Joseph E. Stiglitz is an American economist, born in Gary, Indiana, in 1943. He is known for his work on information economics, global development, and inequality, as well as for his role in high-level academic and multilateral institutions.

He has been a professor at Columbia University since 2001, where he founded the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, a think tank focused on international development. In 2003, he received the university’s highest academic honor by being named University Professor.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001 for his analyses of markets with asymmetric information, a fundamental contribution to understanding market failures and their social implications.

Stiglitz has held key positions in global economic policy: he was Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of the World Bank, as well as Chair of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton administration.

He is currently Chief Economist of the Roosevelt Institute, co-chair of the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT) and Chair of the Extraordinary Committee of Independent Experts on Global Wealth Inequality, appointed by the South African G20 Presidency.

Recognized for his commitment to economic justice and social sustainability, in 2011 he was included in Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and in 2024 he was named Honorary Academician by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

Stiglitz is also a prolific and influential author. Among his most important books are Globalization and Its Discontents (2002), The Price of Inequality (2012), and his most recent work, The Road to Freedom: Economics and the Good Society (2024), in which he reflects on the role of economics in building freer and more equitable societies.