Known for his intellectual courage and elegant expressiveness, Jean-Paul Fitoussi (August 19, 1942 - April 15, 2022) was among the most eminent economists of the late 20th century, internationally recognized by his peers, respected and loved by generations of students, read and heard by a wide audience, and consulted by generations of leading economic policymakers across the globe.
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His work benefitted not only policymakers and macroeconomists but citizens, especially in France and Europe, among whom he promoted a general economic culture through frequent Op Eds, TV appearances, and books for an expanded readership. He left an indelible mark on modern macroeconomics, political economy, the economics of inequality, and the economics of sustainability, as well as on numerous institutions, and on his colleagues, many of whom became his closest friends.
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Born in Tunisia in 1942, Jean-Paul earned his Ph.D. and taught at the University of Strasbourg before joining the European University Institute in Florence in 1979. In 1982, he became a professor of economics at the Institut d'études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po). He played a central role in the institution for the rest of his life, serving as President of Science Po's economic research center, OFCE, from 1989 to 2010. He was also Co-President of the LUISS School of Governmental Studies, and, since inception in 2001, a member of Columbia University's Center on Capitalism and Society, where he made key contributions to the Center's exploration of the workings of modern capitalism at conferences on dynamism and individualism.
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Much of Jean-Paul's work was aimed at evaluating and improving economic policy, often through direct participation in policymaking institutions. He set up the International Group on Macroeconomic Policymaking in 1988 and served as Secretary General of the International Economic Association (IEA) for two decades, where he developed and extended the research of the IEA into policymaking and advising. He contributed to the creation and development of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) from 1990 to 1993, and the Commission of the Nation from 1995 to 2014. From 2007 to 2009, he chaired the groundbreaking Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, generally referred to as the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Commission, which examined methods for the measurement of the wealth and social progress of a nation.
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Jean-Paul's research is characterized by the interaction between economic theory and policy. He made simple, powerful arguments about the importance of macroeconomic policy in times of crisis, and advanced the view that market mechanisms and democratic institutions were two complementary devices of resource allocation, with the market alone bound to lead to inequality. In his 1982 introduction to Modern Macroeconomic Theory, he published a critique of the state of the art in macroeconomic theory, stressing the shortcomings of both New Classical Economics and the fixed-price approaches, and mounting a plea for the return to studying, as Keynes himself hoped to, "the system as a whole." In numerous papers on the EMS, Maastricht Treaty, and institutions of the Eurozone, he made critical assessments of EU institutions, policymaking, and economic performance, and began the series Reports on the State of the European Union, published in English and French. His numerous other publications include The Slump in Europe (1988), with Edmund Phelps; Mismeasuring Our Lives: Why GDP Doesn't Add Up, with Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen (2010), for which he received the 2016 Medal of the Society for Progress; Le Théorème du lampadaire, or The Lamp Post Theorem (2013); and Comme On Nous Parle (2020), a widely-translated plea for the reconstruction of language in the face of neo-Newspeak that "insidiously impose(s) a predigested and exclusive way of thinking."
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Among his many distinctions, he was named Honorary Dean of the Faculty of Economics of Strasbourg, Doctor Honoris Causa from the universities of Buenos Aires and Tres de Febrero, Professor Onorario of the University of Trento, Officier de l'Ordre National du Mérite and Officier de la legion d'honneur in France, Grand Officier de l'ordre de l'Infant Henri in Portugal, and Commadatore al merito della Republica Italiana. In 2017, he received the International Prize Pico Della Mirandola for his life's work.