James Mirrlees Quotes

My definition of economic development is economic growth.

Global poverty is falling faster today than at any time in human history.

No one has developed a magic formula for how to make countries grow, though economic researchers have identified a number of poisons. Corruption, overweening government intervention, and mountains of debt are contraindicated for countries attempting to develop.

More people in more countries, both developing and developed, have experienced larger increases in living standards than in any prior fifty year period.

Poverty, discrimination and ignorance decrease growth.

If the United States does well [economically], then the whole world does well.

It is past time to acknowledge that economic growth … is good, and that what the world needs is more of it.

I am a trained economist.

I studied economics with some teachers from ESADE. It's a really good school here in Spain. They helped me to understand a little about numbers, stats, economics, etc.

When I was a graduate student, I actually took a course in development economics and I thought it was the most boring thing in the world.

I never, never in my life took a course in economics.

I went into the sciences very early on, but to me, economics pervades so much more of our lives and our existence.

Between 2001 and 2011, Brazil lifted 20 million people out of poverty and into its growing middle class, and in the last quarter of the twentieth century Botswana's gross domestic product per capita grew faster than that of any other country on the planet. The once-labeled 'Third World' is edging its way into the 'First World.'

Developing nations want to become developed nations.

My main interest, however, was in economics, not law.

I have dedicated many years to economic study, up to the Ph.D. level, to analyze and understand the inherent weaknesses of aid and why aid policies have consistently failed to deliver on economic growth and poverty alleviation.

Economics is not a discipline that comes to correct answers - economies are too complex.

My dad's main client was the World Bank, and he spent most of his time traveling to Third World countries. His particular interest lay in the eradication of poverty through development and business.

And I know this happens because I took economics, and I'd explain it to ya, but I flunked that course. Not my fault. They taught it at 8 o'clock in the morning. And there is absolutely nothing you can learn out of one bloodshot eye.

I studied economics and made it my career for two reasons. The subject was and is intellectually fascinating and challenging, particularly to someone with taste and talent for theoretical reasoning and quantitative analysis.

I'm an economist by training. I don't really work as an economist. I only worked briefly as an economist.

Becoming an economist was not a childhood dream of mine.

My research in this period centered around growth, technical change, and income distribution, both how growth affected the distribution of income and how the distribution of income affected growth.

Rich countries have been sending aid to poor countries for the last 60 years. And, by and large, this has failed.

I picked economics at the end of my undergraduate time because it seemed to be a really nice combination of theory, including mathematical theory on one hand, and things that are quite practical that you can touch and see and feel. So I picked it, and I consciously thought of it as an experiment to see if I liked it. And it worked.