Mundell, Robert A

Mundell, Robert A(lexander)

(born Oct. 24, 1932, Kingston, Ont., Can.) Canadian-born economist who received the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1999 for his work on monetary dynamics and optimum currency areas. Mundell earned degrees from the University of British Columbia (B.A., 1953), the University of Washington (M.A., 1954), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ph.D., 1956). He taught economics at the University of Chicago (1956–57) and Columbia University (1974– ). Through research for the International Monetary Fund, Mundell analyzed the effect of exchange rates on monetary policies. In 1961 he theorized that an economic region characterized by free movement of labour and trade could support a single currency. His theories contributed to the creation of the euro, the single currency adopted by the European Union on Jan. 1, 1999.