Clausen Center Faculty Director Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas Named IMF Economic Counsellor

Clausen Center Faculty Director Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas Named IMF Economic Counsellor

Today, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced its intention to appoint the Faculty director of UC Berkeley’s Clausen Center, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, as its new Economic Counsellor and Director of Research, starting January 24, 2022. Pierre-Olivier writes: “I am deeply honored to be appointed as the IMF’s Economic Counsellor. I look forward very much to working with my new IMF colleagues to navigate many of the important global economic issues of our times. I also want to express my deepest thanks to UC Berkeley for making it possible for me to serve in this position.” Please refer any media enquiries to media@IMF.org.
> Read the IMF’s press release
Small business failures in Europe would have doubled without pandemic relief, analysis finds

Small business failures in Europe would have doubled without pandemic relief, analysis finds

An analysis of 17 countries in Europe and Asia found that the COVID-19 crisis hit small- and medium-sized businesses hard: In the absence of government support, the 2020 bankruptcy rate would have almost doubled to 18% on average, with even higher rates in the hardest hit sectors and countries, researchers found.

Government interventions in most countries has cushioned some of the blow, and despite the severity of the shock, the banking sector showed resiliency. Banks did not appear to be significantly impacted by the rise in loan defaults, according to a recent National Bureau of Economic Research working paper co-authored by Clausen Center Faculty Director Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas.

> Read the full article

Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas Writes on Pandemic’s Economic Effects in Foreign Affairs

Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas Writes on Pandemic’s Economic Effects in Foreign Affairs

Clausen Center Director Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas’s article, “Flatten the Curve of Infection and the Curve of Recession at the Same Time,” has been published in Foreign Affairs. Gourinchas argues that flattening the infection curve inevitably steepens the macroeconomic recession one. But despite this, there are economic policy initiatives that can help contain and shorten the looming recession. If policymakers take bold and correctly timed action, they can flatten both curves to minimize harm.
> Read the article

Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas Interviewed for NPR Planet Money Podcast

Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas Interviewed for NPR Planet Money Podcast

Clausen Center faculty director Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas was interviewed for NPR’s March 16, 2020, edition of The Indicator from Planet Money podcast. During the interview, he spoke about the importance of personal and business networks in the economy, how government needs to step in to ensure they are preserved, and the irreversible damage that could be done if they are not.
> Listen to the podcast