Economics
Robert Mundell
Economist, Nobel Prize in Economics 1999, intellectual father of the euro
Born 1932 · Died 2021
Photo: Triwbe · CC BY-SA 3.0
«The optimum currency area is not the world.»
Robert Mundell worked out the theory of optimum currency areas, which asks when it makes sense for separate countries to share a single currency. His work became the intellectual foundation of the euro.
Key achievements
- Nobel Prize in Economics, 1999
- Theory of optimum currency areas became the basis of the euro
Universities
Vancouver, British Columbia
Took his bachelor's degree in economics in 1953.
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Took his PhD in economics in 1956 on international capital movements.
New York, Manhattan
Professor of economics from 1974 until his death.
Facts
- He wrote the key paper on optimum currency areas in 1961, thirty-eight years before the euro was introduced.
- He bought and restored a semi-derelict castle in Italy with part of his earnings.
- The Mundell-Fleming model, taught in every macroeconomics course, describes how exchange rates and capital flows constrain policy.
Photographs
Photographs come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences; the author and licence are shown on each image.