Xavier Sala-i-Martin
Encyclopedia
Xavier Sala-i-Martin is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
) is a professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
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...
.
Sala-i-Martin earned his degree from the Autonomous University of Barcelona
Autonomous University of Barcelona
The Autonomous University of Barcelona is a public university mostly located in Cerdanyola, near the city of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain....
in 1985 and his Ph.D.
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1990, both in economics. In addition to working at Columbia, he has been a professor at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, and the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
(which he still visits for a term every summer).
Professional work
Sala-i-Martin is widely recognized as one of the leading economists in the field of economic growth and is consistently ranked among the most-cited economists in the world for works produced in the 1990s. His works include the topics of economic growthEconomic growth
In economics, economic growth is defined as the increasing capacity of the economy to satisfy the wants of goods and services of the members of society. Economic growth is enabled by increases in productivity, which lowers the inputs for a given amount of output. Lowered costs increase demand...
, development in Africa, monetary economics, social security, health and economics, classical-liberal thinking (with his book "Liberal economics for non-economists and non-liberals") (the "liberal" in the title should be understood in the classic liberal/libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
sense), and convergence. He has constructed an estimate of the World Distribution of Income, which he has then used to estimate poverty rates and measures of inequality. The conclusions of this study offered a new point of view, for two reasons. First, 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...
and the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
used to believe that, although poverty rates were falling, the total number of poor people was increasing. Sala-i-Martin claimed that both were falling. Second, the United Nations and the World Bank used to (and still do) believe that individual income inequalities were on the rise. Sala-i-Martin claimed they were not.
He is the author of the economic growth textbook Apuntes de Crecimiento Economico (in Spanish) and the co-author (with Robert Barro
Robert Barro
Robert Joseph Barro is an American classical macroeconomist and the Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics at Harvard University. The Research Papers in Economics project ranked him as the 4th most influential economist in the world as of August 2011 based on his academic contributions...
) of the textbook Economic Growth (original in English and translated into French, German, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese).
Sala-i-Martin is, along with Elsa V. Artadi, the author of the Global Competiveness Index, used since 2004 by the Global Competitiveness Report
Global Competitiveness Report
The Global Competitiveness Report is a yearly report published by the World Economic Forum. The first report was released in 1979. The 2011–2012 report covers 142 major and emerging economies....
published by the World Economic Forum
World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-profit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva, best known for its annual meeting in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland....
, an index that ranks 142 countries by their level of economic competitiveness.
Media
He is a columnist for the Spanish newspaper La VanguardiaLa Vanguardia
La Vanguardia is Catalonia's leading daily newspaper as well as the fourth best-selling in Spain. It has its headquarters in Barcelona, Catalonia's largest city....
.
He makes weekly appearances in the Catalan Radio Network RAC1 as well as in the Television Show "Divendres"
of TV3.
He also contributes to CNN.
Activities besides economics
Sala-i-Martin was a Board member at FC BarcelonaFC Barcelona
Futbol Club Barcelona , also known as Barcelona and familiarly as Barça, is a professional football club, based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain....
and treasurer of the club between 2004 and 2010. He was the President of the Club during the electoral process of 2006.
Sala-i-Martin is the founder of "Umbele: A Future for Africa," a non-profit organization that promotes economic development in Africa.
Prizes
Sala-i-Martin has been recognized with a "Distinguished Teacher in Graduate Economics" award 3 times, both at Columbia and at Yale, with the King Juan Carlos I prize 2004 (a biannual prize given to the best economist in Spain and Latin America), and the Lenfest Prize 2006 awarded to the best teacher at Columbia University.Works
- March 2010: together with Maxim Pinkovsky (Cambridge): African Poverty is Falling ... Much Faster than you Think!, NBER Working Paper Nr. 15775, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, Mass., USA