Peter Blair Henry, an
economist
An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics.
The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...
, was the ninth Dean of
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, th ...
's
Leonard N. Stern School of Business
The New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business (commonly referred to as NYU Stern, The Stern School of Business, or simply Stern) is the business school of New York University, a private research university based in New York City. I ...
, and William R. Berkley Professor of Economics and Business,
and author of
TURNAROUND: Third World Lessons for First World Growth' (Basic Books, March 2013). Previously, he was the
Konosuke Matsushita Professor of International Economics at
Stanford University.
Background and education
Born in
Kingston, Jamaica in 1969, Peter Blair Henry became a US citizen in 1986.
Henry was a
Rhodes Scholar at
St Catherine's College, Oxford
St Catherine's College (colloquially called St Catz or Catz) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford and is the newest college admitting both undergraduate and graduate students. Tracing its roots back to 1868 (although t ...
where he received a BA in mathematics in 1993 and a Full Blue in basketball. He also received a BA in
economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...
with distinction and highest honors in 1991 from
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
where he was a
Morehead-Cain Scholar, a
National Merit Scholar
The National Merit Scholarship Program is a United States academic scholarship competition for recognition and university scholarships administered by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), a privately funded, not-for-profit organizati ...
, a member of
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...
, a
Marshall Scholar
The Marshall Scholarship is a postgraduate scholarship for "intellectually distinguished young Americans ndtheir country's future leaders" to study at any university in the United Kingdom. It is widely considered one of the most prestigious sc ...
-Elect, a reserve wide receiver on the varsity football team, and a finalist in the 1991 campus-wide slam-dunk competition.
Henry received his PhD in economics from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
(MIT) in 1997. While in graduate school, he served as a consultant to the Governors of the
Bank of Jamaica and the
Eastern Caribbean Central Bank
The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) is the central bank for the Eastern Caribbean dollar and is the monetary authority for the members of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), with the exception of the British Virgin Islands ...
(ECCB). His research at the ECCB contributed to the intellectual foundation for establishing the first securities exchange in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Area.
Career
Academic
Peter Blair Henry is Dean Emeritus of
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, th ...
's
Leonard N. Stern School of Business
The New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business (commonly referred to as NYU Stern, The Stern School of Business, or simply Stern) is the business school of New York University, a private research university based in New York City. I ...
. The youngest person to hold the position, he assumed the Deanship in January 2010 and joined the NYU Stern Faculty as the William R. Berkley Professor of Economics and Finance.
Henry joined NYU Stern from
Stanford University, where he was the
Konosuke Matsushita Professor of International Economics, the John and Cynthia Fry Gunn Faculty Scholar, and Associate Director of the Center for Global Business and the Economy at the
Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Henry's research and teaching have received support from the
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...
's Early CAREER Development Program (2001-2006). From 2000 to 2001, Henry was a National Fellow at the
Hoover Institution
The Hoover Institution (officially The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace; abbreviated as Hoover) is an American public policy think tank and research institution that promotes personal and economic liberty, free enterprise, an ...
.
Henry also serves as a member of the board of directors at the
National Bureau of Economic Research
The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is an American private nonprofit research organization "committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic c ...
(NBER), the nation's leading nonprofit, non-partisan economic research organization; as a member of the
Council on Foreign Relations; as a Nonresident Senior Fellow of the
Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in e ...
; as a member of the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Economic Advisory Panel; and as a member of the board of directors for
Citigroup as well as General Electric and Nike, Inc. In 2015, Henry was awarded th
Foreign Policy Association Medal the highest honor bestowed by the organization.
In 2018, the
Council for Economic Education
The Council for Economic Education (the new name, since 2009 January, of the National Council on Economic Education) is an organization in the United States that focuses on the economic and financial education of students from kindergarten throug ...
honored Henry with its Visionary Award.
Government
An expert on the global economy, Henry led the external economics advisory group for then-Senator
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
's presidential campaign in 2008. Following the historic victory on November 4, Henry was chosen to lead the Presidential Transition Team's review of international lending agencies such as the
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster glo ...
(IMF) and the
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...
. In June 2009, President Obama appointed him to the President's Commission on
White House Fellows
The White House Fellows program is a federal fellowship program established via Executive Order by President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson in October 1964, based upon a suggestion from John W. Gardner, then the president of Carnegie Cor ...
hips.
