Robert Pollin (born September 29, 1950) is an American

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 ...

, and self described socialist. He is a professor of

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 ...

at the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, ...

and founding co-director of its

Political Economy Research Institute The Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) is an independent research unit at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. According to its mission statement, it "...promotes human and ecological well-being through our original research". PERI was ...

(PERI). He has been described as a leftist economist and is a supporter of

egalitarianism Egalitarianism (), or equalitarianism, is a school of thought within political philosophy that builds from the concept of social equality, prioritizing it for all people. Egalitarian doctrines are generally characterized by the idea that all hu ...

Career

He was the economic spokesperson in

Jerry Brown Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 34th and 39th governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected Secretary of ...

's 1992 campaign for President of the United States. Pollin moved to the University of Massachusetts Amherst's economic department from

University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public land-grant research university in Riverside, California. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on in a suburban distr ...

in 1998. According to

Marxian economist Marxian economics, or the Marxian school of economics, is a heterodox school of political economic thought. Its foundations can be traced back to Karl Marx's critique of political economy. However, unlike critics of political economy, Marxian ec ...

Richard D. Wolff, Pollin's department is described as being "left Keynesians, but the Keynesianism is the theoretical frame. Marxism, for sure, is not". Pollin states that he would be happy to hire Marxists but that economics departments do not produce them any longer. In 2013, Pollin, with Thomas Herndon and Michael Ash from the

, published a paper which found several errors in

Carmen Reinhart Carmen M. Reinhart (née Castellanos, born October 7, 1955) is a Cuban-American economist and the Minos A. Zombanakis Professor of the International Financial System at Harvard Kennedy School. Previously, she was the Dennis Weatherstone Senior Fe ...

's and

Kenneth Rogoff Kenneth Saul Rogoff (born March 22, 1953) is an American economist and chess Grandmaster. He is the Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy and professor of economics at Harvard University. Early life Rogoff grew up in Rochester, New York. ...

's widely cited 2010 paper, "

Growth in a Time of Debt ''Growth in a Time of Debt'', also known by its authors' names as Reinhart–Rogoff, is an economics paper by American economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff published in a non peer-reviewed issue of the ''American Economic Review'' in 2010. ...

". Pollin and his colleagues defended

Nicolas Maduro Nicolas or Nicolás may refer to: People Given name * Nicolas (given name) Mononym * Nicolas (footballer, born 1999), Brazilian footballer * Nicolas (footballer, born 2000), Brazilian footballer Surname Nicolas * Dafydd Nicolas (c.1705–1774), ...

following the

2013 Venezuelan presidential election Presidential elections were held in Venezuela on 14 April 2013 following the death of President Hugo Chávez on 5 March 2013. Nicolás Maduro—who had assumed the role of acting president since Chávez's death—was declared winner with a narrow ...

stating that audits performed by the Venezuelan government were sufficient and that Maduro won the presidency. In June 2015, the leftist Spanish party Podemos partnered with Pollin on a renewable energy plan that they said would create jobs and make Spain more independent with energy. In April 2022, Pollin recommended that the US government purchase a controlling interest in the three dominant U.S. oil and gas corporations, ExxonMobil,

Chevron Chevron (often relating to V-shaped patterns) may refer to: Science and technology * Chevron (aerospace), sawtooth patterns on some jet engines * Chevron (anatomy), a bone * '' Eulithis testata'', a moth * Chevron (geology), a fold in rock ...

, and ConocoPhillips in order to enable the phaseout of fossil fuels and the transition to

clean energy Clean may refer to: * Cleaning, the process of removing unwanted substances, such as dirt, infectious agents, and other impurities, from an object or environment * Cleanliness, the state of being clean and free from dirt Arts and media Music A ...

Personal life

He is the son of Irene Pollin and

Abe Pollin Abraham J. Pollin (December 3, 1923 – November 24, 2009) was the owner of a number of professional sports teams including the Washington Capitals in the National Hockey League (NHL), the Washington Mystics in the Women's National Basketbal ...

, the former owner of the NBA's

Washington Wizards The Washington Wizards are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Wizards compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays ...

and

Washington Capitals The Washington Capitals (colloquially known as the Caps) are a professional ice hockey team based in Washington, D.C. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference, a ...

. Pollin was part of the family ownership team that sold the Wizards after his father's death.

Books

* ''Transforming the US Financial System'' (ed., with Gary Dymski and Gerald Epstein; 1993) * ''The Macroeconomics of Saving, Finance, and Investment'' (1997) * ''Globalization and Progressive Economic Policy'' (ed., with

Dean Baker Dean Baker (born July 13, 1958) is an American macroeconomist who co-founded the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) with Mark Weisbrot. Baker has been credited as one of the first economists to have identified the 2007–08 United Sta ...

and Gerald Epstein; 1998) * ''The Living Wage: Building a Fair Economy'' (with Stephanie Luce; 1998) * ''Contours of Descent: US Economic Fractures and the Landscape of Global Austerity'' (2003) * ''Back To Full Employment'' (2012) * ''Greening the Global Economy'' (2015) * ''Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal'' (with

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky i ...

and C. J. Polychroniou; 2020)

References

External links

"Back to Full Employment"
by Robert Pollin, ''

Boston Review ''Boston Review'' is an American quarterly political and literary magazine. It publishes political, social, and historical analysis, literary and cultural criticism, book reviews, fiction, and poetry, both online and in print. Its signature form ...

'', January/February 2011
"Tools for a New Economy" – Proposals for a financial regulatory system
by Robert Pollin, ''Boston Review'', January/February 2009
Curriculum Vitae (March 2009)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pollin, Robert 1950 births 21st-century American economists Living people Place of birth missing (living people) University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty Washington Wizards owners Center for Economic and Policy Research