It is with great sadness that the Arts and Sciences community mourns the passing of Edmund Phelps, McVickar Professor Emeritus of Political Economy, in the Department of Economics.
Known as Ned to friends and colleagues around the world, Professor Phelps was among the giants of modern economics: a deeply respected and influential teacher and scholar whose groundbreaking insights – particularly in the realm of macroeconomics – earned him the Nobel Prize in 2006.
In a career that spanned 70 years, with more than 50 of those at Columbia, he produced a body of work that he once described as a lifelong project to put “people as we know them” into economic theory. His research and writing – which included 24 books as author or editor – challenged prevailing ideas about inflation, unemployment, the value of work, innovation, and dynamism, among other topics. His final work, My Journeys in Economic Theory, provided a personal account of his life and evolution as a scholar and its many rewards.
Professor Phelps was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for “his analysis of intertemporal trade-offs in macroeconomic policy, especially with regard to inflation, wages, and unemployment.” The Committee noted that his work, “challenged the assumption that high levels of unemployment corresponded with low levels of inflation and vice versa” – a foundational insight that continues to hold relevance today.
In addition to his Nobel Prize, Professor Phelps' many honors included a Guggenheim Fellowship (1978), election to the National Academy of Sciences (1982), the designation of Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association (2000), and many honorary doctorates from institutions around the world, including Sciences Po, the University of Mannheim, the University of Buenos Aires, and Rome Tor Vergata.
Professor Phelps also founded and led the Center on Capitalism and Society, an economic research center within the Arts and Sciences that produced working papers and scholarship on the modern economy and brought numerous luminaries to Columbia for talks and conferences over its more than twenty-year history.
Our thoughts are with Professor Phelps’ family, friends, and many colleagues at Columbia and worldwide. We have lost a visionary in the field of economics, a beloved colleague, and a lifelong Columbian.
For an additional tribute to Professor Phelps’ remarkable life and career, please visit the Department of Economics website
