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
February 3, 1958 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 (born February 3, 1958) is an American macroeconomist. This means he studies how the economy works on a large scale, looking at things like inflation, unemployment, and economic growth. He is currently a professor of Economics at Harvard University.
Mankiw is well-known for his work on New Keynesian economics, which is a way of thinking about how the economy behaves. He has written many articles and books about economics and how governments should manage the economy. As of February 2020, he was ranked as one of the most influential economists in the world.
He is also famous for writing several best-selling textbooks that many college students use to learn economics. He writes a popular blog and has contributed articles to The New York Times. Many economics courses in colleges use his books and ideas.
Mankiw is a conservative thinker. He has advised several Republican politicians. From 2003 to 2005, he was the Chairman of 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 because he disagreed with President Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Mankiw was born in Trenton, New Jersey. His grandparents were from Ukraine. He grew up in Cranford, New Jersey, and was interested in Republican politics from a young age. He graduated from the Pingry School in 1976. In 1975, he even studied astrophysics (the science of stars and space) at the Summer Science Program.
He went to Princeton University and graduated in 1980 with a degree in economics. His senior project was about understanding changes in employment. At Princeton, he was classmates with another economist, David Romer, who later wrote papers with him.
After Princeton, Mankiw started his PhD in economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He also spent a year studying at Harvard Law School. From 1982 to 1983, he worked as an economist for the Council of Economic Advisers, which he would later lead. He earned his PhD from MIT in 1984. After teaching at MIT for a year, he became a professor of economics at Harvard University in 1985. He became a full professor in 1987 when he was only 29 years old.
Key Economic Ideas and Writings
Mankiw is known as a New Keynesian economist. This group of economists believes that prices and wages don't always change quickly enough to keep the economy running smoothly.
One of his important ideas was about "menu costs". Imagine a restaurant that has to print new menus every time it changes prices. That's a "menu cost." Mankiw showed that even small costs like these can stop businesses from changing their prices, which can affect the whole economy.
In 2002, Mankiw and another economist, Ricardo Reis, suggested a new idea about how inflation works. They said that information spreads slowly among people who set prices. This "sticky-information" idea helps explain why changes in money policy affect inflation slowly and why disinflations (when inflation slows down) can cause the economy to shrink.
Mankiw also studied how people spend money. In 1989, he found that about half of consumers spend their money based on their current income, while the other half plan their spending based on their expected long-term income. This is sometimes called "hand-to-mouth" behavior.
One of his most famous papers, written with David Romer and David Weil in 1992, looked at why some countries are richer than others. They argued that a simple economic model, when you add in the idea of "human capital" (like education and skills), can explain many differences in living standards around the world. This paper has been cited by other economists over 25,000 times!
Popular Textbooks
Mankiw has written two very popular college textbooks. One is called Macroeconomics, and the other, even more famous, is Principles of Economics. These books are used by millions of students around the world.
When his Principles book first came out in 1997, The Economist magazine praised it. They said it was easy to understand, like a magazine, and explained complex ideas clearly. They also liked that it presented different economic ideas fairly.
Since then, over a million copies of his Principles book have been sold. He has earned a lot of money from the book, which shows how popular and widely used it is.
Other Career Activities
In May 2003, President George W. Bush chose Mankiw to be the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. This council advises the President on economic policy. Mankiw served in this role until 2005.
While working for President Bush, Mankiw and the administration tried to get more control over 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 not made until years later, during the financial crisis of 2007–2008.
After leaving the Council, Mankiw returned to teaching at Harvard. He took over a very popular introductory economics course. He also started a blog called "Random Observations for Students of Economics." It was originally for his students but became popular with many other people interested in economics. In 2011, it was ranked the top economics blog by US economics professors.
In 2006, Mankiw became an economic adviser to Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. He continued to advise Romney during his presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012.
From 2012 to 2015, Mankiw was the chairman of the economics department at Harvard.
In 2013, Mankiw publicly supported same-sex marriage in the United States. He signed a legal document supporting it for the US Supreme Court.
Mankiw is also involved with the Urban Institute, a research organization. In 2016, he joined a group called the US Partnership on Mobility from Poverty. This group, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, works to find ways to help poor people improve their lives.
Views on Trade and Jobs
In 2004, Mankiw spoke about free trade and mentioned that when US companies move jobs overseas (this is called outsourcing), it can actually be good for the economy in the long run. He meant that it helps the economy become more efficient. However, many politicians criticized this idea because people were worried about job losses in the US.
He also once asked a question: "when a fast-food restaurant sells a hamburger, is it providing a service or combining inputs to manufacture a product?" He wanted to show that the difference between manufacturing jobs and service jobs can be blurry. He felt that focusing too much on this difference might lead to bad economic policies.
Student Protest at Harvard
On November 2, 2011, some students in Mankiw's economics class walked out of his lecture. They gave him a letter saying that his course taught only one specific view of economics. They felt this view supported economic inequality. They also said that Harvard graduates play big roles in finance and policy, and if they don't get a broad understanding of economics, it could harm the global financial system. The students then went to an "Occupy Boston" protest.
Other students and the student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, defended Mankiw. They said his course taught the basic ideas of economics and did not take sides in political debates. They argued that his textbook was well-respected and widely used.
Political Views and Changes
In August 2016, Mankiw said he was against Donald Trump becoming president. He wrote on his blog that Trump did not have a clear economic plan and seemed against free international trade, which Mankiw believed was important. He also mentioned that Trump's personality was not what he expected from a president.
On October 28, 2019, Mankiw officially left the Republican Party and became an independent voter. He said he was disappointed that the party overlooked President Trump's actions.
Support for Carbon Taxes
Mankiw has often supported the idea of Pigovian taxes, especially a carbon tax. A carbon tax is a tax on things that produce carbon pollution, like burning fossil fuels. He believes this kind of tax can help fix environmental problems. He even appeared in the 2016 documentary Before the Flood with Leonardo DiCaprio, where he talked about carbon taxes. In 2017, he and other important Republican figures suggested that conservatives should support carbon taxes, with the money collected 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 their second favorite living economist under 60.
- 2012: The Princeton Review listed him as one of the 300 best professors in the United States.
- 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 international honor society for economics.
- 2024: His old school, the Pingry School, gave him its highest honor, the Letter-in-Life Award.
- 2024: Mankiw was elected a fellow of the Econometric Society.
Personal Life
Mankiw lives in Massachusetts with his wife, Deborah. They have been married since 1984 and have three children: Catherine, Nicholas, and Peter. They also have a dog named Tobin.
Images for kids
-
Gregory Mankiw
See also
In Spanish: Gregory Mankiw para niños
