Isabella Weber Explained

Isabella Weber
Birth Date:	1987
Birth Place:	Nuremberg, Germany
Education:	University of Cambridge (PhD)
Known For:	Sellers' 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.

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). 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.

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]
• 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)

See also

• 2021-2022 inflation spike
• Greedflation

External links

• • Interview on Planet Money (May 12, 2023)

Notes and References

1. Web site: Abstract: Das westdeutsche und das chinesische »Wirtschaftswunder« . 2022-05-05. (PDF-Datei) Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur, Februar 2020.
2. Web site: Isabella Weber . . 2023-06-14.
3. News: Weber . Isabella . 29 December 2021 . Could strategic price controls help fight inflation? . en . The Guardian . Kings Place, London . 14 June 2023.
4. News: Carter . Zachary . What if We're Thinking About Inflation All Wrong? . 14 June 2023 . The New Yorker . Condé Nast . 6 June 2022 . New York City . en.
5. News: Carter . Zachary . 2023-06-06 . What if We’re Thinking About Inflation All Wrong? . 2024-08-29 . The New Yorker . en-US . 0028-792X.
6. Web site: Weber . Isabella Maria . 2018-03-24 . China's Escape from the "Big Bang": The 1980s Price Reform Debate in Historical Perspective . en.
7. Web site: 2017-09-02 . IMS staff, Goldsmiths, University of London . 2023-06-25 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170902191924/http://www.gold.ac.uk/institute-management-studies/staff . 2 September 2017 .
8. Web site: Isabella Weber Department of Economics UMass Amherst . 2023-06-25 . www.umass.edu.
9. Web site: Krugman, Paul . 2022-01-01 . Entschuldigungstweet an Isabella Weber . 2022-05-05 . 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
10. News: Alloway . Tracy . Weisenthal . Joe . Transcript: Isabella Weber On Germany's Plan to Cap the Price of Gas . 18 September 2023 . . 10 November 2022 . en.
11. Web site: Isabella Weber: The Economics and Politics of Seller’s Inflation . . 7 September 2023 . 18 September 2023 . en.
12. Web site: 2022-10-26. Henning Bulka, Georg Winters. 2022-10-11. de. Energiekrise: Das sind die Mitglieder der Gaskommission. Rheinische Post.
13. News: Warren . Elizabeth . 13 September 2023 . Isabella Weber . 17 September 2023 . Time100 Next . . en.
14. News: December 14, 2022 . Bloomberg 50: The People and Ideas That Defined Global Business in 2022 . 2024-08-29 . Bloomberg.com . en . 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..
15. Web site: Isabella Weber . . 18 September 2023 . en.