Donald J. Harris

Donald Jasper Harris, (born August 23, 1938) is a Jamaican-American economist and emeritus professor at Stanford University, known for applying post-Keynesian ideas to development economics. He was the first Black scholar granted tenure in the Stanford Department of Economics, and he is the father of Kamala Harris, the incumbent vice president of the United States and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, and of Maya Harris, a lawyer, advocate and writer.

Harris was raised in Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica, earning a Bachelor's degree from the University College of the West Indies and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. He held professorships at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Northwestern University, and University of Wisconsin-Madison before joining Stanford University as professor of economics.

Harris's 1978 book ''Capital Accumulation and Income Distribution'' critiques mainstream economic theories, using mathematical modeling to propose an alternative model for thinking about the effects of capital accumulation on income inequality, economic growth, instability, and other phenomena. He has worked extensively on analysis and policy regarding the economy of Jamaica. He served in Jamaica, at various times, as economic policy consultant to the government and as economic adviser to successive prime ministers. In 2021, he was awarded Jamaica's Order of Merit, the country's third-highest national honor, for his "contribution to national development". Provided by Wikipedia