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{{Short description|Indian-born American economist (born 1934)}}
{{Infobox economist
| school_tradition = [[Neoclassical economics]]
| image = Jagdish N. Bhagwati Professor Jagdish pa Columbia University talar vid invigningen av Nordiskt globaliseringsforum i Riksgransen 2008-04-02.jpg
| image_size = 250px
| caption = Bhagwati in 2008
| name = Jagdish Bhagwati
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|mf=yes|1934|7|26}}
| birth_place = [[Bombay]], [[Bombay State]], [[British Raj|British India]] (present-day [[Mumbai]], [[Maharashtra]], [[India]])
| death_date =
| death_place =
| alma_mater = [[Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics|Sydenham College, Bombay]] (BA) [[St John's College, Cambridge]] (BA) [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (PhD)
| citizenship = United States<ref name="LevyBarfield2011"/><ref name=fortune-mag/><ref name=nytimes-review/>
| institution = [[Columbia University]] [[Indian Statistical Institute]] [[Delhi School of Economics]] [[MIT]] [[Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics|Sydenham College]]
| field = [[International economics]], [[globalization]], [[free trade]]
| doctoral_advisor = [[Charles P. Kindleberger]]<ref>{{cite thesis|title=Essays in international economics|first=Jagdish N.|last=Bhagwati|date=11 May 1967|publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology|hdl = 1721.1/61807|type=Thesis}}</ref>
| doctoral_students = [[Gene Grossman]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://library.mit.edu/F/K213STDDRFEF7HXGRHSXVPYFID8SABYR1JJPTM35VK7YBFENGP-21980?func=full-set-set&set_number=017172&set_entry=000010&format=999|title=PDS login|website=library.mit.edu}}</ref> [[Caroline Freund]]
| influences = [[Robert Solow]]
| influenced =
| contributions =
| spouse = [[Padma Desai]]
| awards = [[Padma Vibhushan]]
}}
'''Jagdish Natwarlal Bhagwati''' (born July 26, 1934) is an Indian-born [[naturalization|naturalized]] American economist and trade theorist.<ref name="LevyBarfield2011">{{citation|last1=Levy|first1=Philip I.|last2=Barfield|first2=Claude|title=Swap: How Trade Works|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=twuSKIboZXAC&pg=PA111|year=2011|publisher=American Enterprise Institute Press|isbn=978-0844772073|page=111|quote="For a thorough assessment of the challenges presented by trade and the environment by an author brought up in India but now a U.S. citizen, see Jagdish Bhagwati, ''In Defense of Globalization'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)"}}</ref><ref name=fortune-mag>{{cite web|url=http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2004/08/01/377372/index.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170320051940/http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2004/08/01/377372/index.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 20, 2017|last=Heilemann|first=John|date=August 1, 2004|title=Gearing Ourselves for Globalization Free trade isn't the cause of the world's ills, says Columbia professor Jagdish Bhagwati. It's the best cure we have for them – if only we can stomach it.|publisher=Fortune Magazine|access-date=18 March 2017|quote="His name may not be immediately familiar, but anyone interested in understanding globalization ought to be acquainted with Jagdish Bhagwati. Born in India, schooled in Britain, and now an American citizen, Bhagwati is an international economist and one of only 10 scholars who hold the title of University Professor at Columbia."}}</ref><ref name=nytimes-review>{{cite web|last=Drezner|first=Daniel W.|title=Review of 'In Defense of Globalization' by Jagdish Bhagwati, New York: Oxford University Press|work=New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/18/books/globalization-without-riots.html|date=August 18, 2004|quote="If anyone can rise to this challenge, it should be Jagdish Bhagwati. An esteemed international economist, Bhagwati is a university professor at Columbia and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He has advised the World Trade Organization and the United Nations. Born in India, educated in Britain and now an American citizen, he can claim to understand all points of view."}}</ref>
He is a [[University Professor (Columbia)|University Professor]] of economics and law at [[Columbia University]] and a Senior Fellow in International Economics at the [[Council on Foreign Relations]]. He has made contributions to international [[International trade|trade theory]] and economic development.

