Gita Gopinath

Gita Gopinath
Gita Gopinath at the World Economic Forum on India in 2012
Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund Designate
Assuming office 1 January 2019
President	Christine Lagarde
Succeeding	Maurice Obstfeld
Personal details
Born	(1971-12-08) 8 December 1971 Kolkata, India
Education	University of Delhi (BA, MA) University of Washington, Seattle (MA) Princeton University (PhD)
Academic career
Doctoral advisor	Kenneth Rogoff Ben Bernanke Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas

The Indian-American economist Gita Gopinath (born 8 December 1971) is the John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and Economics at Harvard University. In October 2018 she was appointed as chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. She is a co-director of the International Finance and Macroeconomics program at the National Bureau of Economic Research.^[1][2][3] Her research focuses on International Finance and Macroeconomics. She was the Economic Adviser to the Chief Minister of Kerala.

Early life and education

Gita was born in Kolkata, India.^[4] Later she did her schooling in Nirmala Convent School in Mysore.^[4][5] She is the younger of two daughters of TV Gopinath and VC Vijayalakshmi, both of whom hail from Kannur, Kerala.^[6].

She holds a B.A. from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi (1992), Masters in economics from Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi (1994). She completed her M.A. at the University of Washington (1996). In 2001, she completed her Ph.D at Princeton University.

Current Appointments and Work

In October 2018, Gita Gopinath was appointed chief economist of the International Monetary Fund.^[3] Gita Gopinath is the John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and of Economics at Harvard University. She is co-director of the International Finance and Macroeconomics program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, a member of the economic advisory panel of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Economic Adviser to the Chief Minister of Kerala state (India), a co-editor at the American Economic Review, co-editor of the current Handbook of International Economics and was managing editor of the Review of Economic Studies.

Honors

In October 2018, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde appointed Gita Gopinath as Economic Counsellor and Director of the IMF's Research Department.^[3] In 2018, she was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2017, she received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Washington. She was named one of the top 25 economists under 45 by the International Monetary Fund in 2014 and was chosen as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2011.

Personal

Gita Gopinath's father, TV Gopinath, is the son of TC Govindan Nambiar, a relative of noted Communist party leader TC Narayanan Nambiar, and PV Lakshmi Amma, who is related to stalwart of Indian Communist party A K Gopalan.^[7] Gopinath's husband Iqbal Singh Dhaliwal is Executive Director at Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.They have a son named Rohil.^[8][6]

References

External links

• Harvard University Profile