Google celebrates Economist Sir W Arthur Lewis with a doodle

Google honoured Sir W Arthur Lewis an economist, professor, and author with a doodle today, created by artist Camilla Ru. Forty-one years ago on this very day in 1979, Arthur Lewis was jointly awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for his groundbreaking work to model the economic forces that impact developing countries.

Sir W Arthur Lewis was the first Black member at the London School of Economics, first Black person to hold a chair in a British university, and also the first Black instructor to receive full professor ship at Princeton University.

Contribution to the field of Economics

Lewis centred his focus to world economic history and economic development and set out the dual sector model in his 1954 publication, "Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour."

The model helped in providing a framework for understanding how relatively poor developing countries can develop economically.

Lewis model was widely praised and used by many economists interested in how developing economies can escape from poverty and produce wealth.

Sir Lewis contributed major impactful work to the United Nations and shared his experience as an adviser to many governments in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. 

Sir Lewis died on June 15, 1991 in Bridgetown, Barbados. He was buried in the grounds of the St. Lucian community college named in his honour.

Google celebrates Economist Sir W Arthur Lewis with a doodle