He had a chair named after him while he was still teaching at the university.{{Citation needed|date=December 2025}} He is one of only 10 scholars who hold the title of University Professor at [[Columbia University]].<ref name="fortune-mag2">{{cite web |last=Heilemann |first=John |date=August 1, 2004 |title=Gearing Ourselves for Globalization Free trade isn't the cause of the world's ills, says Columbia professor Jagdish Bhagwati. It's the best cure we have for them – if only we can stomach it. |url=http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2004/08/01/377372/index.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170320051940/http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2004/08/01/377372/index.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 20, 2017 |access-date=18 March 2017 |publisher=Fortune Magazine |quote="His name may not be immediately familiar, but anyone interested in understanding globalization ought to be acquainted with Jagdish Bhagwati. Born in India, schooled in Britain, and now an American citizen, Bhagwati is an international economist and one of only 10 scholars who hold the title of University Professor at Columbia."}}</ref> Bhagwati is the recipient of the [[Order of the Rising Sun]], [[Padma Vibhushan]], Frank Seidman Distinguished Award in Political Economy and the Freedom Prize of [[Switzerland]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jagdish Bhagwati |url=https://www.americanacademy.de/person/jagdish-bhagwati/ |access-date=2022-06-22 |website=American Academy |language=en-US}}</ref>

In 2014, the ''[[Financial Times]]'' called him "one of the most outstanding economists of his generation never to have won the Nobel Prize". This view is shared by his peers including [[Nobel Prize]] winning economist [[Paul Krugman]], "The crucial point for me is that people didn't understand at all clearly how distortions in a [[Trade|trading]] economy relate to policy before Jagdish spelled it out. Once he did, it became so clear that it was hard to believe that someone had to point it out. In my view, that makes his work Nobel-worthy."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Finance and Development |url=https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2005/09/people.htm |access-date=2022-06-15 |website=Finance and Development {{!}} F&D |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Early years and personal life==
Bhagwati was born in 1934, into a [[Gujarati people|Gujarati]] family in the Bombay Presidency during the British Raj. He is the son of Indian judge [[Natwarlal H. Bhagwati]] and the brother of [[Prafullachandra Natwarlal Bhagwati|P. N. Bhagwati]], former [[Chief Justice of India]] and also of S.N. Bhagwati, an eminent neurosurgeon who served as the president of the [[Neurological Society of India]].

Bhagwati attended St. Xavier's High School and received a [[Bachelor of Commerce|BCom]] from [[Sydenham College]], [[Mumbai]]. He then traveled to England to study at [[St. John's College, Cambridge]], receiving a second BA at Cambridge (in economics) in 1956. Between 1957 and 1959 he studied at [[Nuffield College, Oxford]]. He received a [[PhD]] in economics from the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] in 1967 for a thesis titled "Essays in International Economics," supervised by [[Charles P. Kindleberger]]. He has also received [[honorary degrees]] from the [[University of Sussex]] and [[Erasmus University]], as well as others.

Bhagwati is married to [[Padma Desai]], also a Columbia economist and Russia specialist; they have one daughter. Bhagwati and Desai's joint 1970 OECD study ''India: Planning for Industrialization'' was a notable contribution at the time.<ref>[http://freemarketmojo.com/?p=9867] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101122064824/http://freemarketmojo.com/?p=9867|date=November 22, 2010}}</ref>
[[File:Jagdish Bhagwati and Padma Desai (Columbia University) (7204981944) (cropped).jpg|thumb|Bhagwati with wife [[Padma Desai]], 2012]]

==Career==
After completing his PhD, Bhagwati returned to India in 1961, first to teach briefly at the [[Indian Statistical Institute]], [[Kolkata]], and then as professor of international trade at [[Delhi School of Economics]] at the [[University of Delhi]], from 1962 to 1968. He then returned to American academia and from 1968 until 1980, Bhagwati was the Ford International Professor of [[Economics]] at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]].<ref>[http://www.cfr.org/bio.php?id=1753] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040803094910/http://www.cfr.org/bio.php?id=1753|date=August 3, 2004}}</ref>

From 1980 he taught economics at [[Columbia University]], where he was Arthur Lehman Professor of Economics and Professor of Political Science and later University Professor, Economics and Law. He is one of only 10 scholars who hold the title of University Professor at [[Columbia University]].{{Citation needed|date=December 2025}}

Bhagwati is a Senior Fellow of the [[Council on Foreign Relations]] in [[New York City|New York]] and is a Member of the [[National Academy of Sciences]] and the [[American Philosophical Society]]. He currently serves on the Academic Advisory Board of [[Human Rights Watch]] (Asia) and on the board of scholars of the [[Centre for Civil Society]].{{Citation needed|date=December 2025}}

He was special adviser to the [[United Nations]] on globalization, economic policy adviser to [[Arthur Dunkel]]-the director-general of [[General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade]] and external adviser to the [[World Trade Organization]]. He has also worked as a member of group appointed by the director-general of the [[World Trade Organization|WTO]] on the future of the [[World Trade Organization|WTO]].{{Citation needed|date=December 2025}}

He was also a member of the advisory committee to [[United Nations|UN]] Secretary General [[Kofi Annan]] on the [[New Partnership for Africa's Development]], an economic program accelerating economic co-operation and integration among African countries.{{Citation needed|date=December 2025}}

