Robert Alexander Mundell was born on Oct. 24, 1932, in Kingston, Ontario, and spent his first 13 years living on a farm and attending a one-room schoolhouse with about a dozen other pupils. His father, William Campbell Mundell, was a military officer; his mother, Lila Teresa (Hamilton) Mundell, was a vivacious heiress who had to give up the family’s castle because she could not afford the back taxes, Professor Mundell once recalled. While the United States, after a brief recession, was thriving, Europe and Japan were dependent largely on American investment and materials to rebuild, amassing large trade deficits with the United States. Bob Mundell, a high school senior already gifted in math, was puzzled by it all. “The newspapers carried such a jumbled discussion.”Professor Mundell first studied economics and Slavonic studies at the University of British Columbia before winning a scholarship to the University of Washington.

Source: International New York Times April 05, 2021 21:41 UTC