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Robert Alexander Mundell (October 24, 1932 – April 4, 2021) was a Canadian economist. He was a professor of economics at Columbia University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1999 for his pioneering work in monetary dynamics and optimum currency areas.
Mundell is known as the "father" of the euro, as he laid the groundwork for its introduction through this work and helped to start the movement known as supply-side economics. Mundell was also known for the Mundell–Fleming model and Mundell–Tobin effect.
He earned his Bachelor of Arts in economics and Russian at the Vancouver School of Economics of the University of British Columbia, and went on a scholarship to the University of Washington in Seattle. He went on to complete his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology while continuing to study at the London School of Economics.
In 2006 Mundell earned an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Waterloo. He was Professor of Economics and Editor of the Journal of Political Economy at the University of Chicago from 1965 to 1972, Chairman of the Department of Economics at the University of Waterloo 1972 to 1974 and since 1974 he had been Professor of Economics at Columbia University. He also held the post of Repap Professor of Economics at McGill University.
Among his major contributions are:
In the 1960s, Mundell's native Canada floated its exchange rate: this caused Mundell to begin investigating the results of floating exchange rates, a phenomenon not widely seen since the 1930s "Stockholm School" successfully lobbied Sweden to leave the gold standard.
In 1962, along with Marcus Fleming, he co-authored the Mundell–Fleming model of exchange rates, and noted that it was impossible to have domestic autonomy, fixed exchange rates, and free capital flows: no more than two of those objectives could be met. The model is, in effect, an extension of the IS/LM model applied to currency rates.
According to Mundell's analysis:
His analysis led to his conclusion that it was a disagreement between Europe and the United States over the rate of inflation, partially to finance the Vietnam War, and that Bretton Woods disintegrated because of the undervaluing of gold and the consequent monetary discipline breakdown. There is a famous point/counterpoint over this issue between Mundell and Milton Friedman.
This work later led to the creation of the euro and his prediction that leaving the Bretton Woods system would lead to "stagflation" so long as highly progressive income tax rates applied. In 1974, he advocated a drastic tax reduction and a flattening of income tax rates.
Mundell, though lionized by some conservatives, has many of his harshest critics from the right: he denied the need for a fixed gold-based currency or currency board (he still often recommended this as a policy in environments) and he was both a fiscal and balance of payments deficit hawk. He is well known for stating that in a floating exchange rate system, expansion of the money supply can come about only by a positive balance of payments.
In 2000, Mundell recommended that Canada permanently tie Canadian dollar's value to the American dollar.
In 2000, he predicted that before 2010, the eurozone would expand to cover 50 countries, while the U.S. dollar would spread throughout Latin America, and much of Asia would look towards the yen. Such predictions have proved highly inaccurate.
In his 2012 article "Robert Mundell, evil genius of the euro", Greg Palast affirms that Mundell advocated for the euro because its implementation would have the effect of removing democratic control over monetary policy. As such, when a crisis hits, eurozone governments would not be able to stimulate the economy by creating money, as is prescribed by Keynesian economics. They would thus be forced to resort to other means to curtail unemployment, such as deregulating businesses, privatizing state industries, cutting taxes, and weakening the social safety net.
In 2014, Mundell voiced his opposition to proposals of a fiscal union between the European states. He declared that "it would be insane to have a central European authority that controls all the taxes and duties of the states ... controlled in the Union. This transfer of sovereignty is far too big". He also voiced his opposition to the prospect that countries could be liable for other countries' debt.
In 1992, Mundell received a Docteur Honoris Causa from the University of Paris. Mundell's honorary professorships and fellowships were from Brookings Institution, the University of Chicago, the University of Southern California, McGill University, the University of Pennsylvania, the Bologna Center and Renmin University of China. He became a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1998. In June 2005 he was awarded the Global Economics Prize World Economics Institute in Kiel, Germany, and in September 2005 he was made a Cavaliere di Gran Croce del Reale Ordine del Merito sotto il Titolo di San Ludovico by Principe Don Carlo Ugo di Borbone Parma.
The Mundell International University of Entrepreneurship in the Zhongguancun district of Beijing, People's Republic of China, is named in his honour.
Mundell won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science in 1999 and gave as his prize lecture a speech titled "A Reconsideration of the Twentieth Century". According to the Nobel Prize Committee, he got the honour for "his analysis of monetary and fiscal policy under different exchange rate regimes and his analysis of optimum currency areas".
Mundell concluded in that lecture that "the international monetary system depends only on the power configuration of the countries that make it up". He divided the entire twentieth century into three parts by different periods of time:
With the destruction of the old monetary system, a new international monetary system was finally founded. Controlling inflation by each country became a main topic during this era.
Mundell also appeared on Bloomberg Television many times, mainly speaking on euro-related topics and other European financial issues.
Mundell has also appeared on China Central Television's popular Lecture Room series. He was also a special guest making the ceremonial first move in Game Five of the 2010 World Chess Championship between Viswanathan Anand and Veselin Topalov. He also played the opening move at the Pearl Spring Chess Tournament.
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