Jagdish Bhagwati
Encyclopedia
Jagdish Natwarlal Bhagwati (born 26 July 1934) is an Indian-American economist and professor
of economics and law at Columbia University
. He is well known for his research in international trade and for his advocacy of free trade
.
family in Mumbai
in 1934 and graduated from Sydenham College
, Mumbai
. He then went with "senior status" to read over two years for the BA in Economics at Cambridge (as did colleague and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen
who was at Trinity College) where he was a member of St. John's College, Cambridge and received the degree in 1956. Bhagwati's experience at St John's College joined that of other eminent Indian economists including Sir Partha Dasguptha and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
. He received the Ph.D.
in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
in 1967.
Bhagwati is married to Padma Desai, also a Columbia economist and Russia-specialist; they have one daughter. He is brother of P.N. Bhagwati
, former Chief Justice of India
and also of S.N. Bhagwati, an eminent neurosurgeon. Bhagwati and Desai's joint 1970 OECD study India: Planning for Industrialization was a notable contribution at the time.
Bhagwati is a Democrat.
in 2001, as a special policy advisor on globalization to the United Nations
in 2000, and as an economics policy advisor to the Director-General of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
from 1991 to 1993. From 1968 until 1980, Bhagwati was an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
. http://www.cfr.org/bio.php?id=1753 Bhagwati currently serves on the Academic Advisory Board of Human Rights Watch
(Asia) and on the board of scholars of the Centre for Civil Society
. He is a Senior Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations
.
In 2000, Bhagwati was signatory to an amicus briefing, coordinated by the American Enterprise Institute
, with the Supreme Court of the United States
to contend that the Environmental Protection Agency
should, contrary to a prior ruling, be allowed to take into account the costs of regulations when setting environmental standards.
In January 2004, Bhagwati published In Defense of Globalization, a book in which he argues "this process [of globalization] has a human face, but we need to make that face more agreeable."
In May, 2004, Bhagwati was one of the experts who took part in the Copenhagen Consensus
project.
In 2006, Bhagwati was a member of the Panel of Eminent Persons who reviewed the work of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD). In early 2010, Bhagwati joined the advisory board of the institute for migrant rights, Cianjur - Indonesia .
Other awards include the Bernhard Harms Prize (Germany), the Kenan Enterprise Award (United States), the Freedom Prize (Switzerland), and the John R. Commons
Award (United States). He has also received honorary degrees from the University of Sussex
and Erasmus University
, as well as others.
Paul Samuelson
, on the occasion of Bhagwati's 70th Birthday festschrift conference in Gainesville Florida, January 2005 said:
University Professor (Columbia)
University Professor is the highest academic rank at Columbia University.-University Professors:*Richard Axel, molecular biology and neuroscience*Jagdish Bhagwati, economics and law*Ronald Breslow, organic chemistry...
of economics and law at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. He is well known for his research in international trade and for his advocacy of free trade
Free trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
.
Early years and personal life
Bhagwati was born into a GujaratiGujarati people
Gujarati people , or Gujaratis are an ethnic group that is traditionally Gujarati-speaking and can trace their ancestry to the state of Gujarat in western India...
family in Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
in 1934 and graduated from Sydenham College
Sydenham College
Sydenham College or Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics is the first college of commerce in Asia.It is an institute in Mumbai , affiliated to the University of Bombay, and offering undergraduate degrees in commerce and undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in management...
, Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
. He then went with "senior status" to read over two years for the BA in Economics at Cambridge (as did colleague and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen
Amartya Sen
Amartya Sen, CH is an Indian economist who was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics and social choice theory, and for his interest in the problems of society's poorest members...
who was at Trinity College) where he was a member of St. John's College, Cambridge and received the degree in 1956. Bhagwati's experience at St John's College joined that of other eminent Indian economists including Sir Partha Dasguptha and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
Manmohan Singh
Manmohan Singh is the 13th and current Prime Minister of India. He is the only Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after completing a full five-year term. A Sikh, he is the first non-Hindu to occupy the office. Singh is also the 7th Prime Minister belonging to the Indian...
. He received the Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
in 1967.
Bhagwati is married to Padma Desai, also a Columbia economist and Russia-specialist; they have one daughter. He is brother of P.N. Bhagwati
Prafullachandra Natwarlal Bhagwati
Prafullachandra Natwarlal Bhagwati shortly P. N. Bhagwati was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India from 12-July-1985 until his retirement on December 20, 1986. He was awarded India's second highest civilian honour Padma Vibhushan in 2007...
, former Chief Justice of India
Chief Justice of India
The Chief Justice of India is the highest-ranking judge in the Supreme Court of India, and thus holds the highest judicial position in India. As well as presiding in the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice also head its administrative functions....
and also of S.N. Bhagwati, an eminent neurosurgeon. Bhagwati and Desai's joint 1970 OECD study India: Planning for Industrialization was a notable contribution at the time.
Bhagwati is a Democrat.
Career
Bhagwati has previously served as an external advisor to the Director General of the World Trade OrganizationWorld Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which commenced in 1948...
in 2001, as a special policy advisor on globalization to the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
in 2000, and as an economics policy advisor to the Director-General of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was negotiated during the UN Conference on Trade and Employment and was the outcome of the failure of negotiating governments to create the International Trade Organization . GATT was signed in 1947 and lasted until 1993, when it was replaced by the World...
from 1991 to 1993. From 1968 until 1980, Bhagwati was an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
. http://www.cfr.org/bio.php?id=1753 Bhagwati currently serves on the Academic Advisory Board of Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
(Asia) and on the board of scholars of the Centre for Civil Society
Centre for Civil Society
The Centre for Civil Society is a Indian think tank and an independent, non-profit, research and educational organisation, established in 1997 and working towards improving the quality of life for all citizens of India by reviving and reinvigorating civil society.In 2004, CSS was awarded the...
