You know someone is a real monetary policy wonk when she gets married at Bretton Woods—site of the post-war conference that established the current international financial order that you have come both to study and to shape. Your research and award-winning teaching have been at MIT, where, among other efforts, you were among the first thinkers on how to reduce the spread of economic crises from country to country. Your policy work began as deputy assistant secretary of quantitative policy analysis at the U.S. Treasury and continued as the youngest member ever of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers. You now serve, in addition to your MIT appointment, as an external member of the Policy Committee of the Bank of England. Perhaps you have become an expert as well on the conversion of frequent-flyer miles. The publication Finance and Development has named you one of the top twenty-five economists under the age of forty-five who are “shaping how we think about the world economy.” And you have been named a Young Global Leader by the International Economic Forum in Davos. At the heart of all this jet-setting work is your goal of applying rigorous macroeconomic analysis to the improvement of societies, and of lives, around the world.
In recognition of your distinguished achievement in international economics, Williams College is proud to honor you with its Bicentennial Medal.
September 19, 2015