List of IMF Economic Counsellors

Last updated

The Economic Counsellor of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is also the Director of the Fund's Research Department and is responsible for providing independent advice to the Fund on its policy issues, integrating ideas of the research in the design of policies, conveying these ideas to the policymakers inside and outside the fund and managing all research done at IMF. [1]

International Monetary Fund International organisation

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an international organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of "189 countries working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world." Formed in 1944 at the Bretton Woods Conference primarily by the ideas of Harry Dexter White and John Maynard Keynes, it came into formal existence in 1945 with 29 member countries and the goal of reconstructing the international payment system. It now plays a central role in the management of balance of payments difficulties and international financial crises. Countries contribute funds to a pool through a quota system from which countries experiencing balance of payments problems can borrow money. As of 2016, the fund had SDR477 billion.

Contents

Often called the Chief Economist of the IMF, "the job is one of the most prestigious in the field, and has been held by some of the most prominent academic researchers in international economics." [2] [3] The Chief Economist is part of the senior leadership team, directly advises the Managing Director, and leads about a hundred Ph.D. economists in the Research Department.

The Research Department publishes working papers on highly relevant policy and research issues in international economics; produces a number of reports including the widely tracked annual World Economic Outlook; organizes conferences including the Annual Research Conference that brings together top economists and policymakers; and publishes the peer reviewed journal IMF Economic Review .

The IMF Economic Review (IMFER) is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Palgrave Macmillan on behalf of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), whose main research publication it is. The IMF Economic Review has a focus on open economy macroeconomics, but also features content on global economic policies, international finance as well as international trade. Its current publication frequency is of four issues per year and its current editor and co-editor are the economists Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas and Ayhan Kose.

The position has been held by the following:

NameTerm
Edward M. Bernstein [4] 1946-1958
Jacques (JJ) Polak [5] [6] [7] 1958-1980
William C. Hood [8] [9] 1980-1987
Jacob Frenkel [10] 1987-1991
Michael Mussa [11] August 1991 – 29 June 2001
Kenneth Rogoff [12] August 2001 – September 2003
Raghuram Rajan [13] September 2003 – January 2007
Simon Johnson [14] March 2007 – 31 August 2008
Olivier Blanchard [15] 1 September 2008 – 8 September 2015
Maurice Obstfeld [16] 8 September 2015 – 31 December 2018
Gita Gopinath [17] 1 January 2019 –

First woman Economic Counsellor

After the announcement of Maurice Obstfeld's retirement in December 2018, [18] Harvard professor Gita Gopinath, a leading scholars in exchange rates, sovereign debt and capital flows was appointed as chief economist of the IMF. [19] Gita Gopinath, the John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and Economics at Harvard University's economics department will be the first woman to hold this position. [20] Gopinath, who was born in India, received her Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University in 2001 after earning a B.A. from the University of Delhi and M.A. degrees from both the Delhi School of Economics and University of Washington. [21]

See also

The World Bank Chief Economist provides intellectual leadership and direction to the Bank’s overall development strategy and economic research agenda, at global, regional and country levels.

Related Research Articles

Olivier Blanchard French economist

Olivier Jean Blanchard is a French economist, professor and Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He was the chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, from September 1, 2008 to October 2015. He was appointed to this position under the tenure of Dominique Strauss-Kahn. He is also Robert M. Solow Professor of Economics emeritus at MIT. At the IMF, he was succeeded by Maurice Obstfeld.

Raghuram Rajan Indian economist

Raghuram Govind Rajan is an Indian economist and an international academician who is the Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He was the 23rd Governor of the Reserve Bank of India between September 2013 and September 2016. Between 2003 and 2006, Rajan was the Chief Economist and Director of Research at the International Monetary Fund. In 2015, during his tenure at the Indian Reserve Bank he also became Vice-Chairman of the Bank for International Settlements.

