Areas of Expertise (4)
Global Macroeconomic Issues
International Monetary System
External Imbalances
Eurozone
About
Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas grew up in Montpellier, France. He attended Ecole Polytechnique and received his PhD in Economics in 1996 from MIT. He taught at Stanford Graduate School of Business and Princeton University before joining UC Berkeley department of economics.
Gourinchas' main research interests are in international macroeconomics and finance. His recent research focuses on the scarcity of global safe assets, global imbalances and currency wars (with Ricardo Caballero and Emmanuel Farhi); on the International Monetary System and the role of the U.S. dollar (with Hélène Rey); on the Dominant Currency Paradigm (with Gita Gopinath); on the determinants of capital flows to and from developing countries (with Olivier Jeanne); on international portfolios (with Nicolas Coeurdacier); and on the global financial crisis (with Maury Obstfeld).
Gourinchas is the laureate of the 2007 Bernàcer Prize for best European economist working in macroeconomics and finance under the age of 40, and of the 2008 Prix du Meilleur Jeune Economiste for best French economist under the age of 40. In 2012-2013, Gourinchas was a member of the French Council of Economic Advisors to the Prime Minister. From 2009 to 2016 he was the editor-in-chief of the IMF Economic Review and from 2017 to 2019 the managing editor of the Journal of International Economics. He is currently co-editor of the American Economic Review and director of the NBER's International Finance and Macroeconomics Program.
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Education (4)
MIT: PhD, Economics
Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussees: MA, Engineering
Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales: MA, Economics
Ecole Polytechnique: BA, Physics
Links (5)
Honors & Awards (2)
Bernacer prize
Awarded to the best European economist working in macroeconomics and finance under the age of 40 2008
Prix du meilleur jeune economist, for the best French economist
2007
Selected External Service & Affiliations (7)
- Jan. 2019 - Present - Program director, NBER International Finance and Macroeconomics
- 2017 - present, Program co-director NBER International Finance and Macroeconomics
- 2017 - present, Managing Editor, Journal of International Economics
- 2009-2016, Editor-in-chief, IMF Economic Review
- 2012 - 2013, Member of the Council of Economic Advisors to the French Prime Minister
- 2013 - 2018, CEPII Scientific Committee
- 2011 - present, Bellagio Group
Languages (1)
- French
Positions Held (1)
At Haas since 2013
2013 – present, Professor of Economics, Haas School of Business 2010 - present, Professor of Economics, UC Berkeley Economics Department 2008 – 2010, Associate Professor of Economics, UC Berkeley Economics Department 2003 – 2008, Assistant Professor of Economics, UC Berkeley Economics Department 1998 – 2003, Assistant Professor of Economics, Princeton University 1996 – 1998, Assistant Professor of Economics, Stanford Graduate School of Business
Media Appearances (7)
IMF names UC-Berkeley's Gourinchas as next chief economist
Reuters online
2022-01-10
Gourinchas has written extensively in recent years on the implications of the U.S. dollar's position as the world's dominant reserve currency. A 2019 paper concluded that the dollar's "hegemony" is not sustainable and the greenback eventually will likely co-exist with China's yuan and possibly the euro as dominant currencies.
The COVID-19 Default Time Bomb
Project Syndicate online
2020-04-09
Without a comprehensive debt moratorium, the COVID-19 pandemic will lead to a wave of uncontrolled sovereign defaults, especially among emerging and developing economies, writes Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, the S.K. and Angela Chan Professor of Global Management and faculty director of the Clausen Center for International Business and Policy. Should that happen, global efforts to contain the public health crisis will fail and economic collapse may well turn into a permanent decline.
Flatten the Curve of Infection and the Curve of Recession at the Same Time
Foreign Affairs online
2020-03-26
After wasting nearly three months watching the pandemic crisis from afar, Americans awoke to a new reality in the last two weeks: no one is spared. The world is engaged in a momentous battle against an invisible enemy.
The U.S. Economy Is Great and the Fed Doesn't Care
Bloomberg online
2019-07-23
The strength of the dollar makes the Fed a global institution. But America's share of global output is receding, as shown in work by Prof. Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, S.K. and Angela Chan Professor of Global Management and Faculty Director of the Clausen Center for International Business and Policy.
The weaker British pound is here to stay
Business Insider online
2017-04-18
"The pound depreciated sharply immediately following the Brexit vote. This reflects market beliefs that Brexit would lead to a persistent decline in the real value of the pound," wrote Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, director of the Clausen Center for International Business and Policy at the University of California, Berkeley and Galina Hale, a research advisor at the San Francisco Fed.
Brexit: Whither the Pound?
FRBSF Economic Letter online
2017-04-17
"People of the United Kingdom voted to exit the European Union last June, a process dubbed “Brexit.” The persistent depreciation of the British pound since the vote suggests that U.K. economic conditions will be weakened over the long run following the separation from the EU. This projection of a persistent economic loss is based on the expected reversal of earlier gains from trade with other EU members and reduced cross-border labor flows."
Free Exchange: More spend, less thrift
The Economist online
2016-09-03
German budget surpluses are bad for the global economy
Selected Papers & Publications (10)
The Safe Assets Shortage Conundrum
Journal of Economic Perspectives
Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, Ricardo Caballero and Emmanuel Farhi
2017
When Bonds Matter: Home Bias in Goods and Assets
Journal of Monetary Economics
Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas and Nicolas Coeurdacier.
2016
Capital Flows to Developing Countries: The Allocation Puzzle
Review of Economic Studies
Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas and Olivier Jeanne
2013
The Financial Crisis and The Geography of Wealth Transfers
Journal of International Economics
Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, Hélène Rey and Kai Truempler
2012
Stories of the Twentieth Century for the Twenty-First
American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics
Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas and Maury Obstfeld
2012
International Prices, Cost and Markup Differences
American Economic Association
Gita Gopinath, Pierre-Oliver Gourinchas, Chang-Tai Hsieh, and Nicholas Li
2011
An Equilibrium Model of `Global Imbalances’ and Low Interest Rates
American Economic Review
Ricardo J. Caballero, Emmanuel Farhi, and Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas
2008
International Financial Adjustment
Journal of Political Economy
Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas and Hélène Rey
2007
The Elusive Gains from International Financial Integration
Review of Economic Studies
Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas and Olivier Jeanne
2006
Consumption over the LifeCycle
Econometrica
Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas and Jonathan A. Parker
2002
Teaching (1)
Economic Analysis for Business Decision-making
EWMBA 201A
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