Books, publications and media
Henry's first book,
TURNAROUND: Third World Lessons for First World Growth' (Basic Books, March 2013), directly addresses issues of economic efficiency as well as matters of international relations. In it, Henry argues that the secret to emerging countries' success (and to the future prosperity of the developed world as well) is discipline—a sustained commitment to a pragmatic growth strategy. In many ways, ''TURNAROUND'' is an extension of Henry's very first lesson in
international economics
International economics is concerned with the effects upon economic activity from international differences in productive resources and consumer preferences and the international institutions that affect them. It seeks to explain the patterns and ...
, which he received at the age of eight as his family moved from the Caribbean island of
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
to affluent
Wilmette, Illinois
Wilmette is a village in New Trier Township, Cook County, Illinois, United States. Bordering Lake Michigan and Evanston, Illinois, it is located north of Chicago's downtown district. Wilmette had a population of 27,087 at the 2010 census. The ...
. The elusive answer to the question of why the average standard of living can be so different from one country to another still drives him today.
The author of numerous articles and book chapters, Henry is best known for a series of publications in the three flagship journals of the
American Economic Association that overturn conventional wisdom on the topics of debt relief, international capital flows, and the role of institutions in economic growth: "Debt Relief" ''Journal of Economic Perspectives'' (Winter 2006); "Capital Account Liberalization: Theory, Evidence, and Speculation" ''Journal of Economic Literature'' (December 2007);
[Henry, Peter B.]
"Capital Account Liberalization: Theory, Evidence and Speculation"
''Journal of Economic Literature
The ''Journal of Economic Literature'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal, published by the American Economic Association, that surveys the academic literature in economics. It was established in 1963 as the ''Journal of Economic Abstracts'', '', 2007. Retrieved 02-14-2013 "Institutions vs. Policies: A Tale of Two Islands" ''American Economic Review'' (May 2009). Henry's writing also appears in ''Global Crises, Global Solutions'', the published proceedings of the
Copenhagen Consensus
Copenhagen Consensus is a project that seeks to establish priorities for advancing global welfare using methodologies based on the theory of welfare economics, using cost–benefit analysis. It was conceived and organized around 2004 by Bjørn Lo ...
, an international conference on how to make the most efficient use of the world's scarcest resources. ''
The Economist
''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...
'' magazine named the conference publication one of the Best Business Books of 2004.
Henry is also known to have spoken on
William Arthur Lewis and his
dual-sector model
The Dual Sector model, or the Lewis model, is a model in Developmental economics that explains the growth of a developing economy in terms of a labour transition between two sectors, a traditional agricultural sector and a modern industrial sect ...
in his 2014 speec
“Capital and Labor in the 21st Century: A Cautionary Tale”by discussing the importance of developing nations to create enough jobs to keep up with their growing working-age populations and similarly advocating for modern capitalist economies and incorporating his own insights on liberalized capital accounts open to foreign capital.
More recently, Henry’s work with Camille Gardner i
“The Global Infrastructure Gap: Potential, Perils, and a Framework for Distinction”''Journal of Economic Literature'' (December 2023)
[Gardner, C., & Henry, P. B. (2023). The global infrastructure gap: Potential, perils, and a framework for distinction. ''Journal of Economic Literature, 61''(4), 1318–1358]
https://doi.org/10.1257/jel.20221530
/ref> tackled global infrastructure and the importance of foreign investment to the infrastructure and overall productivity and employment of developing countries. They have also found that this not only would greatly benefit developing countries and their ability to absorb and support growing working-age populations, but also has great potential for developed countries to see significant private and social capital returns on investments.
Henry is regularly cited in the media including on CNBC
CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...
, Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...
, Foreign Policy,[Henry, Peter B.]
"The Wisdom of the Market"
''Foreign Policy'', February 8, 2013. Retrieved 02-14-13 and others.
Personal life
He lives with his wife and their four sons in New York City. He is also the cousin of Orange is the New Black star Samira Wiley.
References
External links
Home Page
NYU Stern School of Business.
Peter Blair Henry Faculty Page
NYU Stern School of Business.
"Meet the New Dean"
''STERNbusiness'', Spring 2010.
Curriculum Vitae
of Dr. Peter Blair Henry, Stanford University, March 2009.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Henry, Peter Blair
Living people
21st-century American economists
American Rhodes Scholars
New York University Stern School of Business faculty
MIT Sloan School of Management alumni
North Carolina Tar Heels football players
Stanford University Graduate School of Business faculty
1969 births
African-American economists
Jamaican emigrants to the United States
People with acquired American citizenship
People from Kingston, Jamaica
Presidents of the National Economic Association
21st-century African-American people
20th-century African-American people