IFM Program Director Transition

From: James Poterba <poterba_at_nber.org>
Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2017 18:18:09 -0400

Dear IFM Program Members -

I am very grateful to the many program members who have made time to
talk with me in the last two months, since Jeff Frankel announced that
he was ready to pass the baton of IFM program leadership. I have
learned a great deal about the factors that have contributed to the
program's past success, and about current developments in the various
fields that come together under the IFM banner.

I am delighted to announce that Gita Gopinath and Pierre-Olivier
Gourinchas have agreed to serve as co-directors of the IFM program when
Jeff steps down at the end of this academic year. Gita's research spans
many issues, including exchange rate pass-through, monetary unions, and
sovereign debt markets. She is the John Zwaanstra Professor of
International Studies and Economics at Harvard, and she has been a
member of the IFM program since 2004. Pierre-Olivier, the S.K. and
Angela Chan Professor of Global Management at Berkeley's Haas School of
Business, has been a program member since 1998. His research addresses
capital flows and global imbalances, debt crises, and international
macroeconomic policy more generally. I look forward to working with
Gita and Pierre-Olivier to build on the IFM program's past successes and
to launch new initiatives. I hope that you will join me in welcoming
them to their new roles.

Please save the evening of Wednesday July 12, during the 2017 IFM Summer
Institute, for a dinner when we will collectively thank Jeff for his
contributions as program director. I hope that you will be able to join
in the festivities. All best wishes.

Jim Poterba
Received on Tue Mar 28 2017 - 18:44:44 EDT