Biographies

Complete Biography

Jagdish Bhagwati is University Professor (Economics, Law, and International Affairs) at Columbia University and Director of the Raj Center on Indian Economic Policies. He was Senior Fellow for International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He has been economic policy adviser to Arthur Dunkel, director-general of GATT (1991-93), special adviser to the UN on globalization, and external adviser to the WTO. He has served on the expert group appointed by the director-general of the WTO on the future of the WTO and on the advisory committee to Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the NEPAD process in Africa, and was also a member of the Eminent Persons Group under the chairmanship of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil on the future of UNCTAD. Recently, he has been co-chair with President Halonen of Finland of the Eminent Persons Group on Developing Countries in the World Economy.

Professor Bhagwati is described as the most creative international trade theorist of his generation and is a leader in the fight for freer trade. His most recent book Why Growth Matters (PublicAffairs, 2013) has received notice in leading magazines and newspapers like The Economist, the Financial Times, Forbes, and Wall Street Journal. His earlier book, Termites in the Trading System (Oxford University Press, 2008) discusses the deleterious effects of preferential trading agreements and anticipated the problems that have afflicted recent initiatives on trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic preferential trade agreements. His previous book In Defense of Globalization (Oxford University Press, 2004) attracted worldwide acclaim. Five volumes of his scientific writings and two of his public policy essays have been published by MIT press. The recipient of six festschrifts in his honor, he has also received several prizes and seventeen honorary degrees, and high awards from the governments of India (Padma Vibhushan) and Japan (Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star).

Professor Bhagwati writes frequently in major newspapers and magazines worldwide and has reviewed for the New York Times Book Review, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, The New Republic, and Times Literary Supplement. He has also appeared on TV shows including MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, Charlie Rose Show, BBC News, CNN, and Bloomberg Television.

A native of India, Professor Bhagwati attended Cambridge University where he graduated in 1956 with a first in economics tripos. He then continued to study at MIT and Oxford returning to India in 1961 as professor of economics at the Indian Statistical Institute and then as professor of international trade at the Delhi School of Economics. He returned to MIT in 1968, leaving it twelve years later as the Ford International Professor of Economics to join Columbia. He is married to Padma Desai, the Gladys and Ronald Harriman Professor of Comparative Economic Systems at Columbia University and a scholar of Russian and other former socialist countries' transition problems. They have one daughter, Anuradha Kristina.

[For a detailed statement of honors, awards, honorary degrees, invited lectures, elections to professional societies etc., click here.]

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Standard Biography

Jagdish Bhagwati is University Professor at Columbia University and Director of the Raj Center on Indian Economic Policies. He was Senior Fellow in International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. He has been Economic Policy Adviser to Arthur Dunkel, Director General of GATT (1991-93), Special Adviser to the UN on Globalization, and External Adviser to the WTO. He has served on the Expert Group appointed by the Director General of the WTO on the Future of the WTO and on the advisory committee to Secretary General Kofi Annan on the NEPAD process in Africa, and was also a member of the Eminent Persons Group under the chairmanship of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso on the future of UNCTAD.

Professor Bhagwati has published numerous scholarly articles. He also writes frequently for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Financial Times, and has reviewed for The New Republic and The Times Literary Supplement. Professor Bhagwati is described as the most creative international trade theorist of his generation and is a leader in the fight for freer trade. His most recent book, In Defense of Globalization (Oxford, 2004), has attracted worldwide acclaim. Five volumes of his scientific writings and two of his public policy essays have been published by MIT press. The recipient of six festschrifts in his honor, he has also received several prizes and honorary degrees, including awards from the governments of India (Padma Vibhushan) and Japan (Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star).

A native of India, Professor Bhagwati attended Cambridge University where he graduated in 1956 with a first in Economics Tripos. He then continued to study at MIT and Oxford returning to India in 1961 as Professor of Economics at the Indian Statistical Institute, and then as Professor of International Trade at the Delhi School of Economics. He returned to MIT in 1968, leaving it twelve years later as the Ford International Professor of Economics to join Columbia. He is married to Padma Desai, the Gladys and Ronald Harriman Professor of Comparative Economic Systems at Columbia University and a scholar of Russian and other former socialist countries' transition problems. They have one daughter, Anuradha Kristina.

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Short Biography

Jagdish Bhagwati is a University Professor at Columbia University and Director of the Raj Center on Indian Economic Policies. He was Senior Fellow in International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. He has been Economic Policy Adviser to Arthur Dunkel, Director General of GATT (1991-93), Special Adviser to the UN on Globalization, and External Adviser to the WTO. He has served on the Expert Group appointed by the Director General of the WTO on the Future of the WTO and on the advisory committee to Secretary General Kofi Annan on the NEPAD process in Africa, and was also a member of the Eminent Persons Group under the chairmanship of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso on the future of UNCTAD. Five volumes of his scientific writings and two of his public policy essays have been published by MIT press. The recipient of six festschrifts in his honor, he has also received several prizes and honorary degrees, including awards from the governments of India (Padma Vibhushan) and Japan (Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star). Professor Bhagwati's recent book In Defense of Globalization was published by Oxford University Press in 2004 to worldwide acclaim.

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Immigration-Focused Curriculum Vitae

Jagdish Bhagwati is University Professor, Economics and Law, at Columbia University and Senior Fellow in International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. Although he is regarded as one of the foremost international trade economists of his generation, Professor Bhagwati has made many significant contributions to the field of migration and immigration policy over the last three decades, extending his scholarly research and public policy writings to virtually all questions raised by international migration. He has notably used insights from economics, ethics and politics in addressing these issues.

Professor Bhagwati has pioneered the analysis of the growing phenomenon of international personal mobility and the problems it creates for the design of a country's tax system. Professor Bhagwati's proposal to extend the source-country income tax to skilled migrants abroad gained significant scholarly, media and public-policy attention in the 1970's. The proposal was endorsed by the Nobel Laureate Jan Tinbergen, discussed at UNCTAD and was the central subject of a profile of Professor Bhagwati in The Guardian (UK).This issue is taken up extensively in several of his books: two on Taxing the Brain Drain , North Holland, 1976 International Factor Mobility , MIT Press (1983) and International Migration and Income Taxation , MIT Press (1991), jointly edited with John Wilson. This so-called "Bhagwati Tax" proposal has been revived in recent years and is currently being discussed by scholars, NGO's and policymakers.

Professor Bhagwati also edited two symposia on this and related immigration questions in the Journal of Public Economics as well as the Journal of Developmental Economics in the late 1970's.

Among his works on public policy, which have been published recently by MIT press in two successive volumes, are: A Stream of Windows: Unsettling Reflections on Trade, Immigration, and Democracy (1998), and The Wind of the Hundred Days, How Washington Mismanaged Globalization (2000). Both books have contributions to the subject matter of immigration, including challenges.

Professor Bhagwati has also written frequently for The New York Times , The Wall Street Journal , The Financial Times, Foreign Affairs and The New Republic on immigration issues . A recent piece discussing the current administration's management of immigration policies is: Bush trades his principles, Financial Times, April 2002.

His recent article on immigration was published in the Jan/Feb 2003 Davos Issue of Foreign Affairs, titled “Borders Beyond Control”. Professor Bhagwati highlights the need for a shift of immigration policy away from attempts at curbing migration to coping with it. Since then, he has written “Green Cards vs. Citizenship” with May L. Yang in the Wall Street Journal.

Professor Bhagwati has been Director of the Program on International Migration: Economics, Ethics and Law at the Columbia University Law School, and is engaged in several books and projects on the subject of international migration.