998, he retired from Stanford. He became a professor emeritus, which means he is a retired professor who keeps his title.
At Stanford, Professor Harris guided many students who were getting their PhDs. He also helped create a new study program about different ways to look at economic analysis. He retired early from Stanford to focus on creating public policies. These policies aimed to help economies grow and make society fairer for everyone.
Ideas About Economics
Donald Harris's ideas about economics were different from what most economists believed. He often questioned common assumptions. The New York Times newspaper called him "a prominent critic of mainstream economic theory from the left."
His research focused on how capital, or wealth, builds up in a country. He studied what this means for economic growth. He believed that differences in wealth and uneven development are natural parts of how market economies grow.
Harris's work is part of a group of ideas called Post-Keynesian economics. He was influenced by many important economists. These included Joan Robinson, Karl Marx, and John Maynard Keynes.
One of his most important contributions is his 1978 book, Capital Accumulation and Income Distribution. In this book, he looked at older economic ideas. He then offered a new way to understand how wealth building affects income differences, economic growth, and stability. He used mathematical models to show his ideas. He argued that typical economic theories do not fully consider power, social classes, and historical events.
Helping Jamaica's Economy
Professor Harris has done a lot of research on the economy of Jamaica. He has written reports and given analyses about its history and current problems. He also helped create plans and policies to help Jamaica's economy grow and include more people. Two important results of his work were the National Industrial Policy in 1996 and the Growth Inducement Strategy in 2011.
He has written several books about Jamaica's economy. These include Jamaica's Export Economy: Towards a Strategy of Export-led Growth (1997). Another book is A Growth-Inducement Strategy for Jamaica in the Short and Medium Term (2012). In recent years, Jamaica's economy has been seen as successful. It has grown steadily and reduced its public debt. Some people believe this success is partly due to Harris's growth strategy for Jamaica.
Personal Life
Donald Harris came to the University of California, Berkeley in 1961 on a scholarship. In 1962, he met Shyamala Gopalan at a student meeting. She was a graduate student from India studying nutrition. They started talking and later married in July 1963.
Harris and Shyamala had two daughters: Kamala Harris and Maya Harris. Kamala Harris is now the Vice President of the United States. The couple divorced in 1971. Their daughters visited Harris's family in Jamaica as they grew up. Harris even dedicated his 1978 book to his daughters. He has mostly lived a private life, even as his daughters became famous. Kamala Harris has said her relationship with her father is friendly but that her mother mainly raised her.
Before May 2015, Harris became a citizen of the United States. He reportedly lives in Washington, D.C. In the 1990s, Harris married again to Carol Kirlew. She is a Jamaican-American who worked in communications for the World Bank.
Selected Publications
Books
- Capital Accumulation and Income Distribution, Stanford University Press, 1978. ISBN: 0-8047-0947-5.
- Jamaica's Export Economy: Towards a Strategy of Export-led Growth, Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 1997. ISBN: 976-8123-43-5.
- A Growth-Inducement Strategy for Jamaica in the Short and Medium Term (edited with G. Hutchinson), Kingston, The Planning Institute of Jamaica, 2012. ISBN: 978-976-8103-39-0.
