Isabella Weber

German economist

Economist
professor

Known forSellers' inflation

Isabella M. Weber (born 1987 in Nuremberg, Germany^[1]) is a German economist. She is an associate professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.^[2]

Weber became more widely known for having taken a position in favor of a price control policy. Her op-ed published in The Guardian in December 2021^[3] caused an uproar among economists,^[4] some of whom, including Paul Krugman, have since apologized and become open to price caps. Weber's thoughts around focusing more on what she calls "sellers' inflation" (instead of focusing on increased demand) have become more popular and mainstream by 2023, especially in Europe.^[5] In additional to price caps and strict anti-price gouging legislation to combat inflation, she also supports windfall profit taxes.^[5]

Life

In 2017, Weber obtained a PhD in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge. Her thesis was titled China's Escape from the 'Big-Bang': The 1980s Price Reform Debate in Historical Perspective and advised by Peter Nolan.^[6]

From 2017 to 2019, Weber was a lecturer in Economics at Goldsmiths, University of London.^[7] In 2019, she became assistant professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.^[8]

In December 2021, an op-ed she published in The Guardian which argued that strategic price controls could help control inflation in bottleneck situations was heavily criticized by economists, making her "the most hated woman in economics" (The New Yorker).^[4] Paul Krugman strongly criticized the op-ed but apologized during the peak of the fracas^[9] and since changed his position on price caps, arguing they might be a useful inflation management tool.^[4]

In 2022-23, Weber was a fellow in the Future of Capitalism program at the Berggruen Institute.^[10]^[11]

In 2022, Weber was a member of the German government's gas price commission, an expert advisory group of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.^[12]

Awards and honors

In 2023, Weber was recognized on Time Magazine's TIME100 Next list which recognizes rising leaders across multiple fields^[13]
In 2022, Weber was named one of Bloomberg's "50 people who defined global business in 2022"^[14]
In 2019, Weber was awarded the Joan Robinson Prize from the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy for her book “How China Escaped Shock Therapy: The Market Reform Debate”^[15]^[11]
In 2019, Weber was also awarded the Warren Samuels Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in History of Economic Thought and Methodology from the Association for Social Economics (ASE)^[15]^[11]

References

^ "Abstract: Das westdeutsche und das chinesische »Wirtschaftswunder«" (PDF). Retrieved 5 May 2022. (PDF-Datei) Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur, Februar 2020.
^ "Isabella Weber". University of Massachusetts Amherst. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
^ Weber, Isabella (29 December 2021). "Could strategic price controls help fight inflation?". The Guardian. Kings Place, London. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
^ ^a ^b ^c Carter, Zachary (6 June 2022). "What if We're Thinking About Inflation All Wrong?". The New Yorker. New York City: Condé Nast. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
^ ^a ^b Carter, Zachary (6 June 2023). "What if We're Thinking About Inflation All Wrong?". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
^ Weber, Isabella Maria (24 March 2018). "China's Escape from the "Big Bang": The 1980s Price Reform Debate in Historical Perspective".
^ "IMS staff, Goldsmiths, University of London". 2 September 2017. Archived from the original on 2 September 2017. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
^ "Isabella Weber | Department of Economics | UMass Amherst". www.umass.edu. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
^ Krugman, Paul (1 January 2022). "Entschuldigungstweet an Isabella Weber". Retrieved 5 May 2022. Deleting, with Extreme Apologies, My Tweet about Isabella Weber on Price Controls. No Excuses. It's Always Wrong to Use That Tone against Anyone Arguing in Good Faith, No Matter How Much You Disagree — Especially When There's so Much Bad Faith out There. Twitter
^ Alloway, Tracy; Weisenthal, Joe (10 November 2022). "Transcript: Isabella Weber On Germany's Plan to Cap the Price of Gas". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Isabella Weber: The Economics and Politics of Seller's Inflation". The Australia Institute. 7 September 2023. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
^ Henning Bulka, Georg Winters (11 October 2022). "Energiekrise: Das sind die Mitglieder der Gaskommission". Rheinische Post (in German). Retrieved 26 October 2022.
^ Warren, Elizabeth (13 September 2023). "Isabella Weber". Time100 Next. Time. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
^ "Bloomberg 50: The People and Ideas That Defined Global Business in 2022". Bloomberg.com. 14 December 2022. Retrieved 29 August 2024. Weber was among the first economists to call for government price controls on energy and other commodities as a more effective way than raising interest rates to fight inflation. Many in her profession argued that these controls can lead to shortages, but the German government embraced some of her ideas, including a plan to cap natural gas prices after Russia cut supplies.
^ ^a ^b "Isabella Weber". Harvard University. Retrieved 18 September 2023.