A Guide to Paul Krugman: 11 Notable Works By Paul Krugman

Paul Robin Krugman is a professor, an author, a New York Times columnist, and one of the world’s best known and most acclaimed economists. He won the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, the 1991 John Bates Clark Medal from the American Economic Association, and the 2004 Prince of Asturias Award in Social Sciences. Paul was chosen as one of Bloomberg’s 10 Most Influential Thinkers in 2013 and named Bloomberg’s 50 Most Influential People in Global Finance on four occasions. He is the author or editor of 27 books and more than 200 papers in professional journals and edited volumes.

Paul has served as a staff member of the Council of Economic Advisers under Ronald Reagan’s administration, as a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. The prolific economist has also worked as a professor of economics and international affairs at many institutions, including Yale University (where he earned his BA), MIT (where he earned his MA and Ph.D.), Princeton University, Stanford University, the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and the London School of Economics.

Economist Paul Krugman has had a major influence on the field of economics in several different areas:

• Currency crisis models: In international finance, Paul made significant contributions to the theory of currency crises, applying the principles of speculative attacks to the foreign exchange market. In this model, Paul theorized that regimes with misaligned fixed exchange rates were most likely to end in speculative attack (when speculators attack foreign currency to profit off its devaluation).
• Liquidity traps: Liquidity traps are a principle of economics put forth by John Maynard Keynes. A liquidity trap occurs when banks lower interest rates to increase spending during an economic crisis, but citizens opt to hold onto their liquid assets (cash). Paul revived the conversation on Keynesian economics’ liquidity traps with his discussion of Japan’s “lost decade” in the 1990s.
• New Economic Geography (NEG): Paul’s work has yielded a major new field in economics, called the New Economic Geography, which studies the spatial increases in economic activity driven by globalization, geography and trade patterns, technology, market structure, and goods.
• New Trade Theory (NTT): Paul’s biggest contribution to economics is his theory on trade, which eventually became known as New Trade Theory. This concept rejects the theory of competitive advantage (in which international trade happens due to different production strengths between countries). The NTT has two main hypotheses: consumers enjoy having many brand options, and production favors economies of scale (the cost advantages that companies receive in the long run, once their production becomes efficient). Paul’s work in NTT earned him the Nobel Prize in Economics.

A prolific writer and thought leader, Paul has contributed to multiple op-ed columns over the past 20 years:

1. 1. Slate: From 1996 to 1999, Paul was a regular op-ed columnist for Slate magazine. He published a collection of his Slate columns in 1998, titled The Accidental Theorist and Other Dispatches from the Dismal Science.
2. 2. Fortune: From 1997 to 1999, Paul wrote a regular column for Fortune magazine, covering topics in economics, finance, and trade policy.
3. 3. New York Times: Since 1999, Paul has written a biweekly opinion column for the New York Times that addresses macroeconomics, trade, health care, and social policy. Since his start with the Times, he has become one of the most prominent columnists in America, chronicling his thoughts on many events, including the September 11 attacks, the Great Recession, and the Trump presidency.

To date, Nobel laureate Paul Krugman has published 27 books and over 200 scholarly articles, including:

1. 1. The Age of Diminished Expectations: U.S. Economic Policy in the 1990s (1990): One of Paul’s earliest books, The Age of Diminished Expectations, served as a prediction of the US economy in the 1990s and outlined the major policy decisions the country would face.
2. 2. Peddling Prosperity (1995): Peddling Prosperity serves as a brief history lesson on economic affairs thanks to Paul’s accessible breakdown of topics such as supply-side economics, liberal strategic policy, productivity growth, and supply and demand.
3. 3. Pop Internationalism (1996): Pop Internationalism is a collection of Paul’s essays on international trade from such publications as Foreign Affairs, Scientific American, the Economist, Washington Monthly, and the Harvard Business Review.
4. 4. Fuzzy Math: The Essential Guide to the Bush Tax Plan (2001): Fuzzy Math is Paul’s critique of the Bush administration’s proposed tax cuts and his criticism of the alternatives to the tax plan proposed by the Democratic party.
5. 5. The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century (2003): The Great Unraveling is a collection of Paul’s columns from the New York Times. This best-seller includes coverage of the early 2000s and the George W. Bush administration.
6. 6. Microeconomics (2004): Paul has published several economics textbooks, including Microeconomics, written with Robin Wells, which discusses economic principles on a small scale.
7. 7. International Economics: Theory and Policy (2006): International Economics is a textbook that Paul co-wrote with Maurice Obstfeld, detailing the principles and theories associated with the economic interaction of individual countries and foreign policy.
8. 8. The Conscience of a Liberal (2007): The Conscience of a Liberal covers the most recent 80 years of American history, following the threads of economic and income inequality between lower- and middle-class Americans and the wealthy elite.
9. 9. The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008 (2008): In this updated version of 1999’s The Return of Depression Economics, Paul details the similarities between the Great Depression that began in 1929, and the 2008 financial crisis that occurred due to the housing bubble and risky investments by global banks.
10. 10. End This Depression Now! (2012): End This Depression Now! is Paul’s response to the economic recession in the United States that began in 2008. In the book, he details how a renewed period of government spending and expansionary policy would end the financial crisis.
11. 11. Arguing with Zombies: Economics, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future (2020): Arguing with Zombies serves as an introduction to contemporary policy issues in American economics, and features work from his New York Times column. The book tackles various topics, including the 2008 financial crisis, Brexit, and the purposeful misunderstandings (zombie arguments) that adversely affect public policy.

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