Jacques J. Polak Dutch economist

Jacques Jacobus Polak was a Dutch economist. He received his doctorate in economics in 1937 from the University of Amsterdam. His first professional work was with Professor Jan Tinbergen. In 1937 he began his international service as an economist with the League of Nations. He was a member of the Netherlands delegations to the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference establishing the International Monetary Fund and to the Atlantic City conference that established the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). During this period, he served at the Dutch Embassy in Washington. From 1944 to 1946, he was an Assistant Financial Adviser, and then Economic Adviser to the Director General of UNRRA.

Agustín Carstens Governor of the Bank of Mexico and former Mexican Secretary of Finance (2006–2009)

Agustín Guillermo Carstens Carstens, is a Mexican economist who serves as the general manager of the Bank of International Settlements since 1 December 2017. He served as governor of the Bank of Mexico from 1 January 2010 to 30 November 2017. In 2011, Carstens, along with Christine Lagarde, was one of the two final candidates to become the managing director of the International Monetary Fund. He previously served as secretary of finance in the cabinet of Felipe Calderón (2006–09), as deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund (2003–06) and as treasurer of the Bank of Mexico. In 2011 he was included in the 50 Most Influential ranking of Bloomberg Markets Magazine. Carstens took up his appointment as the general manager at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, where he was appointed to a five-year term, starting on 1 December 2017.

Maurice Obstfeld American economist

Maurice Moses "Maury" Obstfeld is a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley and previously Chief Economist at the International Monetary Fund.

Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell is an Austrian economist, former vice-governor of the Austrian central bank Oesterreichische Nationalbank (1998–2003) and former member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank. She is a member of the Council of the University of Leoben.

Malcolm D. Knight is a Canadian economist, policymaker and banker. He is currently Visiting Professor of Finance at the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Distinguished Fellow at the Center for International Governance Innovation. From 2008 to 2012, Knight was Vice Chairman of Deutsche Bank Group where he was responsible for developing and coordinating the bank's global approach to issues in financial regulation, supervision, and financial stability. He served as General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements from 2003 to 2008 and as Senior Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada (1999-2003), after holding senior positions at the International Monetary Fund (1975-1999).

Anne Osborn Krueger American economist

Anne Osborn Krueger is an American economist. She was the World Bank Chief Economist from 1982 to 1986, and the first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 2001 to 2006. She is currently professor of international economics at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C.

Nemat Shafik economist

Dame Nemat Talaat Shafik, DBE (Arabic: نعمت شفيق; also known as Minouche Shafik) is an Egyptian-born British-American economist who served as the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England and has served as the director of the London School of Economics since September 2017.

Klaus P. Regling is a German economist and current Chief Executive Officer of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and Managing Director of the European Stability Mechanism. Regling was reportedly considered as a possible head of the European Central Bank to succeed Jean Claude Trichet.

John Lipsky economist

John Phillip Lipsky is an American economist. He was the acting Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund from May to July 2011. He assumed the post of Acting Managing Director after Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arrested in May 2011 accused of sexual assault. After the appointment of Christine Lagarde he returned to his post as the First Deputy Managing Director of the IMF. He retired from the IMF in November 2011 and is currently a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

Gita Gopinath economist and chief economist of the IMF

Gita Gopinath is an Indian-American economist. She is the John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and Economics at Harvard University. She is also a co-director of the International Finance and Macroeconomics program at the National Bureau of Economic Research and has worked as the Economic Adviser to the Chief Minister of Kerala.

Michael Louis Mussa was an American economist and academic. He was chief economist at the International Monetary Fund from 1991 to 2001, and was a member of the Council of Economic Advisers from 1986 to 1988. He was also a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics from 2001 until his death in 2012.

Yannis Stournaras Greek politician and university professor

YannisStournaras, is a Greek economist who has been the Governor of the Bank of Greece since June 2014.

