El premi Nobel d'Economia 1999: Una visió retrospectiva de l'obra de Robert Mundell

Abstract

The Nobel Prize in Economics of 1999 was awarded to Kobert A. Mundell for his scientific contributions on the role of monetary and fiscal policy in open economies. His main area of research was the analysis of the short-run effects of stabilization policy under different exchange rate regimes. Mundell showed that monetary policy is ineffective in a fixed exchange rates regime, while fiscal policy is ineffective under floating exchange rates (the Mundell-Fleming model). He also developed a pioneering work on the optimality of currency areas. He pointed out that labor mobility is necessary to absorb the asymmetric shocks that the different regions of the area could suffer. Finally, he also showed that the higher inflation induced by an expansionary monetary policy might result in increased capital accumulation (the Mundell- Tobin effect). In this article, I also briefly review the academic literature inspired by Mundell's insights and I assess his scientific legacy.