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Kenneth Rogoff, Professor of Economics and Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was awarded the Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics 2011 by Josef Ackermann at an academic symposium in Frankfurt today.

“Kenneth Rogoff’s research tells us that the crisis currently gripping the entire credit structure at the core of the world economy is likely to lead to less liberal financial markets, both nationally and internationally, to explicit debt restructuring, both public and private, and to new monetary and fiscal arrangements,” Ackermann said during the award ceremony.

“His research also tells us that a remedy to this epochal crisis will require a comprehensive approach that brings our economies onto a slow and tortuous path towards debt sustainability,” the Chairman of the Management Board and the Group Executive Committee added.

The Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics is awarded every other year by the Center for Financial Studies (CFS) in partnership with the Goethe University Frankfurt. It is sponsored by the Deutsche Bank Donation Fund and endowed with EUR 50,000.

“It is a great honour to receive this prize both in light of the important researchers who have won previously, as well as the distinguished international academic committee that makes the selection,” said Rogoff. “I am also fortunate to have worked with several extraordinary co-authors over the years,” he added.

Kenneth Rogoff

The award was given to Rogoff in recognition of his pioneering work in international finance and macroeconomics. “Rogoff’s work on sovereign default and debt restructuring, global imbalances, exchange rates and the history of financial crises is highly relevant for understanding and addressing today’s global challenges,” said Jury Chairman and CFS Director Uwe Walz in a comment on the jury’s selection. “Rogoff has not only contributed pioneering work of the greatest academic importance, he has also made his findings accessible to a broad public.”

Rogoff is regarded as a leading expert on international macroeconomics. The empirical, theoretical and historical work of the renowned economist covers research on exchange rates, credibility of monetary policy, the independence of central banks, sovereign debt and the history of financial crises.

The award

The Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics is one of the most prestigious awards of its kind. It honours economists whose work has influenced research in financial economics, leading to fundamental advances in theory and practice.

Earlier recipients of the Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics are:
- 2009: Robert J. Shiller, Arthur M. Okun Professor of Economics, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics at the Yale School of Management, for his work on asset pricing and related macroeconomic risks;
- 2007: Michael Woodford, Professor of Political Economy at Columbia University, for his fundamental contributions to the theory and practical analysis of  monetary policy;
- 2005: Eugene F. Fama, Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago, for his theory of efficient markets.

The symposium

The award ceremony was held at an academic symposium, entitled ‘Global perspective on the financial crisis’, at Goethe University in Frankfurt. The event’s keynote speaker, Stanley Fischer, Governor of Bank of Israel, spoke about the role of central banks in a financial crisis.

A panel, which included: Philippe Bacchetta, Professor of Macroeconomics at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland; Claudio Borio, Deputy Head of the Monetary and Economic Department at the Bank for International Settlements; Otmar Issing, CFS President; and Thomas Mayer, Chief Economist of Deutsche Bank, discussed key challenges for academia, such as risk, financial stability and regulation.

For more information on the symposium, visit the Center for Financial Studies website.

Press Release [PDF, 107k]