Paul Robin Krugman, born on February 28, 1953, in Albany, New York, and raised on Long Island, is an American economist and Nobel laureate. He earned a B.A. from Yale University and a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1977. His academic career spans teaching positions at Yale, MIT, Stanford, Princeton University (as Professor of Economics and International Affairs), and the London School of Economics (Centenary Professor). He currently serves as Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Krugman's pioneering work in new trade theory and new economic geography, which examines the impacts of economies of scale and consumer preferences on international trade and the spatial distribution of economic activity, earned him the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2008 as the sole recipient. In addition to his scholarly contributions, Krugman is a prominent essayist, blogger, and commentator on economic policy, having served as an op-ed columnist for The New York Times from 1999 until 2024.