Robert Mundell

Independent activity 1932.10.24.–2021.4.4. ○ Natural causes

Canadian economist of optimum currency area theory, known as the "father" of the euro

Born in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, Mundell took his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, worked at the IMF in 1961, and was a professor at Columbia University from 1974 until his death. His 1961 paper founded optimum currency area theory, which named labour mobility, wage flexibility and fiscal transfers as the conditions for a region sharing one currency to withstand asymmetric shocks, and in 1973 he made an argument favourable to a single European currency. For this work he received the 1999 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences and was called the "father" of the euro. He also helped start the movement known as supply-side economics.

Also known as: Robert Alexander Mundell