Wednesday, February 24, 2021
12:00 pm ET
via Zoom

A Joint Webinar of: 

IIEP Rethinking Capitalism and Democracy Series

Thunderbird Finance and Sustainability Series

Finance affects all aspects of our lives, from our economies to social cohesion to the ecological systems that we depend on for our survival. As a result, the implications of how we govern finance are truly fundamental. In the last few years, central banks and financial supervisors have been re assessing the economic and social landscape they face, as well as their broader role in achieving sustainable prosperity. Their responses to the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic have increased the urgency for this review of their objectives, instruments, and institutional arrangements. This webinar examines the opportunities and challenges for financial governance, explores emerging new practices among central banks and financial supervisors, and outlines pathways for greater alignment of the governance of finance with the broader sustainability agenda.

Meet the Speakers:

Alexander Barkawi is founder and director of the Council on Economic Policies (CEP) – an economic policy think tank for sustainability focused on fiscal, monetary and trade policy. Prior to creating and building CEP, he was the managing director of SAM Indexes and thus responsible for developing the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices into a key reference point for sustainable investing. Alex is a graduate in economics of the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, where he also earned his doctoral degree. He grew up in Germany and Egypt and today lives in Zurich, Switzerland.

Jay Shambaugh’s area of research is macroeconomics and international economics. His work includes analysis of the interaction of exchange rate regimes with monetary policy, capital flows, and trade flows as well as studies of international reserves holdings, country balance sheet exchange rate exposure, the cross- the country impact of fiscal policy, the crisis in the euro area, and regional growth disparities. He has had two stints in public service. He served as a Member of the White House Council of Economic Advisors from 2015-2017. Earlier, he served on the staff of the CEA as a Senior Economist for International Economics and then as the Chief Economist. He also spent 3 years as the Director of the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution. He is also a Faculty Research Fellow at the NBER and Non- Resident Senior Fellow In Economic Studies at Brookings. Prior to joining the faculty at George Washington, Shambaugh taught at Georgetown and Dartmouth and was a visiting scholar at the I MF. Shambaugh received his Ph. D. in economics from the University of California at Berkel ey, an M.A. from the Fletcher School at Tufts, and a B.A. from Yale University.

Ann Florini is the Clinical Professor at the Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University, where she directs programs at the Washington, D.C. campus. She was previously Professor of Public Policy at Singapore Management University founding director of the Centre on Asia and Globalisation at the National University of Singapore; and a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. She has spearheaded numerous international initiatives on global governance, energy and climate policy, and cross-sector collaborations including government, civil society, and the private sector. Her many books and articles have addressed governance in China, transparency in governance, transnational civil society networks, and the role of the private sector in public affairs. Dr. Florini received her Ph.D. in Political Science from UCLA and a Masters in Public Affairs from Princeton University.

Sunil Sharma is a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Institute for International Economic Policy, Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University, Washington DC, USA, and a Senior Associate at the Council on Economic Policies, Zurich, Switzerland. He was Assistant Director in the IMF’s Research Department from 2015-2018, and the Director of the IMF-Singapore Regional Training Institute (STI) in Singapore from 2006-2015. Before moving to Singapore in 2006, he was Chief of the IMF Institute’s Asian Division in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining the IMF in 1992, he was on the Economics faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He has a Ph.D. and M.A. in Economics from Cornell University, and his current interests include rethinking capitalism and democracy, systemic hazards, complex systems, the international financial architecture, and the institutional structure and design of financial regulation.

 James E. Foster is the Oliver T. Carr, Jr. Professor of International Affairs, Professor of Economics, and Co-Director of the Institute for International Economic Policy at the George Washington University. He is also a Research Associate at the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative at Oxford University. Professor Foster’s research focuses on welfare economics — using economic tools to evaluate and enhance the wellbeing of people. His work underlies many well-known social indices including the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) published annually by the UNDP in the Human Development Report, dozens of national MPIs used to guide domestic policy against poverty, the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) at USAID, the Gross National Happiness Index of Bhutan, the Better Jobs Index of the InterAmerican Development Bank, and the Statistical Performance Index of the World Bank. Prof. Foster received his PhD in Economics from Cornell University and has a Doctorate Honoris Causa from Universidad Autonoma del Estado Hidalgo (Mexico).