04 Nov
2026
Bernhard Harms Prize 2026
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16:00
Gourinchas, Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, will receive the 2026 Bernhard Harms Prize for research that has transformed our understanding of global adjustment and financial stability. His work is particularly relevant amid renewed debates over trade imbalances, US fiscal policy, financial fragmentation, and the future of the dollar.
The Jury’s reasoning for Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas
“Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas has reshaped our understanding of the international monetary system, especially in times of stress. His work on external balance sheets, valuation effects, and international capital flows has transformed how economists think about global adjustment, financial stability, and the dynamics of crises. By showing that gross external positions and asset price movements are central to adjustment, he has revealed mechanisms long overlooked in open economy macroeconomics. He has also clarified the role of the US dollar at the core of the system, explaining how global demand for safe assets allows the United States to sustain external imbalances while making the system both more resilient and more fragile. His work has been central to modern interpretations of external sustainability and the nature of “exorbitant privilege”.
About Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas
Gourinchas recently returned to UC Berkeley, after serving for four years as Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF, 2022–2026). He is now the S.K. and Angela Chan Professor in the Department of Economics at Berkeley. Born and raised in France, he studied at École Polytechnique before receiving his PhD from MIT in 1996. He taught at Stanford and Princeton, before joining Berkeley in 2003. Gourinchas is a Vice President of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). He received numerous distinctions, including the Bernácer Prize in 2007 and the Prix du Meilleur Jeune Économiste in 2008.
Since 1964, the Kiel Institute’s Bernhard Harms Prize has been awarded to distinguished scholars for their outstanding research in international economics as well as for exceptional efforts in advancing global economic relations. The prize will be presented to Gourinchas during the Kiel-CEPR Conference on Geoeconomics, taking place at the German Federal Foreign Office in Berlin on November 3–4, 2026. The prize is endowed with 10,000 euros and is named after Bernhard Harms, who founded the Kiel Institute in 1914.
Previous Bernhard Harms Prize laureates include Abhijit Banerjee, Carmen Reinhart, Lord Nicholas Stern and Gita Gopinath.
