Joseph E. Stiglitz

Joseph E. Stiglitz married three times. Nothing is known about his first wife or the first marriage, except that he has two children, Siobhan and Michael Stiglitz from his marriage and that it ended in a divorce.

On 23 December 1978, he married Dr. Jane Hannaway, who at that time was an assistant Professor of Administration at Teachers College of Columbia. They had two children, Edward (Jed) and Julia Stiglitz. This marriage too ended in a divorce.

On October 28, 2004 Stiglitz married Anya Schiffrin, the director of the Technology, Media, and Communications specialization at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, and a lecturer at the School of International and Public Affairs.

Joseph Eugene Stiglitz was born February 9, 1943 in Gary, Indiana. His father, Nathaniel David Stiglitz, was an insurance salesman and a Jeffersonian democrat, while his mother Charlotte (née Fishman) was a schoolteacher and came from a family of New Deal democrats.

Consequently, during Joseph’s growing up years, intense political debate was part of their family life. This might have given rise to his interest in politics, which was further nurtured during his college days.

Nathaniel Stiglitz had great influence on young Joseph. He often spoke about the virtues of self-reliance and was a strong advocate of civil rights. He had a very deep sense of moral responsibility and insisted on paying social security contribution for domestic helps, even though they never asked for it.

Joseph Stiglitz had his schooling under the public education system in Gary. Classes were quite large there; in spite of that, his teachers managed to provide individual attention. Here, apart from studying usual curricula, Stiglitz had to learn printing and electrical work.

During these days, he keenly took part in school debates. Every year a national topic was chosen and they were randomly assigned to one side or other. Taking part in such debates, he realized, early in his life, that each issue can have multiple sides.

In 1965, Joseph Stiglitz moved to the University of Chicago to do research under Hirofumi Uzawa, a Japanese economist, known for his growth theory of neoclassical economics.

Later in the same year, he received a Fulbright Scholarship for Cambridge for the academic session of 1965-1966. He took it mainly because he wanted to come across as many views as he could.

Therefore, he joined Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge and began working on various projects, first under Joan Robinson and then under Frank Hahn. His research in this period centered on growth, technical change, and income distribution.

In 1966, Joseph Stiglitz returned to the U.S.A and took up a one-year appointment as an Assistant Professor at MIT. Concurrently, he started working for his PHD with Robert Merton Solow and earned his degree in 1967.

Thereafter in 1967, he joined Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University as an Assistant Professor. In 1968, he was promoted to the post of Associate Professor, a position he held until 1970.

Meanwhile in 1966, he received a Tapp Junior Research Fellowship at Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge. Therefore, from then until 1970, he had to commute to and from Cambridge regularly.

In 1970, Stiglitz was promoted once more. He now became Professor of Economics at the Cowles Foundation and Department of Economics, Yale University, a position he held until 1974.

Concurrently, from 1969 to 1971, he was the Senior Research Fellow, Social Science Division, Institute for Development Studies, University College, Nairobi under Rockefeller Foundation Grant. From 1973 to 1974, he was a Visiting Fellow at the St. Catherine's College, Oxford.