Each year, the International Economics Section (IES) at Princeton University invites a member of the international economics community to deliver the prestigious Frank D. Graham Memorial Lecture. This year on March 27, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, Economic Counsellor and Director of Research at the International Monetary Fund and UC Berkeley Professor of Economics, delivered the 72nd annual Graham Lecture titled “The International Monetary System: Current and Future Challenges.”

About Gourinchas

Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas is the S.K. and Angela Chan Professor of Global Management and Director of the Clausen Center for International Business and Policy at the University of California, Berkeley.

Gourinchas is a macroeconomist with research interests in consumption, precautionary savings, lending booms, fiscal federalism, forward premium puzzle, labor market and exchange rates. His current research examines international financial integration, external adjustment, and exchange rate dynamics.

Gourinchas grew up in France where he attended Ecole Polytechnique. He received his PhD in 1996 from MIT and taught at Stanford Graduate School of Business and Princeton University before joining the Berkeley economics department in 2003 as an assistant professor. He is a Research Associate with NBER and a Research Fellow with CEPR (London) and the International Growth Center (London).Professor Gourinchas is editor of the IMF Economic Review. He is also associate editor of the Journal of the European Economic Association and a member of the Scientific Committee of the Fondation Banque de France. He is the winner of the 2007 Bernacer Prize for best European Economist under 40 working in macroeconomics and finance, and winner of the 2008 prize for best French economist under 40.

About the Graham Lecture

Frank Graham was a Princeton professor from 1921 to 1949 and the second Walker Professor of Economics and International Finance. Professor Graham published widely on international trade and international monetary issues.

After his untimely death in 1949, the lecture was established by his friends inside and outside the department to honor his memory. It is the signature event of the International Economics Section and has been delivered over the years by a veritable Who’s Who in International Economics, including ten Nobel Laureates.

A complete list of previous Graham Lecturers can be found here.