Sir Arthur Lewis Research Paper

There have been many winners of the Nobel Prize in Economic Science, but none other than Sir Arthur Lewis struck me as a more notable man for many reasons. He felt generations of economists had decided that the third world countries would never be worth saving, and he refused to accept that, coming from a less developed country himself. He worked for years fighting for other people and economists to understand his way of thinking, and his theories that the less developed countries could not only be saved, but they could one day flourish.
Arthur William Lewis was born January 23rd, 1915 to George and Ida Lewis, in St. Lucia. He was the fourth of five sons. Both of his parents were schoolteachers, who took education very seriously. Lewis was raised Catholic, with a love of music. In the years to come, while Lewis would study, in the background he would have classical music playing. (Continuum)
Lewis received his beginning years of education on St. Lucia. At the age of 14, he completed his secondary education with certificates from both St. Mary’s College with Cambridge Junior Examination, as well as Cambridge School. Lewis wanted to continue his education immediately, but at the young of 14, was not allowed to qualify for grants or scholarships until he turned seventeen years of age. Lewis took a job as a clerk in the Department of Agriculture in St. Lucia for three years, while he waited for time to pass, until he turned 17. (Continuum)
In 1932, at the age of 17, Lewis sat, and won, an Island Scholarship.(Continuum) Lewis was quoted saying, “I never meant to be an economist. My father wanted me to be a lawyer, but he died when I was seven; he had no vote at the appropriate time. I did not want to be a doctor either, nor a teacher. That put me in a hole, since law, medicine, preaching, and teaching were the only professions open to blacks in my day. I wanted to be an engineer, but neither the colonial government nor the sugar plantations would hire a black engineer” (Admin). So Arthur chose to obtain his degree in Business Administration from a British University. Lewis started at the London School of Economics in 1933. He graduated in 1937 with first class honors, receiving the highest marks ever obtained in the history of London School of Economics. Because of his excellent marks, he received a scholarship to obtain his PhD at the London School of Economics in the area of Industrial Economics. While Lewis was working on his Ph.D., he also served the British Government at the Board of Trade and the Colonial Office. He began teaching at the London School of Economics in 1938, where he was the first black member of staff. In 1940, he received his PhD with a thesis titled “Overhead Costs”, which was later published in a book in 1949. (Continuum)
Breaking yet another barrier, Lewis was appointed Stanley Jevons Professor of Political Economy at the University of Manchester, at the age of 33, the youngest professor of economics at Manchester University. During his tenure at Manchester, Lewis produced several works on the subject of development Economics.(Continuum) Lewis worked on many publications while teaching at Manchester. He believed the best way to learn something, was to teach it. (Lewis)
While Lewis was studying, teaching, and writing, a constant concern that entered his mind was the state of the less developed countries, most known to us as the Third World Countries. In the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s, it was common belief that the less developed countries would never be able to fight their way out of poverty, and would always have to lean on the wealthy countries for help and handouts. Arthur did not believe that was the way life needed to be for the people of these countries (Anderson). His study’s opened up the very plausible idea that less developed countries could and should be able to bring them out of poverty. During this time, wealthy countries would take advantage of the less developed countries by importing grains, while exporting manufactured goods. Because the underdeveloped countries were poor, they had an excess of labor, making it very cheap for the wealthy countries to buy manufactured goods. At the heart of the matter, Lewis’s idea was very simple. Educate the people of the less developed countries, put more people to work in the agriculture industry making enough food to support themselves. This means that there would be fewer people working in the manufacturing industry, and there would be less of a need to import grain and wheat from wealthier countries. This would then level the playing field when it came to what the wealthy countries wanted, such as cheap manufactured items. Most of Lewis’s publications revolved around this theory.
In 1958, Lewis became the principal of the University College of West Indies, where he was a key player in adding Universities to Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago. In 1962, the University College of West Indies separated from the University of London, and Lewis found himself to be the first ever Vice Chancellor of the University of West Indies. In 1963, Lewis was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his roles in development economics. Shortly after he was knighted, Sir Lewis took a professorship at the University of Princeton here in the United States. In 1970, he was asked by the Caribbean Government to essentially create, and be President of the Caribbean Development Bank, which would help provide financing for economic and social projects in the local Caribbean area. (Continuum)
In 1979, years after his theories had been put to the test, and passed with flying colors; he received the Nobel Prize in Economics (Anderson). Once more, Sir Lewis broke a barrier, becoming the first black man to win a Nobel Prize in a category other than Peace. With the diploma, and the medal, Sir Lewis also received 800,000 Kroner, or 190,000 US Dollars (The Nobel Prize Amounts) (Anderson). Many of Sir Lewis’s economic ideas in present time are so accepted, the ideas have become “known fact” in the world of economics. Some economists did think it strange that Sir Arthur had received the Nobel Prize so late in his career, seeing as how he has not had any major theoretical economic breaththroughs for years. But, “Haq of the World Bank believes that criticism misses the point. ‘The Nobel award’, he says, ‘represents a belated recognition that the problems of world poverty merit international attention’.”(Newsweek)
Sir Lewis finished out his amazing career at Princeton University, retiring in 1982, but stayed busy by being a guest teacher at Princeton and the Sir Arthur Community College(Continuum). Sir Lewis passed away June 15, 1991 and was buried at the Sir Arthur Community College, where the faculty is honored to have him rest. (Admin)
I believe Sir Lewis should have received the Nobel Prize years earlier, sadly no one can change the past, strangely enough though, because of Sir Lewis’s research, we can change the future for many of the third world countries and the people who live there. Though Sir Lewis has passed away, we will continue to use his knowledge and genius of economics for many more decades.