Economist Isabella Weber Named Bloomberg 50 'Ones to Watch' List

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Isabella Weber, assistant professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has been named to the Bloomberg 50 “Ones to Watch” list for 2022 by the editors of Bloomberg Businessweek. The list will be published in the December 26 issue of Bloomberg Businessweek.

Bloomberg Businessweek’s Bloomberg 50 is an annual list of innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders who have changed the global business landscape over the past year. An unranked list, the Bloomberg 50 represents the most influential thought leaders in business, finance, politics, entertainment, science and technology whose 2022 accomplishments were particularly noteworthy.

“Ones to Watch” is a list of 13 people who are poised to have a significant impact in their fields in the coming year. Previous “Ones to Watch” lists have included now-U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, U.S. Rep. Katie Porter and comedians and late-night hosts Daniel Baker and Joel Martinez, a.k.a. Desus and Mero.

“It has been an extraordinary year for me,” says Weber, who is also a research associate and research leader in China studies with the UMass Amherst Political Economy Research Institute. “I was sharply criticized on New Year’s Day for arguing in an op-ed that our times of overlapping emergencies might make it necessary for economists to revisit targeted price controls as an emergency stabilization tool. Following the war on Ukraine, most European countries now have implemented some form of direct price stabilization for natural gas and electricity. This fall I have served on the German government’s expert commission in charge of gas price caps. I am honored to be selected by Bloomberg to this distinguished list and I hope that my story stands for the need to have an open debate over economic policy in our extraordinary times.”

Being named one of Bloomberg Businessweek’s “Ones to Watch” caps a year of accolades for Weber. In November she was named one of German business magazine Capital’s “Top 40 Under 40” and was profiled by the German news magazine Der Spiegel in September, while her 2021 book “How China Escaped Shock Therapy: The Market Reform Debate” continued to gather honors, receiving the Best Book in Interdisciplinary Studies Award from the International Studies Association in April.

This article first appeared in UMass News & Events.