IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath will return to Harvard University in January

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The International Monetary Fund’s Chief Economist and Director of the Research Department, Gita Gopinath will leave the Fund in January 2022 and return to Harvard University’s Economics Department when her public service leave ends, Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva of the IMF announced today. Gopinath’s leave of absence at Harvard was extended by one year on an exceptional basis, allowing her to work as the IMF’s Chief Economist for three years.

“Gita’s contribution to the Fund and our membership has been genuinely exceptional, her influence on the IMF’s work has been tremendous,” Georgieva mentioned while announcing Gopinath’s desire to resign from the Fund. As the Fund’s first female Chief Economist, she made history, and her strong intellect and profound knowledge of international finance and macroeconomics helped us greatly as we navigated through the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, Georgieva further added.

“For conducting analytically rigorous work and policy-relevant projects with significant impact and influence, Gita earned the respect and admiration of colleagues in the Research Department, throughout the Fund, and throughout the membership.”

Gopinath co-authored the “Pandemic Paper” on how to terminate the Covid-19 pandemic. The paper established widely recognised targets for vaccination in the world, as part of her numerous key achievements. As a result of this effort, the IMF, World Bank, WTO, and WHO formed the Multilateral Task Force to assist end the epidemic, as well as a working group with vaccine producers to identify trade barriers, supply bottlenecks, and acceleration.

Gopinath also collaborated with other IMF departments to engage policymakers, academics, and other stakeholders on a new analytical method to help nations adapt to international capital flows through the Integrated Policy Framework. She also assisted in the formation of an IMF Climate Change team to study, among other things, appropriate climate mitigation policies.

Gopinath acquires the status of a US national and overseas citizen of India. Her research has been published in a number of prestigious economics publications. She was the John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and Economics in Harvard’s economics department prior to her appointment as IMF Chief Economist. She was a visiting scholar at the IMF and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s economic advisory panel, the Chief Minister of Kerala State in India’s Economic Adviser, and a member of India’s Ministry of Finance’s Eminent Persons Advisory Group on G-20 Matters. She was an assistant professor at Harvard University before joining the faculty in 2005.

She was an assistant professor of economics at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business before joining the Harvard faculty in 2005. Gopinath is also a Group of Thirty members.