Press Release: Economist Jesús Fernández-Villaverde Joins AEI as the John H. Makin Visiting Scholar
November 01, 2022
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Washington, DC (November 1, 2022) — American Enterprise Institute (AEI) Director of Economic Policy Studies Michael R. Strain announced today that the new John H. Makin Visiting Scholar will be economist Jesús Fernández-Villaverde. Dr. Fernández-Villaverde is concurrently professor of economics at the University of Pennsylvania, where he directs the Penn Initiative for the Study of Markets and codirects the Business, Economic, and Financial History Project.
The Makin Visiting Chair was established in 2016 in memory of AEI economist John Makin thanks to a generous gift from Gwendolyn van Paasschen, Dr. Makin’s wife of 31 years. The program celebrates Dr. Makin’s numerous contributions to economic research and policy as a scholar at AEI, a university professor, a chief economist and hedge fund principal on Wall Street, and a consultant to the US Treasury Department, the Congressional Budget Office, and the International Monetary Fund. During his more than 30 years at AEI, Dr. Makin wrote numerous books and articles on financial and monetary policy, including the widely read monthly “Economic Outlook,” which paired insightful research with current economic topics.
“All of us at AEI are delighted to be able to continue to remember and honor our colleague John Makin,” said Michael Strain. “Few can match his contributions to economic policy in both the public and private spheres. There is no better way to pay tribute to the ideals that John pursued than by ensuring that the John H. Makin Visiting Scholar appointment is given to outstanding economists who share his interests and passions.”
Added Dr. Strain, “We are grateful to Gwendolyn van Paasschen for making this visiting scholar position possible. And we are delighted to welcome Jesús Fernández-Villaverde, who has done groundbreaking research in macroeconomics, econometrics, and economic history.”
Dr. Fernández-Villaverde has been a visiting professor at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Oxford, and Cambridge and a visiting scholar at several Federal Reserve Banks, the European Central Bank, and the Bank of Spain. He is a member of National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and the Centre for Economic Policy Research and a fellow of the Econometric Society. He is also a member of the editorial board of leading economic journals such as Econometrica and the International Economic Review. The author of several books and dozens of scientific articles, he has been widely published in Spanish and English.
Dr. Fernández-Villaverde holds a PhD in economics from the University of Minnesota and a BSc in economics and management and an LLB from ICADE in Madrid, Spain.
“It is a great honor to be the Makin Visiting Scholar at AEI,” said Dr. Fernández-Villaverde.“When I was an undergraduate in economics, back in the mid-1990s, I read a book John Makin coauthored with Norman Ornstein, Debt and Taxes: How America Got into Its Budget Mess and What to Do About It. The book included a marvelous discussion of the debates between Hamilton and Jefferson about how to conduct fiscal policy. I still borrow from those ideas in my undergraduate teaching about the economics of the American founding at the University of Pennsylvania. Thus, the chance to enjoy a productive year with a position named after Makin is particularly dear to me. I hope my work will be able to follow his ideals and emulate his level of intellectual excellence.”
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