Edmund S. Phelps
Edmund S. Phelps received the 2006 prize in Economic Sciences. This profile brings together the official award record and attributed background on the economist’s work and career.
Personal and professional profile
- Name
- Edmund S. Phelps [1]
- Full name
- Edmund S. Phelps [2]
- Birth date
- 1933-07-26 [2]
- Birthplace
- Evanston, IL, USA [2]
- Education
- Yale University; University of Pennsylvania; Amherst College [3]
- Fields / occupation
- economist; university teacher [3]
- Prize
- Economic Sciences · 2006 [2]
- Research recognized
- for his analysis of intertemporal tradeoffs in macroeconomic policy [2]
- Prize share
- 1 [2]
- Affiliation at the award
- Columbia University [2]
- Death date
- 2026-05-15 [2]
- Institutions in career record
- University of Pennsylvania; Columbia University (1971–end not recorded); Center on Capitalism and Society (2001–2024) [3]
Research, education and career background
Edmund Strother Phelps (July 26, 1933 – May 15, 2026) was an American economist and the recipient of the 2006 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. [4]
Early in his career, he became known for his research at Yale's Cowles Foundation in the first half of the 1960s on the sources of economic growth. His demonstration of the golden rule savings rate, a concept related to work by John von Neumann, started a wave of research on how much a nation should spend on present consumption rather than save and invest for future generations. [4]
Phelps was at the University of Pennsylvania from 1966 to 1971 and moved to Columbia University in 1971. His most seminal work inserted a microfoundation, one featuring imperfect information, incomplete knowledge and expectations about wages and prices, to support a macroeconomic theory of employment determination and price-wage dynamics. That led to his development of the natural rate of unemployment: its existence and the mechanism governing its size. In the early 2000s, he turned to the study of business innovation. [4]
From 2001 he was the founding director of Columbia's Center on Capitalism and Society. He was McVickar Professor of Political Economy at Columbia from 1982 to 2021. On January 1, 2022, his title changed to McVickar Professor Emeritus of Political Economy. [4]
Selected introductory text by Wikipedia contributors — Edmund Phelps, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Official facts are cited separately.
Award and academic affiliation
The official Nobel record dates the Economic Sciences award to 2006 and lists Columbia University as the affiliation at the time. [2]
An affiliation attached to an award describes that point in the person’s career; it does not establish a current appointment. [2]
Education and career timeline
Birth date recorded in the official Nobel biography. [2]
Education period at Amherst College ended (background record). [3]
Affiliation at Columbia University began (background record). [3]
Affiliation at Center on Capitalism and Society began (background record). [3]
Economic Sciences award announced. [2]
Affiliation at Center on Capitalism and Society ended (background record). [3]
Death date recorded in the official Nobel biography. [2]
Source-supported connections
Frequently asked questions
When did Edmund S. Phelps receive the prize in Economic Sciences?
The official award record gives the year as 2006. [2]
Which institution was Edmund S. Phelps affiliated with at the time of the Economic Sciences award?
Columbia University. This is the award-time affiliation. [2]
Edmund S. Phelps connection map
Select a node to inspect the relationship and source.
Links retain their source-specific meaning. Award-time affiliations and links to related reading are not claims about current appointments or economic causation.
Sources and review dates
- Nobel Prize — official biography and award record ↗
- Nobel Prize — official biography and award record ↗
- Wikidata background facts (CC0) ↗
- Wikipedia contributors — Edmund Phelps (CC BY-SA 4.0) ↗
Reviewed 23 October 2026. Historical dates and award-time affiliations retain their original context. A review date is not an event date. Background sources are identified separately from official records.