Biography of Sir William Arthur Lewis
| Real Name | Sir William Arthur Lewis |
| Famous as | Economist, Academic, Businessperson |
Personal Life | |
| Eye color | Black |
| Hair color | Black |
| Birthplace | Castries, Saint Lucia |
| Nationality | Saint Lucian British |
| Family | Daughter- (1).Elizabeth Lewis of Cranbury, NJ, and (2).Barbara Virgil of Brooklyn Brother-(1).Stanley Lewis of Ghana (2).Earl Lewis of Trinidad (3).Allen Montgomery Lewis, a former Governor General of St. Lucia, and (4).Victor Lewis of St. Lucia |
| Zodiac | Aquarius |
Girls, Affairs and more | |
| Wife/Husband: | Gladys Jacobs, Lady Lewis of Barbados and Princeton |
Born on January 23, 1915, in Castries on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, at the time a British colony, Lewis won a government scholarship in 1932 despite facing challenges with racial discrimination. At the age of 33, he became a full professor – one of the highest distinctions of a tenured professor.
Lewis shifted his focus to world economic history and economic development and in 1954 published his foundational article “Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour.” Among many valuable accomplishments, Lewis contributed influential work to the United Nations and shared his expertise as an adviser to governments in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. He also helped establish and served as the first president of the Caribbean Development Bank.
Lewis set out the dual sector model in his 1954 publication, “Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour.”
Lewis’ model seeks to provide a framework for understanding how relatively poor countries can develop economically. It begins by assuming that one of the characteristics shared by poor countries is that their economies tend to consist largely of “subsistence sectors” in which the supply of labour is very large and the amount of capital invested per worker is very low.
Lewis served as an economic advisor to numerous African and Caribbean governments, namely – Nigeria, Ghana, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Barbados.
When Ghana gained independence in 1957, its government appointed Lewis as their first economic advisor. He helped draw up its first Five-Year Development Plan (1959–63). In 1959 Lewis returned to the Caribbean region when appointed Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies.
In honour of his lifelong achievements, the British government knighted W Arthur Lewis in 1963.
