The IMF has appointed Harvard professor Gita Gopinath as its next chief economist. Thus, making her the first women to be appointed to this role. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an organization of 189 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability…
The IMF has appointed Harvard professor Gita Gopinath as its next chief economist; making her the first women to be appointed to this role.
Background
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an organization 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.
Created in 1945, the IMF is governed by and accountable to the 189 countries that make up its near-global membership. The IMF’s primary purpose is to ensure the stability of the international monetary system—the system of exchange rates and international payments that enables countries (and their citizens) to transact with each other.
The Economic Counsellor of the 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.
These counsellors are often called the Chief Economist of the IMF. The Chief Economist is part of the senior leadership team, who directly advises the Managing Director, and leads about a hundred PhD economists in the Research Department.
Analysis
The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Ms. Christine Lagarde has announced that the next Chief Economist appointed is Harvard professor, Ms. Gita Gopinath. She is the first female chief economist to be appointed to this prestigious role.
The press release by the IMF highlight that, Ms. Gopinath will succeed Maurice (Maury) Obstfeld, who announced in July that he would retire at the end of 2018. Ms. Gopinath currently serves as the John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and Economics at Harvard University. She is also the co-editor of the American Economic Review and co-director of the International Finance and Macroeconomics Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research. In addition, she is the co-editor of the current Handbook of International Economics with Former IMF chief economist Kenneth Rogoff.
Earlier in 2016, she was appointed as financial advisor to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. She had earlier served as a member of the Eminent Persons Advisory Group on G-20 Matters for India’s Ministry of Finance. Ms. Gopinath is also the third woman and the first Indian after Nobel laureate Amartya Sen to become a tenured professor at Harvard’s Department of Economics.
In 2014, Gopinath was named one of the top 25 economists under 45 by the IMF. She is also a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and a member of the economic advisory panel of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Besides, she is the co-editor of American Economic Review. In 2018, she was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
“Gita is one of the world’s outstanding economists, with impeccable academic credentials, a proven track record of intellectual leadership, and extensive international experience,” Ms. Lagarde said. “All this makes her exceptionally well-placed to lead our Research Department at this important juncture. I am delighted to name such a talented figure as our Chief Economist.”
Gopinath was born and grew up in India, and is now a U.S. citizen. Similarly, Mr. Raghuram Rajan was another Indian who had been appointed as the Chief Economist at the IMF. At 40, he was the youngest individual, and the first born in an emerging-market nation, to be appointed the chief economist at the IMF. He served in the position from October 2003 to December 2006.
He was successful in laying the groundwork for integrating financial sector analysis into the IMF’s economic country models. He also led a team to assist some major economies in reducing the balance of payments imbalances. He later went on to be the Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Manmohan Singh. Consequently, Mr. Rajan took over as the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India for 3 years.
Assessment
Our assessment is that history has been made as Ms. Gopinath has become the first woman to be appointed as the chief economist. We believe that Ms. Gopinath’s experience in the field, her leadership and her broad expertise make her the perfect fit for the post of chief economist at the IMF. We feel that with a woman being appointed at this high level, this prestigious post could lay out more opportunities for women in other decision-making fields.
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