Donald J. Harris

Donald Jasper Harris (born August 23, 1938) is a Jamaican-American economist and professor emeritus at Stanford University, known for applying Post-Keynesian ideas to development economics.[1] He is the father of Kamala Harris, U.S. Senator from California and the 2020 Democratic nominee-designate for vice president, and Maya Harris, a lawyer and political commentator.

Donald J. Harris
Born (1938-08-23) August 23, 1938
Saint Ann’s Bay, British Jamaica
Citizenship
  • Jamaica
  • United States
Spouse(s)
​
(
m. 1963; div. 1971)
Children
Academic background
Alma mater
ThesisInflation, Capital Accumulation and Economic Growth : A Theoretical and Numerical Analysis (1966)
Doctoral advisorDaniel McFadden
Academic work
DisciplineEconomics
Sub-disciplinePost-Keynesian development economics
Institutions

Early life and education

Harris was born in Saint Ann's Bay, Jamaica, as the son of Beryl Christie (Finnegan through her second husband) and Oscar Joseph Harris.[2] He grew up in the Orange Hill area of Saint Ann Parish, near Brown's Town.[3][4] Harris claims to be descended from slaveowner Hamilton Brown, the namesake of Brown's Town, a claim Snopes rated as unproven pending further research. Snopes noted that Harris made errors in some of the vital dates he provided for births and deaths of his grandparents.[4]

Harris received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of London in 1960. In 1963 he came to the United States to earn a PhD from University of California, Berkeley which he completed in 1966.[5] His doctoral dissertation, Inflation, Capital Accumulation and Economic Growth: A Theoretical and Numerical Analysis, was supervised by econometrician Daniel McFadden.[6]

Career

Harris was an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign from 1966 to 1967 and at Northwestern University from 1967 to 1968. He moved to the University of Wisconsin–Madison as an associate professor in 1968. In 1972, he joined the faculty of Stanford University as a professor of economics. He directed the Consortium Graduate School of Social Sciences at the University of the West Indies in 1986–1987, and he was a Fulbright Scholar in Brazil in 1990 and 1991, and in Mexico in 1992. In 1998, he retired from Stanford, becoming a professor emeritus.[5]

At Stanford, his doctoral students have included Steven Fazzari, the Bert A. and Jeanette L. Lynch Distinguished Professor of Economics at Washington University in St. Louis.[6]

Books

Harris is the author of the economics monograph Capital Accumulation and Income Distribution, published in 1978 by the Stanford University Press.[7]

He has also published several books on the economy of Jamaica including Jamaica's Export Economy: Towards a Strategy of Export-led Growth (Ian Randle, 1997)[8] and A Growth-Inducement Strategy for Jamaica in the Short and Medium Term (edited with G. Hutchinson, Planning Institute of Jamaica, 2012).[9]

Personal life

Harris moved to the United States in 1963; in July 1963 he married Shyamala Gopalan (1938–2009). They met when he was at Berkeley and both were involved in the U.S. civil rights movement. The couple divorced in December 1971, when their daughter Kamala was seven years old and their daughter Maya was four years old.[10] The children visited Harris's family in Jamaica as they grew up.[11]

In 2019, Harris criticized a quip made by his daughter, California Senator Kamala Harris, about smoking marijuana. Harris was asked on the radio show "The Breakfast Club" on February 11, 2019 whether she had smoked marijuana. She replied, "Half my family's from Jamaica — are you kidding me?" Donald Harris rebuked her for this comment: "My dear departed grandmothers (whose extraordinary legacy I described in a recent essay on this website), as well as my deceased parents, must be turning in their grave right now to see their family's name, reputation and proud Jamaican identity being connected, in any way, jokingly or not with the fraudulent stereotype of a pot-smoking joy seeker and in the pursuit of identity politics."[12]

On August 11, 2020, his daughter Kamala Harris became the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee for Vice President, as running mate to Joe Biden, in the 2020 United States presidential election.[10]

gollark: But what is considered a problematic political statement would be highly dependent on the political views of the people handling applications.
gollark: I didn't say extreme political views, I said political views in general.
gollark: I'm not sure why you would.
gollark: *Do* people put their political views on those?
gollark: It would also allow rejecting people based on political views and such.

References
  1. "Donald J. Harris, 1938–". The History of Economic Thought. Institute for New Economic Thinking. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
  2. Harris, Kamala (2019). The Truths We Hold: An American Journey. Penguin Publishing Group. p. 320, 330. ISBN 978-0-525-56072-2.
  3. Harris, Donald J. (26 Sep 2018). "Reflections of a Jamaican Father"., as published in "Kamala Harris' Jamaican Heritage". Jamaica Global Online. 13 Jan 2019.
  4. "Did U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris' Ancestor Own Slaves in Jamaica?". Snopes.com.
  5. Harris, Donald J. "Professional career". Stanford University. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
  6. Donald J. Harris at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  7. Reviews of Capital Accumulation and Income Distribution:
    • Kurz, Heinz D. (1979). Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv. 115 (4): 776–779. JSTOR 40438898.CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
    • Mainwaring, Lynn (June 1979). The Economic Journal. 89 (354): 447–449. doi:10.2307/2231629. JSTOR 2231629.CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
    • Lefeber, Louis; Steedman, Ian (August 1979). The Canadian Journal of Economics / Revue canadienne d'Economique. 12 (3): 545–546. doi:10.2307/134753. JSTOR 134753.CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
    • Jones-Hendrickson, S. B. (March 1980). Social and Economic Studies. 29 (1): 144–146. JSTOR 27861872.CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
    • Baru, Sanjaya (April 19, 1980). "Inadequacies of New Growth Theory". Economic and Political Weekly. 15 (16): 741–742. JSTOR 4368585.
    • Baru, Sanjaya (May 1980). "Capitalist Accumulation and Theories of Growth". Social Scientist. 8 (10): 65–69. doi:10.2307/3516645. JSTOR 3516645.
    • Pashardes, Panos (July 1980). The Journal of Development Studies. 16 (4): 487–488. doi:10.1080/00220388008421774.CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
    • Harcourt, G. C. (September 1980). Journal of Economic Literature. 18 (3): 1084–1086. JSTOR 2723980.CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
    • Taylor, LeRoy O. (June 1981). Social and Economic Studies. 30 (2): 164–174. JSTOR 27861942.CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
    • Menchik, Paul L.; Eloian, Edward M. (October 1981). Southern Economic Journal. 48 (2): 540. doi:10.2307/1057969. JSTOR 1057969.CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
    • Glynn, Sean (December 1981). The Economic Journal. 91 (364): 1039–1041. doi:10.2307/2232513. JSTOR 2232513.CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
  8. Collister, Keith (November 15, 2017). "How the IMF can help Jamaica unleash growth". Jamaica Observer.
  9. Collister, Keith (October 22, 2014). "How to unlock growth in Jamaica". Jamaica Observer.
  10. Igoe, Katherine J. (August 11, 2020). "Donald Harris, Kamala Harris's Dad, Is a Renowned Stanford Professor". Marie Claire.
  11. Dolan, Casey (February 10, 2019). "How Kamala Harris' immigrant parents shaped her life — and her political outlook". The Mercury News. Retrieved August 14, 2020. Kamala also visited far-flung family in India and Jamaica as she grew up, getting her first taste of the broader world.
  12. Baker, Sinéad (February 21, 2019). "Kamala Harris' father said she disgraced her Jamaican family by using a 'fraudulent stereotype' to joke about smoking weed". Business Insider.
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