. He is a Senior Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations
Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...
.
In 2000, Bhagwati was signatory to an amicus briefing, coordinated by the American Enterprise Institute
American Enterprise Institute
The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research is a conservative think tank founded in 1943. Its stated mission is "to defend the principles and improve the institutions of American freedom and democratic capitalism—limited government, private enterprise, individual liberty and...
, with the Supreme Court of the United States
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
to contend that the Environmental Protection Agency
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
should, contrary to a prior ruling, be allowed to take into account the costs of regulations when setting environmental standards.
In January 2004, Bhagwati published In Defense of Globalization, a book in which he argues "this process [of globalization] has a human face, but we need to make that face more agreeable."
In May, 2004, Bhagwati was one of the experts who took part in the Copenhagen Consensus
Copenhagen Consensus
Copenhagen Consensus is a project that seeks to establish priorities for advancing global welfare using methodologies based on the theory of welfare economics. It was conceived and organized by Bjørn Lomborg, the author of The Skeptical Environmentalist and the then director of the Danish...
project.
In 2006, Bhagwati was a member of the Panel of Eminent Persons who reviewed the work of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development was established in 1964 as a permanent intergovernmental body. It is the principal organ of the United Nations General Assembly dealing with trade, investment, and development issues....
(UNCTAD). In early 2010, Bhagwati joined the advisory board of the institute for migrant rights, Cianjur - Indonesia .
Awards, honors and commentary
- Mahalanobis Memorial Medal of the Indian Econometric Society (1974)
- Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesAmerican Academy of Arts and SciencesThe American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
(1982) - Seidman Distinguished Award in International Political Economy (1998)
- Padma VibhushanPadma VibhushanThe Padma Vibhushan is the second highest civilian award in the Republic of India. It consists of a medal and a citation and is awarded by the President of India. It was established on 2 January 1954. It ranks behind the Bharat Ratna and comes before the Padma Bhushan...
Award (2000) - Lifetime Achievement Award of the Indian Chamber of Commerce (2004)
- Order of the Rising SunOrder of the Rising SunThe is a Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji of Japan. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese Government, created on April 10, 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge features rays of sunlight from the rising sun...
, Gold and Silver Star (2006)
Other awards include the Bernhard Harms Prize (Germany), the Kenan Enterprise Award (United States), the Freedom Prize (Switzerland), and the John R. Commons
John R. Commons
John Rogers Commons was an American institutional economist and labor historian at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.-Biography:Born in Hollansburg, Ohio, John R. Commons had a religious upbringing which led him to be an advocate for social justice early in life...
Award (United States). He has also received honorary degrees from the University of Sussex
University of Sussex
The University of Sussex is an English public research university situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, within the city of Brighton and Hove. The University received its Royal Charter in August 1961....
and Erasmus University
Erasmus University
Erasmus University Rotterdam is a university in the Netherlands, located in Rotterdam. The university is named after Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, a 15th century humanist and theologian...
, as well as others.
Paul Samuelson
Paul Samuelson
Paul Anthony Samuelson was an American economist, and the first American to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. The Swedish Royal Academies stated, when awarding the prize, that he "has done more than any other contemporary economist to raise the level of scientific analysis in...
, on the occasion of Bhagwati's 70th Birthday festschrift conference in Gainesville Florida, January 2005 said:
- "I measure a scholar’s prolific-ness not by the mere number of his publishings. Just as the area of a rectangle equals its width times its depth, the quality of a lifetime accomplishment must weight each article by its novelties and wisdoms.... Jagdish Bhagwati is more like Haydn: a composer of more than a hundred symphonies and no one of them other than top notch.... In the struggle to improve the lot of mankind, whether located in advanced economies or in societies climbing the ladder out of poverty, Jagdish Bhagwati has been a tireless partisan of that globalization which elevates global total-factor----productivities both of richest America and poorest regions of Asia and Africa."
See also
- Gujarati peopleGujarati peopleGujarati people , or Gujaratis are an ethnic group that is traditionally Gujarati-speaking and can trace their ancestry to the state of Gujarat in western India...
- List of people from Gujarat
- GlobalizationGlobalizationGlobalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
- "Spaghetti Bowl" Effect
External links
- Homepage of Professor Jagdish Bhagwati, Columbia University website, accessed March 2004.
- Column archives at Project SyndicateProject SyndicateProject Syndicate is an international not-for-profit newspaper syndicate and association of newspapers. It distributes commentaries and analysis by experts, activists, Nobel laureates, statesmen, economists, political thinkers, business leaders and academics to its member publications, and...
- Appearance on Charlie RoseCharlie RoseCharles Peete "Charlie" Rose, Jr. is an American television talk show host and journalist. Since 1991 he has hosted Charlie Rose, an interview show distributed nationally by PBS since 1993...
, February 23, 2004 - Jagdish N. Bhagwati Andre Meyer Senior Fellow in International Economics at the Council on Foreign RelationsCouncil on Foreign RelationsThe Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...
- September 24, 1998 debate with Ralph NaderRalph NaderRalph Nader is an American political activist, as well as an author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government....
- Globalisation Institute
- The Institute for Migrant Rights
- Audio interview with National Review Online
- An Interview with Jagdish Bhagwati at Free Market Mojo