Financial economist Kenneth Rogoff receives Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics 2011

- Center for Financial Studies awards Harvard professor Rogoff the prize for his groundbreaking work in the field of international finance and macroeconomics
- Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackermann presents the prize
- Symposium of renowned academics discusses Rogoff’s contributions to research and possible solutions of the financial and sovereign debt crisis

Today the US economist Kenneth Rogoff receives the Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics 2011, which carries an endowment of €50,000. Leading financial economists, including the Governor of the Israeli central bank Stanley Fischer and CFS President Otmar Issing, will take this opportunity to discuss Kenneth Rogoff’s works and their current political and economic relevance to the global financial and economic crisis at a symposium entitled “Global Perspective on the Financial Crisis”.

“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. 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,“ says Josef Ackermann, CEO of Deutsche Bank, awarding the prize in the course of the symposium.

Kenneth Rogoff’s empirical and theoretical works and analysis of economic history cover subjects including exchange rate research, the credibility of monetary policy and the independence of central banks, sovereign debt restructuring and the history of financial crises. Rogoff is currently the leading figure in international macroeconomics, his works covering all aspects of the field.

Rogoff’s work has had an important impact on both economic policy and scientific research. This applies not only to his latest works with Carmen Reinhart on the financial crisis, but also to his earlier studies on central bank independence, exchange rates, and sovereign debt crises.

“It is a great honor 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,” says Kenneth Rogoff. “I am also fortunate to have worked with several extraordinary co-author over the years,” added the prize winner.

Kenneth Rogoff is Professor of Economics and Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University in Cambridge, USA. He has previously held professorships at institutes including Princeton University and the University of California, Berkeley. Rogoff has been a member of the Group of Thirty (G30), an international committee made up of 30 leading current and former policy-makers, financiers and academics, since 2008. Since 2004 he has been a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), which has a significant influence on the formulation of the USA’s foreign policy strategies.

The academic prize, sponsored by the Deutsche Bank Donation Fund, is awarded biannually by the CFS in partnership with Goethe University Frankfurt. The Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics honors internationally renowned economic researchers whose work has a marked influence on research concerning questions of financial economics and macroeconomics, and has led to fundamental advances in economic theory and practice.

Kenneth Rogoff has been elected by a Jury of internationally renowned experts in financial research and practice. Members of the international Jury, alongside the Chairman professor Uwe Walz, include the professors Luigi Guiso (European University Institute Florence), CFS Director Michael Haliassos (Goethe University Frankfurt) and Charles Yuji Horioka (Osaka University). Also representing the Goethe University Frankfurt are the professors Otmar Issing (CFS President), Jan Pieter Krahnen (CFS Director) and Raimond Maurer. Thomas Mayer, Managing Director of Deutsche Bank Research and Chief Economist of Deutsche Bank, is also acting as a Jury member. Furthermore, the Jury includes Professor Carmen M. Reinhart (Peterson Institute for International Economics) and the winner of the Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics 2009, Professor Robert J. Shiller (Yale University).

In 2005, the first Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics was awarded to Eugene F. Fama, Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago, for developing and researching the concept of market efficiency. In 2007 Michael Woodford, Professor of Political Economy at Columbia University in New York, received the prize for his research on the theory of monetary macroeconomics. In 2009 Robert J. Shiller was honored for his fundamental contributions to research in the field of financial economics and, amongst other things, his key contribution to the understanding of price fluctuations on markets and to the development of financial instruments to hedge against macroeconomic risks.


About the Center for Financial Studies
The Center for Financial Studies (CFS) located in Goethe University’s House of Finance, is an independent non-profit research center, funded by contributions from donors and members, as well as by national and international research grants. CFS member institutions comprise almost all major players in Germany’s financial industry.
Mission: CFS affiliated professors and fellows conduct research in several topical areas, ranging from Stability and Banking Regulation, to Household Finance, Law and Economics of Financial Organizations, Monetary Policy, and the Economics of Financial Markets. CFS is also a contributor to policy debates and policy analyses, in particular on banking regulation and monetary policy. CFS focuses on building a platform for research, relying on its international network among academics, the financial industry and central banks in Europe.
Activities: Among other recurring activities, CFS organizes a number of widely recognized events, including the annual “ECB and Its Watchers”-conference, the ongoing ECB-CFS research network initiative on financial integration in Europe, the Presidential Lectures under the auspices of the CFS President Otmar Issing, the bi-annual Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics, and the quarterly CFS Financial Center Index. Its community services at the House of Finance comprise a set of research-enabling activities, consisting of an academic visitors program, a financial market data center, the CFS-GSFEM policy research initiative, and its role as co-founder of the House of Finance Policy Platform.
People: CFS President is Professor Otmar Issing, former chief economist and member of the Executive Board of the ECB; Chairman of the Board is Rolf-E. Breuer, former CEO of Deutsche Bank AG; CFS Directors are Professors Michalis Haliassos, Jan Pieter Krahnen and Uwe Walz. For more details on CFS activities and its research programs please visit www.ifk-cfs.de.