Graciela Chichilnisky
Encyclopedia
Graciela Chichilnisky is an Argentine American
mathematical economist
and an expert on climate change
. She is a professor of economics at Columbia University
.
Without having any undergraduate education, Chichilnisky enrolled in the doctoral program in mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
. After moving to the University of California, Berkeley
, she completed her earned Ph.D. in mathematics in 1971. She then earned a second Ph.D. in economics in 1976. She is known for proposing and designing the carbon credit
emissions trading
market underlying the Kyoto Protocol
.
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Chichilnisky was born in Buenos Aires
, Argentina
, the daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants. She had a child during high school. In July 1966, a military coup occurred; the Argentine military violently closed scientific faculties at the University of Buenos Aires on July 29 during La Noche de los Bastones Largos
(The Night of the Long Batons
). Without having any undergraduate degree, Chichilnisky matriculated in the doctoral program in mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
, where she was supported by a fellowship from the Ford Foundation
. She then moved to the University of California, Berkeley
in 1968, where she completed her Ph.D. in mathematics in 1971, writing her thesis under the supervision of Jerrold E. Marsden
. She then earned a second Ph.D. in economics in 1976 under the supervision of Gérard Debreu
, a mathematical economist and Nobel laureate.
, she accepted a position as an associate professor at Columbia in 1977, and received tenure there in 1979. While based at Columbia University, she was UNESCO Professor of Mathematics and Economics from 1995 to 2008. She held a chair in economics at the University of Essex
from 1980 to 1981. She has also been a visiting professor at many other universities.
emissions trading
market underlying the Kyoto Protocol
. In the theory of international trade
, she constructed an example of a "transfer paradox", where a transfer of goods from a donor to a recipient can render the recipient worse off and the donor better off, thus responding to a long-standing question in international economics
. In developmental economics, she constructed examples where export-led growth strategies for developing countries could result in paradoxically poor results, because of increasing returns to scale in the technologies of the developed countries. In welfare economics
and voting theory, particularly in the specialty of social choice theory, Chichilnisky introduced a continuous model of collective decisions to which she applied algebraic topology
to achieve striking results; following her initiatives, continuous social choice has developed as an international subdiscipline.
During the 1980s and 1990s, some of Chichilnisky's research was done in collaboration with the mathematical economist Geoffrey M. Heal, who has been her colleague at Essex and Columbia. In his own right, Heal has contributed influential research on public economics (marginal cost pricing for production economies with increasing returns to scale
), with natural resource economics
(particularly on economic growth
with exhaustible resources), and on petroleum
. Heal has also collaborated with Partha Dasgupta
and Donald J. Brown.
reported that Chichilnisky received 200 thousand dollars, "a substantial amount of money," Chichilnisky said. "And that has to do with who is right and who is wrong." According to Columbia's spokesperson, "Chichilnisky signed a statement that her salary was not discriminatory".
Argentine American
Argentine Americans are citizens and residents of the United States whose origins are in the South American nation of Argentina.The profile of the Argentine American population is generally similar to the overall U.S. population's. Among the key differences, however, is educational attainment...
mathematical economist
Mathematical economics
Mathematical economics is the application of mathematical methods to represent economic theories and analyze problems posed in economics. It allows formulation and derivation of key relationships in a theory with clarity, generality, rigor, and simplicity...
and an expert on climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
. She is a professor of economics at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
.
Without having any undergraduate education, Chichilnisky enrolled in the doctoral program in mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
. After moving to the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, she completed her earned Ph.D. in mathematics in 1971. She then earned a second Ph.D. in economics in 1976. She is known for proposing and designing the carbon credit
Carbon credit
A carbon credit is a generic term for any tradable certificate or permit representing the right to emit one tonne of carbon dioxide or the mass of another greenhouse gas with a carbon dioxide equivalent equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide....
emissions trading
Emissions trading
Emissions trading is a market-based approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants....
market underlying the Kyoto Protocol
Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , aimed at fighting global warming...
.
Schooling
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, the daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants. She had a child during high school. In July 1966, a military coup occurred; the Argentine military violently closed scientific faculties at the University of Buenos Aires on July 29 during La Noche de los Bastones Largos
La Noche de los Bastones Largos
La Noche de los Bastones Largos was the violent dislodge of five faculties of the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina on July 29, 1966 by the Federal Police...
(The Night of the Long Batons
La Noche de los Bastones Largos
La Noche de los Bastones Largos was the violent dislodge of five faculties of the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina on July 29, 1966 by the Federal Police...
). Without having any undergraduate degree, Chichilnisky matriculated in the doctoral program in mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
, where she was supported by a fellowship from the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
. She then moved to the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
in 1968, where she completed her Ph.D. in mathematics in 1971, writing her thesis under the supervision of Jerrold E. Marsden
Jerrold E. Marsden
Jerrold Eldon Marsden , was an applied mathematician. He was the Carl F. Braun Professor of Engineering and Control & Dynamical Systems at the California Institute of Technology. Marsden is listed as an ISI highly cited researcher.-Career:Marsden earned his B.Sc...
