Maurice Obstfeld joins the Peterson Institute

Media Contact: Michele Heller 202-328-9000 | [email protected]

WASHINGTON—Maurice Obstfeld, who stepped down last year as economic counsellor at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), will join the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) on February 1 as a nonresident senior fellow.

Obstfeld is the Class of 1958 Professor of Economics and former chair of the department of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught since 1991. He previously taught at Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia University.

In addition to his academic positions, Obstfeld served at the IMF as economic counsellor and director of the research department (2015–18) and as a member of the US President’s Council of Economic Advisors (2014–15). Obstfeld was an honorary adviser to the Bank of Japan’s Institute of Monetary and Economic Studies and has consulted and taught at the IMF, World Bank, and numerous central banks around the world. 

“Maury Obstfeld has profoundly influenced all of our understanding of global macroeconomics in real time as a policymaker over the last five years, after doing foundational work as an academic,” said Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute. “We are delighted to welcome Maury as a colleague at the Institute, where he will continue to lead rigorous and policy relevant research on the interactions between trade and monetary drivers of growth, international economic spillovers, and the resulting global imbalances.”

Obstfeld’s research has focused on international economics and macroeconomics, notably exchange rates, global imbalances, capital markets, and financial crises. His current projects delve into the global context of US monetary policy, the architecture of the euro area, macroeconomic policy in China’s economy, and frictions in international financial markets.   

He is the coauthor of two leading textbooks on international economics, International Economics: Theory and Policy (11th edition, 2017, with Paul Krugman and Marc Melitz) and Foundations of International Macroeconomics (1996, with Kenneth Rogoff). In addition, he has written, coauthored, or edited more than a hundred research articles and books on exchange rates, financial crises, global capital markets, and monetary policy.

Obstfeld earned his PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and holds degrees in mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania and King’s College, Cambridge University.

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About PIIE

The Peterson Institute for International Economics is a private nonpartisan, nonprofit institution for rigorous, intellectually open, and in-depth study and discussion of international economic policy. Its purpose is to identify and analyze important issues to make globalization beneficial and sustainable for the people of the United States and the world, and then to develop and communicate practical new approaches for dealing with them. Its work is funded by a highly diverse group of philanthropic foundations, private corporations, and interested individuals, as well as by income on its capital fund. About 35 percent of the Institute's resources in its latest fiscal year were provided by contributors from outside the United States. View a list of all financial supporters for the preceding four years.

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