We are very proud to devote this article to the contributions of our Ph.D. alumni through their careers in the Federal Reserve system, other federal agencies, Central Banks, and international financial institutions. Professors Todd Walker and Christian Matthes, two of our faculty members, collaborated with us on the article, so did IU alumnus, Ike Brannon, who wrote about our Ph.D. alumni working in government agencies in the D.C. area, in a separate article in this issue.

A review of past Department of Economics alumni newsletters showcases a long tradition of the strong connection our Ph.D. program has had on the Federal Reserve system. First-page articles in the Fall 1982 and Fall 1984 issues of The Trend Line (as it was called then) list a number of our alumni with these connections going back to 1952. Read these articles here and here.

Some of our more recent Ph.D. graduates (year of graduation in parentheses) with a Fed connection include James Bullard (1990), President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; Jennifer Roush (2001), Federal Reserve Board; Troy Davig (2002), formerly Executive Vice-President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City (currently at Symmetry Investments); Lamont Black (2007), Federal Reserve Board; Ekaterina Peneva (2007), Federal Reserve Board; Hess Chung (2008), Federal Reserve Board; Michael Plante (2009), Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas; Huixin Bi (2010), Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City; Manuel Gonzalez-Astudillo (2012), Federal Reserve Board; Alexander Richter (2012), Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas; and Margaret (Maggie) Jacobson (2020), Federal Reserve Board. Former IU Economics Professor Christopher Waller took office as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in December 2020. Read the article (p. 15) about Dr. Waller’s appointment here.

Several of our recent Ph.D. graduates have held or currently hold positions with other Central Banks. They include Huixin Bi (2010), Bank of Canada (now at Kansas City Fed); Jose Fique (2015) Bank of Canada; Sophia Priazhkina (2016), Bank of Canada; Karsten Chipeniuk (2017), Reserve Bank of New Zealand; and Takuji Fueki (2017), Bank of Japan. Some of our graduates who work currently at the Bank of Korea or held such a position in the past include Jinho Choi (2011), Joonyoung Hur (2012), Joo Yong Lee (2013), Hyunduk Suh (2013), Kwangyong Park (2018), WonSuk Chung (2021), and Seokil Kang (2022).

We also have Ph.D. graduates who have held or currently hold positions with international financial institutions. Positions with the International Monetary Fund include Eric Clifton (1981) formerly at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Gonzalo Pastor (1985); Krishna Srinivasan (1993), who recently took a position as Director of the Asia and Pacific Department; Shu-Chun Susan Yang (2003); Michael Gapen (2004); Seok Gil Park (2010); and Yongquan Cao (2019). Lyaziza Sabyrova (2000) is Director, Regional Cooperation and Operations Coordination Division at the Asian Development Bank.

During his tenure in our department, Professor Emeritus Eric Leeper chaired many of the dissertation committees of the alumni listed above. He states: “I’m proud of their commitment to applying frontier of macroeconomic knowledge to practical policy problems. This is a daunting task, so we are fortunate it is in good hands.”

Professor Todd Walker, who has also served on a number of these dissertation committees, is very proud of our alumni. “Many of our students gravitated towards policy-oriented research thanks mainly due to faculty like Prof. Eric Leeper, but also because these questions are the most salient in macroeconomics. As we’re seeing again today, inflation impacts everyone. Without well-researched policy solutions, standards of living would be negatively impacted. I’m immensely proud of the students I’ve advised during my time at IU. They have made me a better economist and IU a much better institution.”