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Michele Boldrin | |
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 Boldrin in 2010 | |
| Born | (1956-08-20)20 August 1956 (age 68) Padua, Italy |
| Nationality |
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| Academic career | |
| Field | Macroeconomics,general equilibrium,public policy |
| Institution | Washington University in St. Louis |
| Alma mater | |
| Doctoral advisor | Lionel W. McKenzie |
| Contributions | Policy functions,dynamic programming, endogenous fluctuations andchaos in dynamic models,growth theory |
Michele Boldrin (Italian:[miˈkɛːlebolˈdrin]; 20 August 1956) is an Italian-born academic, former politician,YouTuber, and economist working in the areas ofeconomic growth,business cycles, technological progress, andintellectual property. He is the Joseph Gibson Hoyt Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences atWashington University in St. Louis.
Along with his colleague and co-authorDavid Levine, he was part of the group of 200 economists publicly opposing theAmerican Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.[1][2]
Boldrin was born and raised inPadua and later moved toVenice.[3] He did his undergraduate studies at theUniversity of Venice. He then received his M.S. (1985) and Ph.D. (1987) ineconomics from theUniversity of Rochester inNew York under the supervision ofLionel McKenzie.[4] Before moving toSt. Louis in the Fall of 2006, he taught atUniversity of Chicago (1986–1987),UCLA (1987–1994),Kellogg School of Management (1990–1994),Charles III University of Madrid (1994–1999), andUniversity of Minnesota (1999–2006). He is a research fellow at theFederal Reserve Bank of St. Louis since 2006.
Boldrin is a Fellow of theEconometric Society, a past Associate Editor ofEconometrica, and past editor and current associate editor of theReview of Economic Dynamics, among other academic journals. He co-wrote four books and was a visiting professor inBarcelona,Rio de Janeiro,Mexico City,Tokyo, and a number of other places. He is affiliated withCEPR and director of FEDEA. He is one of the founding editors of the Italian blognoiseFromAmerika, and he contributes regularly toAgainst Monopoly andNada es Gratis, which are respectively in English and Spanish. His two most recent books areAgainst Intellectual Monopoly,[5] coauthored withDavid K. Levine (CUP, 2008) andTremonti, istruzioni per il disuso,[6] co-authored with Alberto Bisin, Sandro Brusco, Andrea Moro, and Giulio Zanella (Ancora, 2010), in Italian.
Boldrin conducts ongoing research in dynamic general equilibrium theory, focusing specifically on the sources of business fluctuations, growth and development,technological innovation, andintellectual property. Collaborating withDavid K. Levine, Boldrin examines the role played by competitive versus monopolistic markets in growth and innovation. They posit that little evidence exists for the presence of increasing returns at the aggregate level, and thus argue that there is no reason to believe that increasing returns play an important role in actual economic growth. This implies that, in theory as in practice, competitive markets favor and promote continued growth and innovation, whereas monopoly power is not necessary and probably harmful to technological change and economic development. Their theory concludes that existing claims for the necessity of intellectual property in the process of growth and innovation are greatly exaggerated.[7]
Before the2013 Italian general election, Boldrin co-founded with economistLuigi Zingales and journalistOscar Giannino the political movementAct to Stop the Decline. Because of the poor results the party achieved in the2014 European Parliament election, he resigned. Later on, he focused on his ownYouTube channel and founded in late 2018 a think-tank called Liberi Oltre le illusioni (Free Beyond Illusions).
Boldrin has been an outspoken critic ofModern Monetary Theory, debating with American economistWarren Mosler,[8] as well as Italian journalistPaolo Barnard.[9] In his youth, he has been an Avanguardia Operaia supporter, while taking office as provincial secretary of theItalian Communist Youth Federation.[10] Later on, he was aRepublican Party (GOP) andLega Nord supporter,[11] advocating for morecultural liberal positions, and later endorsed Italian civil rights activistMarco Cappato.[12] He is critical ofMore Europe, the party Cappato belongs to, especially criticizing their economic plan,[13] as well as the alliances within the party,[14] and defined the members of the party as "sell-outs".[15] He compared theDonald Trump-led GOP to the Italian right-wing partyLega (after the rise ofMatteo Salvini), as well as toBerlusconism.[16] He criticizedNassim Taleb,[17] as well aseconophysics in general, debating with Italian geologistFrancesco Sylos Labini, son of the Schumpeterian economistPaolo Sylos Labini.[18]
In September 2024, together withAlberto Forchielli, he founded apolitical association calledMovimento Drin Drin (Ring Ring Movement), which serves as a preliminary step towards creating a future political party.[19][20][21]
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