Nobel Prize Winner Robert A. Mundell: An Appreciation

In October, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics to Robert A. Mundell. The Nobel Committee cited Mundell "for his analysis of monetary and fiscal policy under different exchange rate regimes and his analysis of optimum currency areas."

It may seem that the Nobel announcement, and press articles and editorials describing the award, have honored Mundell "far above our poor power to add or detract." Nevertheless, I'd like to put in my two cents, not only to acknowledge an intellectual debt, but also because I'm not sure that even his closest friends have succeeded in conveying exactly why Mundell is regarded as a great economist, even by those who have disagreed with him.

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