John Williamson (economist)
John Harold Williamson (June 7, 1937 – April 11, 2021) was a British-born economist who coined the term Washington Consensus. He served as a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics from 1981 until his retirement in 2012. During that time, he was the project director for the United Nations High-Level Panel on Financing for Development in 2001.[1] He was also on leave as chief economist for South Asia at the World Bank during 1996–99, adviser to the International Monetary Fund from 1972 to 1974, and an economic consultant to the UK Treasury from 1968 to 1970. He was also an economics professor at Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (1978–81), University of Warwick (1970–77), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1967, 1980), University of York (1963–68) and Princeton University (1962–63).
For other uses, see John Williamson (disambiguation).
John H. Williamson
April 11, 2021 (aged 83)
Princeton University (Ph.D.), London School of Economics (B.Sc.)
He is best known for defining the "Washington Consensus" in 1989. He made 10 rules that were imposed by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the US government on developing nations. He came to strongly oppose the way those recommendations were actually imposed and their use by neoliberals.[2]
Early life and education[edit]
John Harold Williamson was born in Hereford in 1937. He graduated from Hereford High School for Boys and had originally planned to study civil engineering. However, his headmaster convinced him to do economics and he decided to attend the London School of Economics.[3] He graduated with a B.Sc. in economics in 1958.
Following graduation, Williamson served two years of compulsory military service in the Royal Air Force. He conducted operations research at the Department of the Scientific Adviser to the Air Ministry in Whitehall. He then attended graduate school at Princeton University, graduating with a Ph.D. in Economics in 1963. He was influenced by courses he took with well known economists, including Oskar Morgenstern, William Baumol, and Richard E. Quandt. His dissertation, entitled “Patent Licensing and Royalty Terms”, explored proposed new theoretical foundations for patent-licensing policy and royalty provisions.[4]
Career[edit]
Williamson's first academic posting was at the University of York, where he taught microeconomics. At the time, there were four other professors on the economics department: Alan T. Peacock, Jack Wiseman, John Hutton, and Douglas Dosser. In his fourth year at York, Williamson became a visiting professor in the department of economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he worked alongside Joseph Stiglitz, Charles Kindleberger, Paul Samuelson, and Tony Atkinson.
In October 1968, Williamson was appointed an adviser to the H.M. Treasury. He was in charge of overseeing relations with the European Economic Community, particularly France. He developed new forecasts on how British export markets were predicted to expand following various policy recommendations. There was also a committee, chaired by Sir Douglas Allen, that formed British views on international monetary reform. Exchange rates were the main focus of the Treasury, as the IMF's Special Drawing Rights had recently been introduced.[3]
While serving at the Treasury, Williamson was offered chairs in economics from the University of Manchester, University of Nottingham, and the University of Warwick. He ultimately accepted the latter because he was attracted to the theories and research at newer universities. There he became Honorary Professor and taught courses in international economics and macroeconomics. While at Warwick, Williamson took a leave of absence to serve as an adviser to the International Monetary Fund. He replaced Fred Hirsch as senior adviser. After two years, he returned to Warwick where he published The Failure of World Monetary Reform, 1971–74 (1977). In this capacity, he gained an international reputation for his contributions to the field. The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística) offered him a post to begin its graduate program in economics. He offered insights into the reasons for Brazil's inflationary environment, beginning the country's path to successful stabilization in 1922.
After serving as visiting professor of economics at Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, Williamson joined the-then Institute for International Economics as a Senior Fellow in 1981. There, he further developed research on international monetary cooperation. He also published a textbook, The Exchange-Rate System; The Open Economy and the World Economy (1983). He joined the first cohort of scholars at the institute, working alongside William Cline and Gary Hufbauer.
Personal life[edit]
Williamson married Denise Rosemary Rausch (b. 1940), a scholar at the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística). He has three children: André Williamson (b. 1968), Daniel (b. 1969), and Theresa (b. 1975).
In 2012, Williamson retired from the PIIE. His Festschrift, Global Economics in Extraordinary Times: Essays in Honor of John Williamson (2012), was edited by C. Fred Bergsten, former assistant to Henry Kissinger on the U.S. National Security Council and assistant secretary for international affairs at the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Williamson resided in Chevy Chase, Maryland. He was fluent in Portuguese.
Williamson died from multiple system atrophy at his home in Chevy Chase on April 11, 2021, at age 83.[2]