. She then earned a second Ph.D. in economics in 1976 under the supervision of Gérard Debreu
Gerard Debreu
Gérard Debreu was a French economist and mathematician, who also came to have United States citizenship. Best known as a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he began work in 1962, he won the 1983 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics.-Biography:His father was the...
, a mathematical economist and Nobel laureate.
Career
After postdoctoral studies at Harvard UniversityHarvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, she accepted a position as an associate professor at Columbia in 1977, and received tenure there in 1979. While based at Columbia University, she was UNESCO Professor of Mathematics and Economics from 1995 to 2008. She held a chair in economics at the University of Essex
University of Essex
The University of Essex is a British campus university whose original and largest campus is near the town of Colchester, England. Established in 1963 and receiving its Royal Charter in 1965...
from 1980 to 1981. She has also been a visiting professor at many other universities.
Research
Chichilnisky is the author of over a dozen books and over 250 research papers. She is known for proposing and designing the carbon creditCarbon credit
A carbon credit is a generic term for any tradable certificate or permit representing the right to emit one tonne of carbon dioxide or the mass of another greenhouse gas with a carbon dioxide equivalent equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide....
emissions trading
Emissions trading
Emissions trading is a market-based approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants....
market underlying the Kyoto Protocol
Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , aimed at fighting global warming...
. In the theory of international trade
International trade
International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories. In most countries, such trade represents a significant share of gross domestic product...
, she constructed an example of a "transfer paradox", where a transfer of goods from a donor to a recipient can render the recipient worse off and the donor better off, thus responding to a long-standing question in international economics
International economics
International economics is concerned with the effects upon economic activity of international differences in productive resources and consumer preferences and the institutions that affect them...
. In developmental economics, she constructed examples where export-led growth strategies for developing countries could result in paradoxically poor results, because of increasing returns to scale in the technologies of the developed countries. In welfare economics
Welfare economics
Welfare economics is a branch of economics that uses microeconomic techniques to evaluate economic well-being, especially relative to competitive general equilibrium within an economy as to economic efficiency and the resulting income distribution associated with it...
and voting theory, particularly in the specialty of social choice theory, Chichilnisky introduced a continuous model of collective decisions to which she applied algebraic topology
Algebraic topology
Algebraic topology is a branch of mathematics which uses tools from abstract algebra to study topological spaces. The basic goal is to find algebraic invariants that classify topological spaces up to homeomorphism, though usually most classify up to homotopy equivalence.Although algebraic topology...
to achieve striking results; following her initiatives, continuous social choice has developed as an international subdiscipline.
During the 1980s and 1990s, some of Chichilnisky's research was done in collaboration with the mathematical economist Geoffrey M. Heal, who has been her colleague at Essex and Columbia. In his own right, Heal has contributed influential research on public economics (marginal cost pricing for production economies with increasing returns to scale
Returns to scale
In economics, returns to scale and economies of scale are related terms that describe what happens as the scale of production increases in the long run, when all input levels including physical capital usage are variable...
), with natural resource economics
Natural resource economics
Image:Sustainable development.svg|right|The three pillars of sustainability. Click on image areas for more information.|thumbpoly 138 194 148 219 164 240 182 257 219 277 263 291 261 311 264 331 272 351 283 366 300 383 316 394 287 408 261 417 224 424 182 426 154 423 119 415 87 403 58 385 40 368 24...
(particularly on economic growth
Economic growth
In economics, economic growth is defined as the increasing capacity of the economy to satisfy the wants of goods and services of the members of society. Economic growth is enabled by increases in productivity, which lowers the inputs for a given amount of output. Lowered costs increase demand...
with exhaustible resources), and on petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
. Heal has also collaborated with Partha Dasgupta
Partha Dasgupta
Professor Sir Partha Sarathi Dasgupta, FRS, FBA , is the Frank Ramsey Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom; Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge; Honorary Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; and Professor of Environmental and Development Economics at the...
and Donald J. Brown.
Litigation
In 1994, Chichilnisky sued two other economics professors, accusing them of stealing her ideas. In 1991 and again in 2000, Chichilnisky sued her employer, Columbia University, concerning allegations of gender discrimination, pay inequality and attempts by the university to dissolve her endowed chair. The latter suit was settled in 2008 under undisclosed terms; the New York SunNew York Sun
The New York Sun was a weekday daily newspaper published in New York City from 2002 to 2008. When it debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of an otherwise unrelated earlier New York paper, The Sun , it became the first general-interest broadsheet newspaper to be started...
reported that Chichilnisky received 200 thousand dollars, "a substantial amount of money," Chichilnisky said. "And that has to do with who is right and who is wrong." According to Columbia's spokesperson, "Chichilnisky signed a statement that her salary was not discriminatory".