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Kiel
World-renowned economist Gita Gopinath, the first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has received the first Kiel Institute Bernhard Harms Prize 2023.
In her laudatory speech, Şebnem Kalemli-Özcan, Professor of Economics at University of Maryland, said: “Gita Gopinath is a superb scholar and an influential policy maker, a very rare combination—almost nonexistent if you also add the fact that she is a woman. She has broken so many glass and non-glass barriers, a true role model, leading by example, and a dear friend.”
The award ceremony took place in the historic “Weltsaal” of the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin. It was embedded in the high-level Geoeconomics Conference, a gathering of leading international scholars working at the intersection of international economics and geopolitics.
“Gita elegantly combines theoretical modeling with state-of-the-art empirical analysis using rich data,” Moritz Schularick said. “Her research has expanded not only our theoretical understanding of international economics but has also provided crucial practical insights on global trade and productivity growth.”
“I am honored to receive a prize that champions scholarship in international economics and global relations,” Gita Gopinath said. “At a time when countries are drifting further apart such scholarship is critically important, and this conference on geoeconomics is particularly welcome.”
Before ascending to the IMF leadership, Gita Gopinath was a professor at Harvard University between 2005 and 2022. Prior to that, she was an assistant professor of economics at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. She received her Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University, after earning a B.A. from Lady Sri Ram College, and M.A. degrees from the Delhi School of Economics and the University of Washington.
Since 1964, the Kiel Institute’s Bernhard Harms Prize has been awarded to distinguished scholars for their outstanding research in international economics as well as for exceptional efforts in advancing global economic relations. The award ceremony was held in Berlin for the first time this year. The prize is endowed with 10,000 euros and is named after Bernhard Harms, who founded the Kiel Institute in 1914.
