Economist Rajan joins IMF

Raghuram Rajan, the Joseph L. Gidwitz Professor of Finance in the Graduate School of Business, will work with the International Monetary Fund as its new Economic Counsellor and Director of the Research Department.

Economist Raghuram Rajan, the Joseph L. Gidwitz Professor of Finance in the Graduate School of Business, has been appointed to the position of Economic Counsellor and Director of the Research Department at the International Monetary Fund. Rajan will succeed Kenneth Rogoff, who will return to his post at Harvard University in the fall.

Horst Köhler, Managing Director of the IMF, said, “Mr. Rajan has been at the forefront of work on banking and financial sector issues. With his exceptional rise within the economics profession, as well as with his extensive experience, Mr. Rajan will bring a strong and proven record of intellectual leadership to the IMF. This will be an asset to develop further the IMF’s research program to the leading edge of economic theory and policy.

“His particular experience in financial sector issues will help strengthen the IMF’s role as a center of excellence in macroeconomic and financial sector stability. As Economic Counsellor, I am confident that Mr. Rajan will help the fund meet its responsibilities in supporting its members in an increasingly complex and challenging global environment,” added Köhler.

Rajan, who has published extensively on economic and financial matters, joined the GSB faculty in 1991. He has held visiting professorships at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern University and the Stockholm School of Economics.

In January, the American Finance Association honored Rajan with the inaugural Fisher Black Prize, which will be given annually to a scholar under 40 who has contributed the most to the theory and practice of finance.

Rajan is a director of the American Finance Association, an associate editor of the American Economic Review and a program director for corporate finance at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Rajan also has been a consultant to the Federal Reserve Board, the World Bank, the IMF and various other financial institutions.

He received a B.Tech in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi in 1985, an M.B.A. from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad in 1987, and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1991.

Rajan is the third University faculty member to hold the Economic Counsellor position at the IMF. Two former Chicago economists, Michael Mussa and Jacob Frenkel, also held the position.