In May, 2004, Bhagwati was one of the experts who took part in the [[Copenhagen Consensus]] project.{{Citation needed|date=December 2025}}

In 2006, Bhagwati was a part of the Eminent Persons Group along with Brazilian President [[Fernando Henrique Cardoso]] on the future of [[United Nations Conference on Trade and Development|United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).]] In early 2010, Bhagwati joined the advisory board of the Institute for Migrant Rights in Indonesia.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Institute for Migrant Rights |url=http://imr.or.id |access-date=6 November 2014}}</ref>

In 2000, Bhagwati was signatory to an amicus briefing, coordinated by the [[American Enterprise Institute]], with the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] to contend that the [[United States Environmental Protection Agency|Environmental Protection Agency]] should, contrary to a prior ruling, be allowed to take into account the costs of regulations when setting environmental standards.{{Citation needed|date=December 2025}}

In January 2004, Bhagwati published ''In Defense of Globalization,'' a book in which he argues that [[globalization]], when properly governed, is the most powerful force for social good in the world today. He described how globalization helps the cause of women, reduces child labor and increases literacy.{{Citation needed|date=December 2025}} He makes a point that:

<blockquote>... this process [of globalization] has a human face, but we need to make that face more agreeable.
</blockquote>

Jagdish Bhagwati was the fictional winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics in ''[[The Simpsons]]'' episode "[[Elementary School Musical (The Simpsons)|Elementary School Musical]]".{{Citation needed|date=December 2025}}

==Awards, honors and commentary==
* Mahalanobis Memorial Medal of the Indian Econometric Society (1974)
* Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] (1982)<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterB.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=June 25, 2011}}</ref>
* Member of the [[American Philosophical Society]] (1995)<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Bhagwati&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-12-20|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>
* Seidman Distinguished Award in International Political Economy (1998)
* [[Padma Vibhushan]] Award (2000)
* Lifetime Achievement Award of the Indian Chamber of Commerce (2004)
* [[Order of the Rising Sun]], Gold and Silver Star (2006)
* Member of the [[National Academy of Sciences]] (2012)<ref>{{Cite web|title=Jagdish N. Bhagwati|url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/members/3015655.html|access-date=2021-12-20|website=www.nasonline.org}}</ref>

[[Nobel Prize|Nobel]] laureate [[Paul Samuelson]], on the occasion of Bhagwati's 70th birthday ''[[festschrift]]'' conference in Gainesville, Florida in January 2005 said:

<blockquote>I measure a scholar's prolific-ness not by the mere number of his publishings. Just as the area of a rectangle equals its width times its depth, the quality of a lifetime accomplishment must weight each article by its novelties and wisdoms. ... Jagdish Bhagwati is more like [[Haydn]]: a composer of more than a hundred symphonies and no one of them other than top notch. ... In the struggle to improve the lot of mankind, whether located in advanced economies or in societies climbing the ladder out of poverty, Jagdish Bhagwati has been a tireless partisan of that globalization which elevates global total-factor – productivities both of richest America and poorest regions of Asia and Africa.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.columbia.edu/~jb38/Festschrift%20Samuelson.pdf|title=Jagdish Bhagwati, the wunderkind who became the tireless theorist of international trade|author=Paul A. Samuelson|publisher=Columbia.edu|access-date=6 November 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100626005100/http://www.columbia.edu/~jb38/Festschrift%20Samuelson.pdf|archive-date=26 June 2010}}</ref>
</blockquote>

Other awards include the Bernhard Harms Prize (Germany), the Kenan Enterprise Award (United States), the Freedom Prize (Switzerland), and the [[John R. Commons]] Award (United States). He has also received [[honorary degrees]] from the [[University of Sussex]] and [[Erasmus University]], as well as others.<ref>[http://www.columbia.edu/~jb38/Bhagwati%20awards%20current.pdf] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070306155231/http://www.columbia.edu/~jb38/Bhagwati%20awards%20current.pdf|date=March 6, 2007}}</ref><ref>[http://www.cfr.org/bios/1753/] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060927094801/http://www.cfr.org/bios/1753/|date=September 27, 2006}}</ref>

