Stiglitz is one of the most frequently cited economists in the world. Born in Gary, Indiana, he studied at Amherst College, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - from which he earned his PhD - and was a research fellow at the University of Cambridge.  Before joining Columbia University in 2001, Stiglitz held academic positions at Yale, Stanford, Duke, Oxford, and Princeton. He founded the Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD), a think tank on international development based at Columbia, in 2000.

Stiglitz has also served in various policy roles. He was Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors under President Bill Clinton and was World Bank Chief Economist from 1997 until 2000. In 2001 he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.  He has authored ten books, most recently The Price of Inequality, a New York Times best seller.

"After much discussion, I am pleased to announce that I will be donating my papers to Columbia University. Not only is Columbia the place where I teach and am engaged with a number of intellectual activities but, here, the papers will be available to any scholar who wants to see them," Professor Stiglitz said.

The Stiglitz papers include notes, drafts, and manuscripts of published and unpublished work; correspondence with colleagues; course-related materials; photographs; as well as material related to his work with the White House on the Council of Economic Advisors and from his time as the chief economist of the World Bank.

These papers will join the collections of other notable economists such as William Vickrey, Carlos Federico Diaz Alejandro, Carter Goodrich, Albert Gailord Hart,  George Kalmanoff, Wesley Clair Mitchell, and  Barbara Ward, as well as the related  Henry Moore Collection of Economics and Econometrics, the Robert Heister Montgomery Accountancy Manuscripts, and the Seligman Library of 35,000 books, pamphlets, broadsides, and other printed material on economics.