Gita Gopinath (born December 8, 1971) is an Indian-American economist who has held the role of First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) since January 21, 2022. She served as the International Monetary Fund's Chief Economist from 2019 to 2022. She was the Director of the IMF's Research Department and the Fund's Economic Counsellor in that capacity.
Christine Lagarde, the IMF's Managing Director, named Gopinath as the organisation's Chief Economist in October 2018. She dubbed the global recession of 2020 'The Great Lockdown' in an interview with Trevor Noah on The Daily Show. Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF's Managing Director, selected her as the First Managing Director, the organisation's number two post, in December 2021.
Early Life And Education
Gita Gopinath was born in a Malayali family in Kolkata, India on December 8, 1971. She is the younger of TV Gopinath and VC Vijayalakshmi's two daughters.
Gopinath attended Mysore's Nirmala Convent School. She earned a BA from the University of Delhi's Lady Shri Ram College for Women in 1992 and an MA in economics from the University of Delhi's Delhi School of Economics in 1994. In 1996, she earned a master's degree from the University of Washington. After completing a doctoral dissertation titled 'Three Essays On International Capital Flows: A Search Theoretic Approach,' she received her PhD in economics from Princeton University in 2001.
Her PhD advisors at Princeton included two future IMF Chief Economists, Professor Ken Rogoff (2001-03) and Professor Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas (2022-25), as well as a future Chair of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Professor Ben Bernanke (2006-14).
Career
She became an assistant professor at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business in 2001. She became the John Zwanstra Professor of International Studies and Economics at Harvard University in 2005, and she will remain there until 2022.
Gopinath was named chief economist of the International Monetary Fund in October 2018. She co-authored the 'Pandemic Paper' on how to end the COVID-19 pandemic, which set widely recognised targets for vaccination the world, as one of her many key endeavours. As a result of this work, the IMF, World Bank, WTO, and WHO formed the Multilateral Task Force to assist end the epidemic, as well as a working group with vaccine producers to identify trade impediments, supply bottlenecks, and hasten vaccine delivery to low- and lower-middle-income nations.
Gopinath also collaborated with other IMF divisions on a new analytical approach to help nations adapt to international capital flows through the Integrated Policy Framework, which he developed in collaboration with policymakers, academics, and other stakeholders. She also assisted in the formation of an IMF Climate Change team to study, among other things, appropriate climate mitigation policies.
In December 2021, Gopinath was promoted to the rank of First Deputy Managing Director (FDMD), the Fund's second-highest position. After her stint as Chief Economist ended in January 2022, Gopinath was supposed to return to her academic position at Harvard University.
Gopinath represents the IMF at multilateral forums, maintains high-level contacts with member governments and Board members, the media, and other institutions, leads the Fund's work on surveillance and related policies, and supervises research and flagship publications, as well as the work of senior staff.
Gopinath was previously the co-director of the National Bureau of Economic Research's International Finance and Macroeconomics programme, a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's economic advisory panel, Economic Adviser to the Chief Minister of Kerala State (India), a co-editor at the American Economic Review, and a co-editor of the Handbook of International Economics' 2019 edition.
Gopinath was named to the World Bank–IMF High-Level Advisory Group (HLAG) on Sustainable and Inclusive Recovery and Growth in June 2021, which is co-chaired by Mari Pangestu, Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, and Nicholas Stern.
Honours And Accolades
During her PhD research at Princeton, she was given the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Research Award.
The Financial Times named Gopinath one of the '25 Most Influential Women Of The Year' in 2021, while the International Economic Association named her a Schumpeter-Haberler Distinguished Fellow, the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association honoured her with the John Kenneth Galbraith Award, and the Carnegie Corporation named her one of the 'Great (American) Immigrants.' She was named to Bloomberg's list of the '50 People Who Defined 2019' and Time Magazine's list of 'Women Who Broke Major Barriers to Become Firsts.'
Gopinath was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Econometric Society as a fellow in 2018. She was designated one of the Top Global Thinkers of 2019 by Foreign Policy. The University of Washington honoured her with the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2017. In 2014, the International Monetary Fund named her one of the top 25 economists under 45, and the World Economic Forum named her a Young Global Leader in 2011. The President of India gave her the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman in 2019.
In Conclusion
Gita Gopinath has had a long career, full of myriad achievements. She continues to break through barriers and establish important policies, which are crucial for economic propagation.
FAQs
Q. What is Gita Gopinath's profession?
A. Gita Gopinath is an Indian-American economist who has held the role of First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) since January 21, 2022.
Q. What is the 'Pandemic Paper'?
A. Gopinath co-authored the 'Pandemic Paper' on how to end the COVID-19 pandemic, which set widely recognised targets for vaccination the world, as one of her many key endeavours. As a result of this work, the IMF, World Bank, WTO, and WHO formed the Multilateral Task Force to assist end the epidemic, as well as a working group with vaccine producers to identify trade impediments, supply bottlenecks, and hasten vaccine delivery to low- and lower-middle-income nations.