Jeffrey Sachs

Jeffrey D. Sachs ( born November 5, 1954 in Detroit ) is an American economist and since 2002 special adviser to the Millennium Development Goals.

Career

In 1976, Sachs Bachelor's degree summa cum laude from Harvard University in 1980 and his Ph.D., also from Harvard University.

In 1980, he was first a lecturer in 1983 and professor at the Faculty of Economics at Harvard University.

In 2002, Sachs director of "The Earth Institute at Columbia University ," Professor of Sustainable Development and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University was. He is also Special Adviser on the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations Ban Ki -moon and a research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research General. Sachs was also a consultant to the IMF, the World Bank, the OECD, the WTO and UNDP.

In the 1980s and 1990s he was active in an advisory capacity for several countries with economic problems: since 1985 in Bolivia, from 1989 in Poland, from 1991 in Russia. In 1989, Yugoslavia with the IMF, the so-called " Marković -Sachs program " from which came only at the insistence of the IMF. Within months, a radical liberalization of imports was in 1989/90 carried out 2,435 operations could go with 1.3 million employees in bankruptcy by the end of 1990. The gross national product of Yugoslavia fell by 7.5 percent in 1990 and 1991 by 15 percent.

Especially for the recommended policies he the rapid privatization in the style of a shock therapy (see also voucher privatization ) earned him criticism. Many economists, such as Joseph E. Stiglitz, of the opinion that this had contributed radical neo-liberal approach to rapid economic collapse of the Eastern Bloc are. From 1994, Sachs was active in India since 1995, he is particularly concerned with Africa.

Objectives

To establish His idea of ​​development aid on a " clinical analysis' of each particular patient, rejects all easy troubleshooting suggestions - whether these market- radical ( " the free trade solves all problems " ) are or -globalization and anti-capitalist ( " the global corporations exploit the poor and to blame for hunger and misery " ) in nature.

His research interests are in particular the link between health and economic development, economic geography, globalization, transition to a market economy, international financial markets, international macroeconomic policy coordination, emerging markets, development economics and economic growth, global competition and macroeconomic economic policy in developing and developed countries.

Sachs is committed to extensive debt relief for extremely poor countries and in the fight against diseases, especially HIV / AIDS in developing countries. He criticizes the WTO and the IMF, because the funders of these organizations are not prepared to provide effective assistance to the extreme poor. The American government he accuses that it was not prepared to provide 0.7 % of GNP for development aid.

Sachs has been criticized for its demand to increase development aid further, by William Easterly, as they would have achieved in the past more than modest success and a " planner " mentality or a top-down approach is not very effective.

Honors

  • 2000: Bernhard Harms Prize from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy
  • 2007: Padma Bhushan

Works (selection)

  • Developing country debt and economic performance ( National Bureau of Economic Research Project Report). University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Ill. 1989
  • Developing country debt and the world economy ( National Bureau of Economic Research Project Report). University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Ill., 1989, ISBN 0-226-73338-6.
  • Development economics. Infra Marginal versus marginal analysis. OUP, Oxford 2001, ISBN 0-631-22003-8.
  • The End of Poverty. An economic program for a fairer world ( The end of poverty ). Pantheon edition, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-570-55012-5.
  • Investing in Development. A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals ( Investing in development). United Nations, New York, 2005.
  • Macroeconomics in the global perspective ( Macroeconomics in the global economy). Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-486-25826-5 (along with Felipe Larraín Bascuñán )
  • The rule of law and economic reform in Russia ( John M. Olin Critical Issues Series). Westview Press, Boulder, Colo. 1997, ISBN 0-8133-3314-8 (together with Katharina Pistor )
  • Prosperity for many. Global economic policy in times of ecological and social crisis ( Commonwealth ). Siedler, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-88680-860-1.

Secondary literature

  • Hielscher, Stefan ( 2008): " The Sachs - Easterly controversy: Dissent on Development ' Revisited - A ordonomische analysis of the interdependence of social structure and semantics of modern development policy ", in: ORDO - Yearbook of the order of business and society, Volume 59, pp. 441-474. Text as a discussion paper for download ( PDF)
United Nations Development Programme Shock therapy (economics) Integrated Authority File
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