Paul Krugman

In 1914, his maternal grandparents immigrated to the United States from Ukraine, while in 1920, his paternal grandparents arrived from Belarus.

He was born in Albany, New York, spent several years of his childhood in the upstate city of Utica, before growing up from age eight in Merrick, a hamlet in Nassau County, Long Island.

He graduated from John F. Kennedy High School in Bellmore.

According to Krugman, his interest in economics began with Isaac Asimov's Foundation novels, in which the social scientists of the future use a new science of "psychohistory" to try to save civilization.

Since present-day science fell far short of "psychohistory", Krugman turned to economics as the next best thing.

Paul Robin Krugman ( born February 28, 1953) is an American economist who is the Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and a columnist for The New York Times.

In 1974, Krugman earned his BA summa cum laude in economics from Yale University, where he was a National Merit Scholar.

He then went on to pursue a PhD in economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

In 1977, he successfully completed his PhD in three years, with a thesis titled Essays on flexible exchange rates. While at MIT, he was part of a small group of MIT students sent to work for the Central Bank of Portugal for three months in the summer of 1976, during the chaotic aftermath of the Carnation Revolution.

Krugman later praised his PhD thesis advisor, Rudi Dornbusch, as "one of the great economics teachers of all time" and said that he "had the knack of inspiring students to pick up his enthusiasm and technique, but find their own paths".

Krugman became an assistant professor at Yale University in September 1977.

In 1978, Krugman presented a number of ideas to Dornbusch, who flagged as interesting the idea of a monopolistically competitive trade model.

Encouraged, Krugman worked on it and later wrote, "[I] knew within a few hours that I had the key to my whole career in hand".

In that same year, Krugman wrote "The Theory of Interstellar Trade", a tongue-in-cheek essay on computing interest rates on goods in transit near the speed of light.

He says he wrote it to cheer himself up when he was "an oppressed assistant professor".

He joined the faculty at MIT in 1979.

He has been a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research since 1979.

From 1982 to 1983, Krugman spent a year working at the Reagan White House as a staff member of the Council of Economic Advisers.

He rejoined MIT as a full professor in 1984.

Krugman has also taught at Stanford, Yale, and the London School of Economics.

In 2000, Krugman joined Princeton University as Professor of Economics and International Affairs.

He is also currently Centenary Professor at the London School of Economics, and a member of the Group of Thirty international economic body.

Krugman considers himself a modern liberal, referring to his books, his blog on The New York Times, and his 2007 book The Conscience of a Liberal.

His popular commentary has attracted widespread praise and criticism.

Krugman was born to a Ukrainian Jewish family, the son of Anita and David Krugman.

In 2008, Krugman was the sole winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to new trade theory and new economic geography.

The Prize Committee cited Krugman's work explaining the patterns of international trade and the geographic distribution of economic activity, by examining the effects of economies of scale and of consumer preferences for diverse goods and services.

Krugman was previously a professor of economics at MIT, and, later, at Princeton University.

Krugman was President of the Eastern Economic Association in 2010, and is among the most influential economists in the world.

He is known in academia for his work on international economics (including trade theory and international finance), economic geography, liquidity traps, and currency crises.

Krugman is the author or editor of 27 books, including scholarly works, textbooks, and books for a more general audience, and has published over 200 scholarly articles in professional journals and edited volumes.

He has also written several hundred columns on economic and political issues for The New York Times, Fortune and Slate.

Krugman was President of the Eastern Economic Association in 2010.

A 2011 survey of economics professors named him their favorite living economist under the age of 60.

According to the Open Syllabus Project, Krugman is the second most frequently cited author on college syllabi for economics courses.

As a commentator, Krugman has written on a wide range of economic issues including income distribution, taxation, macroeconomics, and international economics.

In February 2014, he announced that he would be retiring from Princeton in June 2015 and that he would be joining the faculty at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Paul Krugman has written extensively on international economics, including international trade, economic geography, and international finance.

He retired from Princeton in June 2015, and holds the title of professor emeritus there.

He also holds the title of Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics.