Greg Mankiw facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Greg Mankiw
21st Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers
In office May 29, 2003 – February 18, 2005
President	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Glenn Hubbard
Succeeded by	Harvey Rosen
Personal details
Born	Nicholas Gregory Mankiw (1958-02-03) February 3, 1958 (age 67) Trenton, New Jersey, U.S.
Political party	Republican (Before 2019) Independent (2019–present)
Spouse	Deb Roloff
Education	Princeton University (BA) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MA, PhD) Harvard University
Academic career
Field	Macroeconomics
School or tradition	New Keynesian economics
Doctoral advisor	Stanley Fischer
Doctoral students	Miles Kimball Xavier Sala-i-Martin Karen Dynan Jason Furman Ricardo Reis
Information at IDEAS / RePEc

Nicholas Gregory Mankiw (pronounced MAN-kyoo; born February 3, 1958) is a well-known American macroeconomist. He is currently a professor of Economics at Harvard University. Mankiw is famous for his work in a field called New Keynesian economics, which is a way of understanding how the economy works.

He has written a lot about economics and how governments should manage the economy. He is considered one of the most influential economists in the world. He is also known for writing several popular textbooks that many college students use. From 2007 to 2021, he wrote articles for The New York Times. His books are often used in college economics classes.

Mankiw is a conservative thinker and has advised several Republican politicians. From 2003 to 2005, he led the Council of Economic Advisers for President George W. Bush. He also advised Mitt Romney during his presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012. In 2019, he announced he was no longer a Republican. This was because he disagreed with President Donald Trump and the Republican Party.

Early life and education

Mankiw was born in Trenton, New Jersey. His grandparents were from Ukraine. He grew up in Cranford, New Jersey. There, he became involved in Republican politics. He graduated from the Pingry School in 1976. In 1975, he studied astrophysics during a summer science program.

He went to Princeton University and graduated with high honors in 1980. He earned a degree in economics. His senior paper was about understanding changes in employment. At Princeton, he was classmates with economist David Romer, who later worked with him.

After Princeton, Mankiw studied for his advanced degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He also spent a year at Harvard Law School. From 1982 to 1983, he worked as an economist for the Council of Economic Advisers. He would later lead this council. He earned his PhD in economics from MIT in 1984. His advisor was Stanley Fischer.

He taught briefly at MIT. Then, in 1985, he became an assistant professor of economics at Harvard University. By 1987, at age 29, he became a full professor.

Key ideas in economics

Mankiw is known as a New Keynesian economist. This means he studies how prices and wages can be "sticky" or slow to change. He looked at "menu costs," which are the small costs businesses face when they change prices. For example, printing new menus or updating price tags. He showed that these small costs can have a big effect on the economy.

He also worked on how information spreads slowly among people who set prices. This idea helps explain why changes in money policy take time to affect inflation. He also studied how people's expectations about inflation can differ.

Mankiw has also written about how people spend money. He found that some people spend based on their current income. Others spend based on their expected long-term income. He also co-wrote a very famous paper in 1992. This paper showed that a simple economic model, when you add the idea of "human capital" (like education and skills), can explain why some countries are richer than others. This paper has been cited by many other economists.

Popular textbooks

Mankiw has written two very popular college textbooks. One is called Macroeconomics. The other, more famous one, is Principles of Economics. These books are used by many students learning economics for the first time.

When he wrote Principles of Economics, he received a very large payment. The New York Times reported in 1995 that he was offered $1.4 million. This was a huge amount for a college textbook.

Mankiw tries to write his textbooks in a way that everyone can understand. He often thinks about whether his own mother, who wasn't an economist, would find it interesting. The Economist magazine praised his first Principles book. They said it was "an accessible introduction to modern economics." They also liked that it explained complex ideas simply and was fair to different economic ideas.

More than a million copies of his books have been sold. He has earned a lot of money from the royalties.

Other career activities

In May 2003, President George W. Bush chose Mankiw to lead the Council of Economic Advisers. He held this position until 2005. As chairman, Mankiw worked to get more oversight for two large housing finance companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He warned that problems at these companies could affect the entire financial system. The changes he suggested were put into law years later, during the 2008 financial crisis.

After leaving the Council, Mankiw returned to teaching at Harvard. He took over a very popular introductory economics course. He also started a popular blog called "Random Observations for Students of Economics." It was originally for his students but became widely read.

In 2006, Mankiw became an economic adviser to Mitt Romney. He continued to advise Romney during his presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012. In 2008, Mankiw wrote about what economists would want from political candidates. He suggested things like supporting free trade and energy taxes.

From 2012 to 2015, Mankiw was the head of the Harvard economics department. In 2013, he publicly supported same-sex marriage in the United States. He also became a trustee of the Urban Institute. In 2016, he joined a group working to find ways to help poor people move out of poverty.

Disagreements and protests

In 2004, Mankiw faced some criticism. He said that companies moving jobs overseas (outsourcing) was "probably a plus for the economy in the long run." This is a common view among economists, but many politicians disagreed.

In 2011, some students in his economics class walked out. They felt his course taught only one view of economics. They said this view supported economic inequality. They argued that Harvard graduates need a broader understanding of economics. Mankiw responded to the students in The New York Times. The student newspaper, Harvard Crimson, defended Mankiw. They said his course taught basic economic theory without being biased.

In 2016, Mankiw spoke out against Donald Trump becoming president. He wrote on his blog that Trump's views on international trade were a problem. He also said Trump did not show the good qualities he had seen in other presidents. In 2019, Mankiw left the Republican Party. He became an independent because he was unhappy with how the party handled President Trump's actions.

Supporting specific taxes

Mankiw has often supported "Pigovian taxes." These are taxes designed to correct problems in the economy, like pollution. For example, he supports a carbon tax to help with climate change. In 2016, he appeared in the Leonardo DiCaprio film Before the Flood, a documentary about climate change. He was interviewed about carbon taxes. In 2017, he joined other Republican leaders to propose a carbon tax. The money from this tax would be given back to people.

Honors and awards

• 2007: Mankiw became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
• 2009: He became president of the Eastern Economic Association.
• 2011: A survey of economics professors named him one of their favorite living economists under 60.
• 2012: The Princeton Review listed him as one of the 300 best professors in the nation.
• 2014: He was elected vice president of the American Economic Association.
• 2017: The Council for Economic Education gave him its Visionary Award.
• 2019: He received the John R. Commons Award from Omicron Delta Epsilon, an economics honor society.
• 2024: His old school, the Pingry School, gave him the Letter-in-Life Award. This is their highest honor for a graduate.
• 2024: He was elected a fellow of the Econometric Society.

Personal life

Mankiw lives in Massachusetts with his wife, Deborah. They have been married since 1984. They have three children: Catherine, Nicholas, and Peter. They also have a dog named Tobin.

See also

In Spanish: Gregory Mankiw para niños