Galbraith, James K.

Education

Ph.D., Yale University, 1981
M. Phil., Yale University, 1978
M.A., Yale University, 1977
A.B., Harvard University, 1974

Teaching Areas

Economics
Social Policy
Development Policy

James K. Galbraith holds the Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government/Business Relations at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and a professorship in Government at The University of Texas at Austin.

Galbraith was executive director of the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress in the early 1980s. He chaired the board of Economists for Peace and Security (1996–2016) and directs the University of Texas Inequality Project. He is a managing editor of Structural Change and Economic Dynamics.

From 1993 to 1997, he served as chief technical adviser to China's State Planning Commission for macroeconomic reform, and in 2016 he advised the presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders. In 2014 he was co-winner, with Angus Deaton, of the Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economics. He holds honorary degrees from the Université Pierre Mendes-France in Grenoble and from the Plekhanov University of Economics in Moscow.

Galbraith's books include Welcome to the Poisoned Chalice: The Destruction of Greece and the Future of Europe (2016); Inequality: What Everyone Needs to Know (2016); The End of Normal: The Great Crisis and the Future of Growth (2014); Inequality and Instability: A Study of the World Economy Just Before the Great Crisis (2012); The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too (2008); Unbearable Cost: Bush, Greenspan, and the Economics of Empire (2006); Inequality and Industrial Change: A Global View (with M. Berner) (2001); Created Unequal: The Crisis in American Pay (1998); Macroeconomics (with W. Darity Jr.) (1992); and Balancing Acts: Technology, Finance and the American Future (1989).

Recent Publications

Courses Taught

Media Expertise

Economic development
Economics
Inequality

James K. Galbraith, Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government/Business Relations and professor of government at the LBJ School

Contact Information

Location

SRH 3.332

Phone

512-471-1244

Email:

galbraith@mail.utexas.edu

Curriculum Vitae

Newsworthy

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Media Mention • May 28, 2020

We’ll need mass debt forgiveness to recover from the coronavirus

Some economists say that the ancient remedy for their plight is still the best we've got: If we want a strong recovery after the coronavirus is contained, we will need mass debt forgiveness. LBJ's James Galbraith is a leading proponent of such a jubilee. The economist argues that when the pandemic has passed, "there will be a vast tangle of unpaid debts that cannot be cleared," and thus "the whole financial system will have to be reset."

Media Mention • May 26, 2020

Global Agenda: Lifting lockdown, the search for exit strategies

Stay-at-home orders in response to COVID-19 have caused widespread hardship. Their relaxation raises concerns about renewed infection. How can we ensure that people and the economy remain healthy? LBJ's James Galbraith joins a panel of other experts to discuss balancing global health and economic recovery.

Media Mention • May 25, 2020

Another Now #7

LBJ's James Galbraith talks with Yanis Varoufakis, an economist and member of the Hellenic Parliament, as well as the former Greek finance minister and LBJ faculty member, to talk about global economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.