==Bibliography==
{{Expand section|date=December 2009}}

===Books===
* {{cite book|
author=Jagdish Bhagwati, Arvind Panagariya|
title=Why Growth Matters: How Economic Growth in India Reduced Poverty and the Lessons for Other Developing Countries|
year=2013|
publisher=PublicAffairs|
isbn= 978-1610392716}}
* {{cite book|
author=Jagdish Bhagwati, Arvind Panagariya|
title=India's Tryst with Destiny: Debunking the Myths that Undermine Progress and Addressing New Challenges|
year=2013|
publisher=HarperCollins|
isbn= 978-9350295854}}
* {{cite book|
author=Jagdish Bhagwati|
title=Termites in the Trading System: How Preferential Agreements Undermine Free Trade| url=https://archive.org/details/termitesintradin0000bhag| url-access=registration|
year=2008|
publisher=Oxford University Press|
isbn=978-0195331653}}
* {{cite book|
author=Jagdish Bhagwati|
title=In Defense of Globalization|
year=2007|
publisher=Oxford University Press|
isbn=978-0195330939}}
* {{cite book|
last=Bhagwati|
title=Free Trade Today|
year=2003|
publisher=Princeton University Press|
isbn=978-0691117300|
first=Jagdish|
url-access=registration|
url=https://archive.org/details/freetradetoday00jagd}}
* {{cite book|
author=Jagdish Bhagwati|
title=The Wind of the Hundred Days: How Washington Mismanaged Globalization|
year=2002|
publisher=MIT Press|
isbn=0262523272|
url-access=registration|
url=https://archive.org/details/windofhundredday0000bhag}}
* {{cite book|
author=James H. Mathis, Jagdish Bhagwati (Foreword)|
title=Regional Trade Agreements in the GATT/WTO: Article XXIV and the Internal Trade Requirement|
year=2002|
publisher=Norwell/TMC Asser Press|
isbn=9067041394}}
* {{cite book|
editor1=Jagdish N. Bhagwati |editor2=Robert E. Hudec |
title=Fair Trade and Harmonization, Vol. 1: Economic Analysis|
year=1996|
publisher=MIT Press|
isbn=0262024012}}
* Jagdish N. Bhagwati (editor) (1977) [http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=7362 ''The New International Economic Order: The North-South Debate''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061211063727/http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=7362 |date=2006-12-11 }}. {{ISBN|0262520427}}.
* {{cite book|
editor=Jagdish N. Bhagwati |
title=Economics and World Order from the 1970s to the 1990s|
year=1972|
publisher=Macmillan|
isbn=978-0029034705}}

===Articles===
* {{cite journal |author=Bhagwati, Jagdish |date = March 1964|title=The Pure Theory of International Trade: A Survey|journal=[[The Economic Journal]]|volume= 74|issue=293 |pages=1–84 |doi=10.2307/2228112|jstor = 2228112}}
* {{cite journal |author=Bhagwati, Jagdish |date = November 1993|title=The Case for Free Trade|journal=[[Scientific American]] |volume= 269|issue=5 |pages=18–23|doi = 10.1038/scientificamerican1193-42|bibcode = 1993SciAm.269e..42B}}
* {{cite journal |author=Bhagwati, Jagdish |date=Fall 2009 | title=Feeble Critiques: Capitalism's Petty Detractors |journal=[[World Affairs]] |doi=10.3200/WAFS.172.2.36-45 }}{{Dead link|date=June 2023}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last1= Bhagwati |first1=Jagdish |editor= David R. Henderson |editor-link= David R. Henderson |encyclopedia=[[Concise Encyclopedia of Economics]] |title=Protectionism |url=http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Protectionism.html |year=2008|pages=425–427 |edition= 2nd |publisher=[[Library of Economics and Liberty]] |location=Indianapolis |isbn=978-0865976658 |oclc=237794267}}

==See also==
* [[Globalization]]
* [[Indians in the New York City metropolitan area]]
* [["Spaghetti Bowl" Effect]]

==References==

{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
{{wikiquote}}
* [http://www.columbia.edu/~jb38/ Homepage of Professor Jagdish Bhagwati], Columbia University website, accessed March 2004.
* {{C-SPAN|25413}}
* {{NYTtopic|people/b/jagdish_bhagwati}}

{{Globalization|state=autocollapse}}
{{Padma Vibhushan Awards}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bhagwati, Jagdish}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:1934 births]]
[[Category:People from Mumbai]]
[[Category:Indian emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Columbia University faculty]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Econometric Society]]
[[Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian economists]]
[[Category:International economists]]
[[Category:MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences alumni]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Padma Vibhushan in literature & education]]
[[Category:Trade economists]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Delhi University]]
[[Category:University of Mumbai alumni]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 2nd class]]
[[Category:Writers about globalization]]
[[Category:American people of Gujarati descent]]
[[Category:American academics of Indian descent]]
[[Category:Indian political writers]]
[[Category:Indian male writers]]
[[Category:American political writers]]
[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Alumni of Nuffield College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Distinguished fellows of the American Economic Association]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian economists]]
[[Category:21st-century American economists]]
[[Category:Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs]]
[[Category:Recipients of Pravasi Bharatiya Samman]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]
[[Category:Gujarati people]]

Jagdish Bhagwati - Revision history

MichaleFlint91 at 09:50, 8 December 2025