Edmund Strother "Ned" Phelps, Jr. (born July 26, 1933) is an American economist. He was born in Evanston, Illinois.
Research and ideas
During the 1960s Phelps carried out important work at Yale University's Cowles Foundation on theories of economic growth. Among his influential contributions is the formulation of the Golden Rule savings rate — a criterion for the fraction of output that an economy should save to maximize long-run consumption. He also produced significant analyses of the microeconomics behind full employment, studying how price and wage-setting behavior can determine equilibrium unemployment and clarifying the notion often called the natural rate of unemployment.
Academic posts
Since 1982 Phelps has held the McVickar Professorship of Political Economy at Columbia University. He is also director of Columbia's Center on Capitalism and Society, a forum at the university for research and debate on economic systems and public policy.
Nobel Memorial Prize
Phelps received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2006; the award was announced on October 9, 2006. The committee cited his analysis of intertemporal trade-offs in macroeconomic policy, and he was the sole laureate that year.
- Golden Rule savings rate: guidance for optimal long-run saving and consumption.
- Microeconomic foundations of employment: links between wages, prices, and unemployment.
- Clarification of the natural rate concept and its policy implications.