Kiel Institute Bernhard Harms Prize 2023 Awarded to Gita Gopinath
Economist Gita Gopinath was today awarded this year's Bernhard Harms Prize by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. Moritz Schularick, President of the Kiel Institute, praised her “as one of the world's most influential scholars in the fields of international finance and international macroeconomics.” Gopinath is First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and previously served as the Fund's Chief Economist. Before joining the IMF, she had a distinguished academic career.
In her laudatory speech, Şebnem Kalemli-Özcan, Professor of Economics at University of Maryland, said: “Gita Gopinath is a superb scholar and an influential policy maker, a very rare combination—almost nonexistent if you also add the fact that she is a woman. She has broken so many glass and non-glass barriers, a true role model, leading by example, and a dear friend.”
The award ceremony took place in the historic “Weltsaal” of the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin. It was embedded in the high-level Geoeconomics Conference, a gathering of leading international scholars working at the intersection of international economics and geopolitics.
“Gita elegantly combines theoretical modeling with state-of-the-art empirical analysis using rich data,” Moritz Schularick said. “Her research has expanded not only our theoretical understanding of international economics but has also provided crucial practical insights on global trade and productivity growth.”
“I am honored to receive a prize that champions scholarship in international economics and global relations,” Gita Gopinath said. “At a time when countries are drifting further apart such scholarship is critically important, and this conference on geoeconomics is particularly welcome.”
Before ascending to the IMF leadership, Gita Gopinath was a professor at Harvard University between 2005 and 2022. Prior to that, she was an assistant professor of economics at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. She received her Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University, after earning a B.A. from Lady Sri Ram College, and M.A. degrees from the Delhi School of Economics and the University of Washington.
In addition to her outstanding research on sovereign debt and default, emerging market business cycles, and international capital allocation, Gita Gopinath has made significant contributions to addressing global challenges. As the Chief Economist of the IMF, she played a central role in navigating the global economy through the tumultuous years of the COVID-19 pandemic. She developed a bold plan to accelerate global vaccination efforts and advocated tirelessly for greater international cooperation. Simultaneously, she co-led the effort to reshape the IMF’s approach to help countries manage international capital flows. This resulted in the innovative “Integrated Policy Framework,” which has set a new standard in policy analysis and government guidance worldwide.
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Gita Gopinath’s CV on the IMF website
The Bernhard Harms Prize
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 award ceremony was held in Berlin for the first time this year. The prize is endowed with 10,000 euros and is named after Bernhard Harms, who founded the Kiel Institute in 1914.
Recent winners of the Bernhard Harms Prize are Lord Nicholas Stern (2021), Carmen Reinhart (2018), Marc Melitz (2016), and Abhijit Banerjee (2014).
