Jeffrey Sachs

Jeffrey Sachs, a well-known expert on global development issues, professor of economics at Columbia University, director of the Center for International Studies at Harvard University, and former Secretary of the United Nations Senior consultant of Chang Annan and the father of "shock therapy". He has been named one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World" by Time magazine for two consecutive years and "the world's most important economist" by The New York Times.

Chinese name: Jeffrey Sachs

Foreign name: Jeffrey Sachs

Alias: Sachs, J.D.

Nationality: United States

Birthplace: Detroit, Michigan, USA

Date of Birth: 1954

Occupation: Economist

Graduation School: Harvard University

Main achievement: Creation of "shock therapy"

Representative work: "The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities of Our Era"

Personal resume

In 1976, Jeffrey Sachs received his bachelor's degree with honors from Harvard University, and received his master's and doctoral degrees from Harvard University in 1978 and 1980 respectively. He joined the faculty of Harvard University as an assistant professor in 1980, was promoted to associate professor in 1982, and became a full professor in 1983.

From 1986 to 1990, Jeffrey Sachs served as an advisor to the President of Bolivia. During his tenure, he helped design and implement a stabilization plan that reduced Bolivia's inflation rate from 40,000 per year to 10 per year. .

In 1988, Jeffrey Sachs was also one of the founders of the Bolivia bond buyback project. It was the first debt reduction project in the 1980s, and this project successfully transformed the Bolivian Commercial Bank. debt cut in half.

From 1988 to 1990, Sachs successively provided advice on the financial reforms of Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela and other governments. In 1989, Sachs, as an economic reform adviser to the Polish Solidarity movement, was invited to prepare a radical economic transformation program.

In 1989, Jeffrey Sachs consulted on the economic reforms of the Polish Solidarity Movement and prepared a draft for Poland's radical economic reforms at the request of the leaders of the Solidarity Movement. After August 1989, he consulted for Poland's first post-Communist government, assisting them in introducing radical economic reforms in Poland from 1990 to mid-1991.

In January 1990, Jeffrey Sachs received the Polish Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit, a lofty Polish national honor awarded by the President of the Republic of Poland. .

In 1990, Jeffrey Sachs was a member of a team of economists invited to participate in consultations with the Commission for Justice and Peace before the Centenary Encyclical of the Pope. During the event he was received by Pope John Paul II.

From 1990 to 1992, he directed a project on economic reform in the CIS and Eastern Europe for the United Nations University and the World Research Institute for Development Economics (WIDER) in Helsinki, Finland.

In 1991, Jeffrey Sachs assisted the Slovenian government in introducing a new national currency. Between 1991 and 1993, he also assisted the Mongolian government in macroeconomic reforms and privatization.

In 1992, he assisted the Estonian government in introducing a new national currency.

From 1995 to 2002, Sachs led Harvard University’s major economic development research institutes, including the Harvard Institute of International Development (1995-1999) and the Harvard Center for International Development (1999-2000).

In January 1998, Jeffrey Sachs became the first foreigner invited to give a policy speech at the party’s national convention in the 43-year history of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan.

In January 1999, Sachs was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, which is a high-level national honor awarded by the Republic of Poland to foreign friends.

From the autumn of 1991 to January 1994, Sachs led a team of economic advisers to advise Russian President Yeltsin on a series of issues, including maintaining macroeconomic stability, privatization, market liberalization, and international financial relations. He also established a non-governmental research institution in Moscow - the Society for Economic Analysis.

From September 1999 to March 2000, he served on the advisory committee of the Institute of International Finance established by the US Congress.

From 2000 to 2001, he served as Chairman of the World Health Organization’s Committee on Macroeconomics and Health.

From 2002 to 2006, Professor Sachs served as the special adviser to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals. The Millennium Development Goals are international countries’ goals to eliminate extreme poverty, disease and hunger by 2015. A series of knowledge. During this time, he chaired the United Nations Millennium Project, which charted a roadmap for achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

In July 2002, Professor Sacks began working at Columbia University. Before that, he studied and worked at Harvard University for more than 20 years.

