Ronald Findlay

Ronald Edsel Findlay was an economist and trade theorist. He served as the Ragnar Nurkse Professor of Economics at Columbia University.
He was born in 1935 in Rangoon, then in British Burma. He and his family fled on foot from Burma to India during World War II.
He received a BA from Rangoon University in 1954, and a PhD from MIT in 1960, where his doctoral dissertation was supervised by Robert Solow. He began his career as an economist at Rangoon University, first as a tutor, then as a lecturer, and finally as a research professor.
He joined Columbia in 1969, initially as a visiting professor, before being appointed a professor in 1970. His research focused on international trade and economic development, and he took what has been described as a perspective centred around political economy. He helped theorise the North-South model of international trade. He became a U.S. citizen in 1976.