Economist to Explore ‘What the IMF Really Does’ in Lecture

The campus community will have a chance this week to learn about the inner workings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from a leading member of the international organization.

Olivier Blanchard, a native of France who is chief economist and director of research for the IMF, will give a talk on “What the IMF Really Does” Friday, Oct. 17, at 4:15 p.m. in Weinstein Auditorium.

Blanchard, a renowned scholar who taught at Harvard University and is the Robert M. Solow professor emeritus of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), will deliver the annual economics department lecture at Smith.

He will describe “what the IMF does and how it has changed over time,” said Smith economics professor Roger Kaufman, who has known Blanchard since they were in graduate school together at MIT. “He’ll also talk about how the IMF decides which economic policies to prescribe for a particular country.”

Those policies are controversial, Kaufman noted, sparking protests by students at Smith—and others around the world —who feel the IMF has become too powerful and too quick to impose austerity measures to end debt crises among its 188 member countries.

Kaufman emphasized that Blanchard is among those who have helped lead the IMF to adopt a more flexible approach.

“Olivier has been a leader in arguing for greater economic stimulus during the recent global financial crisis,” Kaufman said.

Last spring, IMF director Christine Lagarde withdrew as commencement speaker at Smith. A few days later, Kaufman received an email from Blanchard suggesting, “Maybe you should invite me for a talk?”

Kaufman said his department is pleased to be able to do just that on October 17, when Blanchard will speak in Weinstein Auditorium and then take questions from the audience.

“I hope that economics students can learn more about how the IMF works and that people who have concerns about the organization can get a meaningful response to those concerns,” Kaufman said.

Blanchard, who has been at the IMF since 2008, “is someone who is committed to applying economics to real-world problems,” Kaufman said.

Another IMF leader will visit Smith on Tuesday, Oct. 28, when Petya Koeva Brooks ’96, a senior economist in the organization’s European Department, will speak to students enrolled in the Introduction to Global Financial Markets course.

This is the third year that Brooks—who studied with Blanchard at MIT—has participated in the course, a gateway requirement for Smith’s Global Financial Institutions Concentration.

Smith economics professor Mahnaz Mahdavi, who directs the gateway course, said Brooks’ lecture, “IMF Today,” will focus on how the organization has evolved since its founding at the end of World War II.

Olivier Blanchard, chief economist and director of research at the IMF, will speak on campus October 17.