Robert Pollin


Robert Pollin is an American economist. He is a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and founding co-director of its Political Economy Research Institute. He has been described as a leftist economist and is a supporter of egalitarianism.

Career

He was the economic spokesperson in Jerry Brown's 1992 campaign for President of the United States.
Pollin moved to the University of Massachusetts Amherst's economic department from University of California, Riverside in 1998. According to Marxian economist Richard D. Wolff, Pollin's department is described as being "left Keynesians, but the Keynesianism is the theoretical frame. Marxism, for sure, is not" while Pollin states that he would be happy to hire Marxists but that economics departments do not produce them any longer.
In 2013, Pollin, with Thomas Herndon and Michael Ash from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, published a paper which found several errors in Carmen Reinhart's and Kenneth Rogoff's widely cited 2010 paper, "Growth in a Time of Debt".
Pollin and his colleagues defended Nicolas Maduro following the 2013 Venezuelan presidential election stating that audits performed by the Venezuelan government were sufficient and that Maduro won the presidency. In June 2015, the leftist Spanish party Podemos partnered with Pollin on a renewable energy plan that they said would create jobs and make Spain more independent with energy.

Personal life

He is the son of Irene Kercheck and Abe Pollin, the former owner of the NBA's Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals. Pollin was part of the family ownership team that sold the Wizards after his father's death.

Books