Rodrigo Valdés

Rodrigo Valdés is a Chilean economist. He was Finance Minister of Chile from May 11, 2015 to March 11, 2018 under President Michelle Bachelet.

Atish R. Ghosh

Atish Rex Ghosh is an international economist, who is currently the Historian of the International Monetary Fund. His recent work has focused on issues related to the stability of the international monetary system, including exchange rate regimes, external balance dynamics, capital flows and capital controls, monetary and foreign exchange intervention policies, fiscal space and debt sustainability, and international policy coordination. His work on the management of cross-border capital flows, notably the role of capital controls, has played an important role in influencing the IMF's institutional position on the use of capital controls. Ghosh has also published numerous influential studies on international policy coordination and exchange rate regimes, including three books: Economic Cooperation in an Uncertain World ; Exchange Rate Regimes: Choices and Consequences ; and Currency Boards in Retrospect and Prospect. In addition, he is the author of Nineteenth Street, NW—a fictional novel about a global financial crash.

José Maria Viñals Íñiguez is a Spanish economist and businessman. He serves as Group Chairman of Standard Chartered and Chairman of Standard Chartered Bank, the United Kingdom subsidiary of Standard Chartered.

Rhoda Weeks–Brown is a Liberian economist and lawyer, who currently serves as the designated next General Counsel and Director of the Legal Department, at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). She was appointed to that position by the IMF Managing Director, Christine Lagarde, on 30 July 2018. Weeks–Brown, who has been serving as Deputy General Counsel at the IMF, assumes her new position on Monday 17 September 2018.

References

  1. ↑ Frederic S. Mishkin; Francesco Giavazzi; T. N. Srinivasan (2000). External Evaluation of IMF Economic Research Activities. International Monetary Fund. p. 63. ISBN   978-1-55775-862-0.
  2. ↑ "Wall Street Journal, 2018".
  3. ↑ "The Guardian".
  4. ↑ "New York Times Obituary: Dr. Bernstein went on to be the first director of research at the International Monetary Fund, from 1946 to 1958".
  5. ↑ "IMF Press Release".
  6. ↑ "IMF Annual Report 1966" (PDF).
  7. ↑ "IMF Annual Report 1979" (PDF).
  8. ↑ "IMF Annual Report 1985" (PDF). www.imf.org. Retrieved 2018-09-21.
  9. ↑ "IMF Annual Report 1980" (PDF).
  10. ↑ "Economist Rajan joins IMF". chronicle.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2018-09-21.
  11. ↑ "Mussa To Step Down as IMF Economic Counsellor News Brief No. 01/25 March 7, 2001".
  12. ↑ "IMF Managing Director Köhler Proposes Stanford University's Krueger As First Deputy And Names Three Department Heads Press Release No. 01/27 June 7, 2001".
  13. ↑ "IMF Managing Director Köhler Proposes Raghuram Rajan as Economic Counsellor and Director of the IMF's Research Department Press Release No. 03/100 July 2, 2003".
  14. ↑ "IMF Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato Proposes Simon Johnson as Economic Counsellor and Director of the IMF's Research Department Press Release No. 07/34 February 28, 2007".
  15. ↑ "IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn Announces Department Director Appointments Press Release No. 08/122 May 27, 2008".
  16. ↑ "IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde Appoints Maurice Obstfeld as Economic Counsellor and Director of the IMF's Research Department Press Release No.15/343 July 20, 2015".
  17. ↑ "Christine Lagarde Appoints Gita Gopinath as IMF Chief Economist".
  18. ↑ https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2018/07/25/pr18307-imf-chief-economist-maurice-obstfeld-to-retire
  19. ↑ "Wall Street Journal: IMF Appoints Harvard's Gita Gopinath as Chief Economist".
  20. ↑ "Financial Times: IMF appoints Harvard's Gita Gopinath as first woman chief economist".
  21. ↑ "The Economist: Gita's go - A fresh face, and fresh thinking on exchange rates".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.