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Personal Honors

Jeffrey Sachs has received many awards and honors, including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Harvard Graduate School Member of the Association and Fellow of the World Econometric Association. He is a member of the Brookings Economists Group, the Advisory Committee of the Chinese Economists Association, and many other organizations. He received honorary degrees from St. Gallen University in Sweden in 1990, Pacifico University in Peru in 1997, Lingnan College in Hong Kong in 1998, Varna University of Economics in Bulgaria and Iona University in New York in May 2000.

Professor Jeffrey Sachs has given famous lecture series in many places. He gave the Lionel Robbins Memorial Lecture at the London School of Economics, the John Hicks Lecture at Oxford University, the David Horowitz Lecture at Tel Aviv, the Panglaykim Lecture in Jakarta, the Okun Lecture at Yale, and so on. In September 1991, he was awarded the Frank E. Seidman Prize in Political Economy, and in June 2000, he received the Bernhard Harms Prize in Kiel, Germany.

In April 2004 and April 2005, Professor Sacks was selected as one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World" selected by Time magazine for two consecutive years. In 1993, The New York Times Magazine, a supplement to the New York Times, stated that Sachs was "probably the most important economist in the world", and Time magazine named him "the world's most important economist" among the "50 Most Promising Young Leaders". Well-known Economist". In 1997, the French "LeNouvel Observateur" listed Professor Sachs among the 50 most important leaders in the world.

Main Works

Jeffrey Sacks has published more than 100 academic books, and has written or edited many books under his own name.

In 1985, "World Stagflation Economics" co-authored by Jeffrey Sachs and Michael Bruno was published.

In 1989, Jeffrey Sachs directed a large-scale research project on the international debt crisis at NBER and edited it into a four-volume series "Debt and Economic Performance in Developing Countries" published by the University of Chicago. 》.

In 1991, "Globally Connected: Macroeconomic Interdependence and Cooperation in the World Economy" co-authored by Jeffrey Sachs and Warwick McKibbin and "Peru's Road to Recovery" co-authored with Carlos Paredes were published by Blue Published by Filigree Institute.

In 1993, the first edition of the textbook "Macroeconomics from a Global Perspective" co-authored by Jeffrey Sachs and Felipe Larrain was translated into German, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese and Portuguese. In the fall, his book on Poland's reform, "Poland's Transition to a Market Economy," was published by MIT Press.

In 1994, "Eastern European Transitions" (volumes 1 and 2) co-written by Jeffrey Sachs, Olivier Blanchard, and Kenneth Froot was published by the National Bureau of Economic Research at the University of Chicago.

In 1995, Jeffrey Sachs and the BBC jointly published "Russia and Market Economy" (Russian).

In 1997, John M. Olin's key issue series "Russian Rule of Law and Economic Reform" co-edited by Jeffrey Sachs and Katharina Pistor was published by Western Perspective Press.

Since 1996, Jeffrey Sachs has led a team of economists to prepare the Global Competitiveness Report every year.

In May 1997, Jeffrey Sachs and David Bloom compiled a large-scale research project into a book and published it "Rising Asia: Opportunities and Challenges Facing the Asian Development Bank".

In 1998, Jeffrey Sachs also led the writing of the "Asia Competitiveness Report".

In 1998 and 2000, Jeffrey Sachs and the World Economic Forum wrote the "Africa Competitiveness Report".

In 2005, Jeffrey Sachs published "The End of Poverty" (The End of Poverty), which influenced Americans. In October 2007, John created a non-profit website called Freerice to allow people to Donate rice to poor areas around the world while learning English words.

In 2008, Allen Lane published Jeffrey Sachs's "Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet". This book shows six major trends in the global economy and environment: gradual economic convergence, rising population incomes, economic rise in Asia, continued urban expansion, intensifying environmental challenges, and poverty traps.

