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MIT Sloan professor Kristin Forbes named to UK Monetary Policy Committee

Economics professor will serve three-year term helping to guide policy.
Kristin Forbes
Caption:
Kristin Forbes
Credits:
Courtesy of MIT Sloan

MIT Sloan professor Kristin Forbes has been appointed as an external member of the U.K. Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) by Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne. In this role, she will hold one of the nine votes that determine the country’s monetary policy.

In announcing the appointment, Osborne said, “Monetary policy plays a critical role in our long-term economic plan, delivering economic security to hardworking people. Forbes is an economist of outstanding ability with real practical experience of policy making. She will make an exceptionally strong addition to the MPC. It’s a sign of the high regard in which the Bank of England and our monetary framework are held around the world that someone of Kristin’s ability wishes to be part of them.”

Forbes is currently the Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Professor of Management at MIT Sloan. Her research focuses on policy issues in international macroeconomics. Recent projects have included work on capital flows, financial crises, and contagion.

Forbes, who earned her PhD in economics at MIT Sloan, has won multiple teaching awards during her time on the faculty.

From 2003 to 2005, Forbes served as the youngest-ever member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. She has also worked at the U.S. Treasury, the World Bank, and Morgan Stanley. She is on the Panel of Economic Advisers for the Congressional Budget Office and the Academic Advisory Board for both the Peterson Institute for International Economics and the Center for Global Development. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Forbes will serve a three-year term on the MPC but maintain a part-time affiliation with MIT as her time permits.

Press Mentions

The Wall Street Journal

Wall Street Journal reporter Jason Douglas writes that Prof. Kristin Forbes, who was recently appointed to the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, "highlighted a risk to economic recovery that is preoccupying central bankers on both sides of the Atlantic: Investors appear too sanguine about risk." 

Reuters

Reuters reports on Professor Kristin Forbes’ appointment to the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee. "Dr Kristin Forbes is an economist of outstanding ability with real practical experience of policy making," says Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborn.

BBC News

“Now professor of management and global economics at MIT Sloan, Ms Forbes was the youngest-ever person appointed to the White House's Council of Economic Advisors, where she served President George W Bush from 2003 to 2005,” reports The BBC on Professor Kristin Forbes’ appointment to the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee. 

The Guardian

“Kristin Forbes, a former economic adviser to George Bush, is to break the all-male stranglehold on interest-rate setting in the UK when she becomes a member of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee in July,” writes Larry Elliot of The Guardian

Bloomberg

Jennifer Ryan and Emma Charlton of Bloomberg News report that Professor Kristin Forbes has been appointed to the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee. Forbes previously worked for the U.S. Treasury during the Bush administration and was the youngest member ever on the White House Council of Economic Advisers. 

HuffPost

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborn has appointed Professor Kristin Forbes to the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, writes Asa Bennett for The Huffington Post UK. Forbes is the second woman appointed to the committee under Osborn.

The Wall Street Journal

Professor Kristin Forbes has been appointed to the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy committee writes Jason Douglas for The Wall Street Journal. “She will make an exceptionally strong addition to the MPC," said Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne in a statement.

Financial Times

“Kristin Forbes, a professor of management and global economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will join the MPC for its July meeting, completing an almost wholesale transformation of the committee’s membership within a year,” write Chris Giles and Emily Cadman for The Financial Times. 

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