American Keynesian economist, Nobel laureate for new trade theory and long-time New York Times columnist
Born in Albany, New York, to a Russian Jewish family, Krugman studied at Yale and MIT. He worked at the Reagan White House on the staff of the Council of Economic Advisers in 1982–83 and taught at MIT, at Princeton (2000–15) and at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He was the sole winner of the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for explaining patterns of trade and the geographic distribution of economic activity through economies of scale. He diagnosed Japan's slump of the 1990s as a liquidity trap and was among the most prominent advocates of the Keynesian resurgence of 2008–09. He wrote for The New York Times from 2000 to 2024 and considers himself a modern liberal.
Also known as: Paul Robin Krugman
Activities and affiliations
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1977–
Scholarship and theory
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1982–1983
United States state institutionsStaff of the Council of Economic Advisers
Economy, finance and planning
Career Timeline
- 1977.09Assistant professor at Yale University
- 1982–1983Staff of the Council of Economic Advisers
- 2000–2015.06Professor at Princeton University
- 2000–2024Columnist for The New York Times
- 2008Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences
Related historical events
- 1979.05.04–1985.09.22The neoliberal turn: the Volcker shock, Thatcher and ReaganEconomistArgued that the recovery under Reagan owed mainly to the business cycle and Volcker's monetary policy, and that Reagan's deficits were closer to Keynesian stimulus.
- 1985.09.22–2006.03.09Japan's bubble economy and its collapseEconomistSaw Japan as a case of the liquidity trap; he agreed with Koo's diagnosis but left room for monetary policy, since a promise of inflation lowers real rates.
- 1997.07.02–1998.09.23The Asian financial crisis and South Korea's IMF crisisEconomistIn 1998 traced the crisis to financial intermediaries with implicit government guarantees exposed to moral hazard.
- 2007.08.09–2009.06The 2008 Global Financial CrisisKeynesian economistCalled the run on the shadow banking system the core of what happened and argued that all banking-like activity should have been regulated.
- 2009.10.06–2015.08.14The Eurozone Crisis and GreeceEconomistWrote that the eurozone crisis was at root never a fiscal crisis but a balance of payments crisis.
- 2020.02.20–2023.10.30The COVID-19 Economic Crisis and the 2021–23 InflationEconomistSaw the 2021 price rise as a transitory effect of leaving the pandemic, and at the end of 2023 pointed to disinflation without recession to criticise the pessimists.