Main Contributions

Shock Therapy

The medical term "shock therapy" was coined by American economist Jeffrey Sachs ( Jeffrey Sachs) introduced the field of economics. Shock therapy was first proposed when Sachs was employed as an economic adviser to the Bolivian government. Bolivia is a small, economically backward country in South America. Due to the long-term turbulent political situation and the government's continuous mistakes in economic policies, the resulting economic problems have accumulated in large quantities and have not been resolved, eventually leading to a serious economic crisis. In 1985, the Bolivian government's budget deficit reached 485.9 trillion pesos, accounting for about 1/3 of the GDP, and the inflation rate was as high as 24,000. In 1984, the foreign debt was 5 billion US dollars, and the interest payable was nearly 1 billion US dollars, exceeding export revenue. . From 1980 to 1985, residents' living standards dropped by 30%, and the national economy was almost on the verge of collapse.

Sachs proposed a set of economic programs and economic policies, the main contents of which are: implementing tight financial and fiscal policies, reducing government spending, canceling subsidies, liberalizing prices, implementing trade liberalization, and devaluing currencies. Achieve exchange rate stability, further reform the administrative and tax system, privatize some public sectors and enterprises, reschedule debt and accept foreign aid, etc. Since the implementation of this set of economic programs and policies has a strong impact, it may cause huge shocks to the economic life of the society in the short term, and even lead to a state of "shock". Therefore, people use medical terms to refer to Sachs The set of economic programs and policies proposed to stabilize the economy and control inflation are called "shock therapy."

In summary, shock therapy is aimed at the serious imbalance of total social supply and demand. Starting from controlling total social demand, strict administrative and economic measures are adopted to forcefully and significantly compress consumer demand in a short period of time. and investment demand to achieve an artificial balance between total social supply and demand, thereby curbing hyperinflation and restoring economic order. This kind of policy regulation has an obvious emergency nature. Because the balance of total social supply and demand requires not only controlling excessive social total demand, but more importantly, stimulating the effective growth of sluggish total social supply. The practice of macroeconomic operation proves that the former is easy to achieve in a short period of time, but the latter requires a long time and great effort to be effective. Since the regulation of shock therapy focuses on the general needs of society and the implementation of measures is relatively intensive, it is easy to achieve good results.

The difference between "shock therapy" and the gradual approach lies not in the content and goals of transition, but in the sequence and intensity of reform. Specifically, in terms of macro policies, "shock therapy" requires more stringent fiscal austerity; in terms of economic liberalization, "shock therapy" advocates taking a one-step approach to achieve liberalization of prices, foreign trade, and free currency convertibility; in terms of private In terms of economic development, it emphasizes rapid realization and does not hesitate to adopt free distribution methods for this purpose.

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Others’ Comments

Bono, a friend of Sachs’s, wrote in Sax’s best-selling book “ The preface written by "The End of Poverty" describes Sachs: "Sachs is a stimulant," Bono told reporters, "He is a squeaking wheel that keeps rolling."

Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Mark Malloch Brown described the saxophone as "a majestic pushing and slamming ram". In an ungrateful description, he said, "Sachs is a bully who bullies the weak. Judging from the existing records, he bullies the weak."

Personal life

Jeffrey Sachs is very busy. His schedule for a given week includes three days of all-nighters out of five working days. First, after a full day of teaching at Columbia University, he flew from New York to Brazil and spent two days in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Brasilia meeting with members of Brazilian President Lula da Silva's cabinet. From there, he went to Washington to attend a high-level White House meeting on malaria. After the meeting, he was hosted by President Bush and his wife at a banquet. Afterwards, he traveled to San Francisco, where he was to give a presentation to Google's co-founders. That same day, which was Friday, he flew back to New York. Over the weekend, he will also attend a banquet with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Sachs could only slow down his life when he was sleeping, and he never slept more than five hours a day. His wife, Sonia Ehrlich, a pediatrician and mother of three, has been described more than once as "a happy single mother."