338
KENNETH BINMORE
1940–
British academic Kenneth Binmore
is a mathematician, economist,
and game theorist. His work has
pioneered the integration of
traditional economics with new
mathematical techniques and
the use of experiments. He has
developed theories of bargaining
behavior and theories in the field
of evolutionary game theory.
See also: Competition and
cooperation 273
PETER DIAMOND
1940–
US economist Peter Diamond
graduated in mathematics from
Yale University, then studied
economics at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT),
where he has taught for most of
his career. He is best known for his
research into social insurance and
has acted as a government adviser
on Social Security policy. His later
work on search and matching
theory in the labor market led to
him sharing the 2010 Nobel Prize
with Dale Mortensen and
Christopher Pissarides (p.339).
See also: Searching and matching
304–05
MICHAEL TODARO
1942–
US economist Michael Todaro
graduated from Haverford College
in Pennsylvania, then spent a year
in Africa with his mentor, Professor
Philip Bell, which inspired a passion
for development economics. His 1967
PhD thesis formed the basis of a
theory of migration in developing
countries and set out what became
known as the Todaro paradox.
He worked for the Rockefeller
Foundation in Africa and the
Population Council in New York
before taking up a permanent
professorship at New York University.
See also: Development economics
188–93ROBERT AXELROD
1943–US economist and political scientist
Robert Axelrod has taught for most
of his career at the University of
Michigan, which he joined in 1974.
He is best known for his contribution
to the theories of cooperation and
complexity. His exploration of the
“Prisoner’s dilemma” in his book
The Evolution of Cooperation (1984)
showed that a “tit for tat” strategy
could generate cooperative behavior
in hostile and friendly situations.
Axelrod has advised the United
Nations, World Bank, and the US
Department of Defense on promoting
cooperation between countries.
See also: Competition and
cooperation 273MICHAEL SPENCE
1943–Michael Spence’s father was based
in Ottawa during World War II, and
although actually born in New
Jersey, Spence was brought up in
Canada. He studied philosophy at
Princeton University, but then
switched to economics for his PhD
at Harvard University. He has spent
most of his career teaching at the
universities of Harvard and
Stanford. His work has focused
mainly on information economics(how information affects an
economy) and the idea of “signaling”
information indirectly (such as
when a job hunter “signals” his or
her ability for a certain job through
academic qualifications). In 2001
he won the Nobel Prize with
George Akerlof (p.275) and Joseph
Stiglitz for his work on asymmetric
(unbalanced) information in markets.
See also: Market uncertainty
274–75JOSEPH STIGLITZ
1943–One of the most influential (often
controversial) economists of his
generation, Joseph Stiglitz was born
in Indiana to a family that he says
“liked to debate political issues.”
He has held professorships at
several prestigious universities in
the US and the UK, served as an
adviser to Presidents Clinton and
Obama, and was Chief Economist
for the World Bank. He made his
name in the 1970s for his work on
the economics of information (how
information affects an economy), for
which he was a joint winner of the
2001 Nobel Prize. In the 1990s he
was a critic of the Washington
Consensus (p.329), especially as
applied to developing countries.
See also: Incentives and wages 302ALICE AMSDEN
1943–2012Described as a “fearless” economist,
Alice Amsden focused on the
development and industrialization
of emerging economies. A graduate
of Cornell University, she studied
for her PhD at the London School
of Economics, and then worked
at the World Bank and theDIRECTORY