Robert Mundell, an influential international economist, has died

AFTER ACCEPTING the Nobel prize in economics in 1999, Robert Mundell crooned “My Way”, the song by Frank Sinatra, to guests at the banquet. His way, as he put it, involved falling in love with economic theory, obtaining a PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and spending time in London writing his thesis. It also involved crafting foundational ideas in the field of international economics, including one that earned him the title of a father of the euro. He died on April 4th at the age of 88.

Mr Mundell attributed some of his interest in international economics to Canada, the country of his birth. In the 1950s it had, unusually, a floating not a fixed exchange rate. It also contended with large capital flows to and from America. What became known as the Mundell-Fleming model sought to explain the implications of Canada’s setup.