Catherine L. Mann
Catherine L. Mann, former visiting fellow, is chief economist at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Previously, she was a professor of economics at Brandeis University, and served as assistant director of the International Finance Division at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, senior international economist on the President's Council of Economic Advisers at the White House, and adviser to the chief economist at the World Bank.
Her work at the Institute focused on the economic and policy issues of global information, communications, and technology, particularly with reference to the US economy, labor market, and international trade. Her Institute book Accelerating the Globalization of America: The Role for Information Technology (2006) and policy brief "Globalization of IT Services and White-Collar Jobs: The Next Wave of Productivity Growth" address these issues.
She is author or coauthor of two books that focus on the policy foundations for effective use of technology for domestic development and external competitiveness. APEC and the New Economy (2002) was presented to and endorsed by APEC Leaders at their meeting in Shanghai, China. Global Electronic Commerce: A Policy Primer (2000) uses general analysis and specific examples from field research in more than 10 countries to address how the Internet and electronic commerce affect policymaking, with particular focus on infrastructure and policy issues of taxation, privacy, security, intellectual property, and trade negotiations. In addition she directs a project funded by the Ford Foundation to support collaborative research comparing Asian and Latin American countries on how technology affects entrepreneurship, government, education and skills, and financial intermediation. She has delivered keynote speeches and engaged in projects on technology and policy in China, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Morocco, Tunisia, South Africa, as well as in Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, and New Zealand.
She also studied broader issues of US trade, the sustainability of the current account, and the exchange value of the dollar. Published in 1999, Is the US Trade Deficit Sustainable? answers perennial questions about the impact of global integration on the US economy and the dollar. A Journal of Economic Perspectives (2002) article reviews concepts of sustainability, including the role of international financial markets and international trade in services, topics also addressed in "How Long the Strong Dollar?" in Dollar Overvaluation and the World Economy, edited by John Williamson and C. Fred Bergsten, and in "The US Current Account, New Economy Services, and Implications for Sustainability" in the Review of International Economics.
In addition to her work at the Institute, Mann taught for 10 years as adjunct professor of management at the Owen School of Management at Vanderbilt University and two years at the Johns Hopkins Nitze School for Advanced International Studies, among other university courses. She received her PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her undergraduate degree is from Harvard University.