Sir Arthur Lewis - Nobel Laureate.
Affiliation – London School of Economics,
University of Manchester, Princeton University.
Nobel prize – Prize in Economic Sciences (1979)
Contributions – Lewis Model, or dual sector model
in underdeveloped and developing economies.
“I never meant to be an economist. My
father wanted me to be a lawyer but he died when I was seven; he had no vote at
the appropriate time. I did not want to be a doctor either, nor a teacher. That
put me in a hole, since law, medicine, preaching and teaching were the only
professions open to blacks in my day. I wanted to be an engineer, but neither
the colonial government nor the sugar plantations would hire a black engineer.”
-
Arthur Lewis
Sir Arthur Lewis, a pioneer of
development economics and one of the influential Nobel laureates, also known as
the father of development economics was born on January 23rd 1915 to
George and Ida Lewis who were both school teachers and had immigrated from
Antigua.
After the age of 14, Lewis worked as a clerk, though he
wanted to become an engineer, it seemed a futile attempt and far-fetched since
neither the government nor the white firms were ready to employ black
engineers. Hence, becoming an engineer for him remained a pipe dream.
Although his plans of becoming an engineer went south, yet
he was a remarkable individual who went on to win a scholarship at the
prestigious London School of Economics (LSE) from where he earned his
undergraduate degree and later enrolled in the PhD program at LSE. At LSE Lewis
has the opportunity to work with some of the prominent individuals, naming John
Hicks, Arnold Plant, Lionel Robbins, and Friedrich Hayek.
Lewis earned his doctorate in Industrial economics in 1940
and following that he was hired as a faculty member at LSE, becoming the first
black professor. Later, in 1948 he moved on to accepting the position of a
lecturer at the University of Manchester where he remained until 1957. During his time at Manchester, he worked on
areas that later on went on to become some of the important theories in the field
of development economics, and gained tremendous attention in the academic
realm. One of them is the ‘dual sector model’ also known as the ‘Lewis model’.
Lewis’s theory of dual-sector was published in an article
named ‘Economic development and Unlimited supplies of labour’ wherein he
focused on two sectors of underdeveloped economies, first being the subsistence
sector or non-capitalist sector, and the second being the capitalist sector.
Lewis discerns that the marginal productivity of labour is essentially zero in
the subsistence sector, and hence he classifies this situation as surplus
labour. He points out that, given the marginal productivity of labour as zero,
these labourers could be withdrawn from the subsistence sector and could be
transferred to the capitalist sector, without any loss of output in the
subsistence sector. Lewis’s focus in this theory has been behind labour
transfer and growth of output and employment in the modern sector, i.e., the
capitalist sector. Though this theory has been criticized on many grounds as
too simplistic, yet it has been accepted and widely praised by a plethora of
economists for its contribution to eradicating poverty in developing and
underdeveloped economies.
Sir Lewis
also worked on economic development and theories about why some nations
continue on a vicious cycle of poverty, which particularly challenged his
thinking. He inferred that instead of divesting the poor, investing in them
pays off and helps a country’s economy. Thereafter his works were described as
those of a blooming flower; they released the seeds from which numerous ground-breaking
systems grew.
In 1957, Lewis went far away from academia and accepted an
administrative position. He served as an economic advisor to numerous African
and Caribbean governments, including Nigeria, Ghana, Trinidad and Tobago,
Jamaica, and Barbados. When Ghana gained independence in 1957, Lewis was
appointed as the country's first economic advisor, wherein he helped draw up
its first Five-Year Development plan (1959-1963). Later, in 1963 he was
knighted by the British government for his achievements and his stupendous contributions
to economics.
Lewis has authored various books, namely The Principles of
Economic Planning (1949), The Theory of Economic Growth (1955), Development
Planning (1966), The evolution of the international economic order (1978), and
Growth and Fluctuations 1870–1913 (1978).
In August 1952, he was wandering down a road in Bangkok, in
a trice, he had a flash of insight about a problem that had been perplexing
him. Lewis discovered that when the economy of a poor nation starts growing
faster, the new businesses in that nation make a lot of money, and they do
employ a lot of workers, but it takes a long time before the wages start
picking up. That was the puzzle that Sir Lewis solved. This was Arthur’s eureka moment and
he ended up turning that eureka insight into an economic model, a model that
made him the first Black economist to ever win the Nobel Prize in economics,
one of his many achievements in a true path-breaking and inspiring career that
stretched from academic research to igniting minds as a professor to advising
governments all around the world.
Lewis received the Nobel prize in Economics in 1979, sharing
it with Theodore Schultz for their pioneering research in development economics
with particular consideration of the problems in developing countries. Apart
from his main research for which he was awarded the Nobel prize, Lewis also
created political, social, and cultural awareness.
Overall, Arthur Lewis has certainly left behind a rich
legacy. Every year in January, St. Lucia celebrates Nobel laureate week marking
the noble prizes of Lewis, and his fellow St. Lucian, the poet Derek Walcott.
Later, in 2007 the University of Manchester named its social sciences building,
as the Arthur Lewis building where all the social sciences courses are taught
today.
Lewis died on 15 June 1991 in Bridgetown, Barbados. He was
buried in the grounds of the St. Lucian community college named in his honour.
Sir Arthur Lewis not only did some ground-breaking work on the economic front
but also led an unconventional life breaking the perceived orthodox notions.
His work will always be revolutionary just like he was.
Sir Arthur Lewis (1915 -1991).
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Rutuja Kamble (TYBA)
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Nirav Shedge (TYBA)
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