Central Bankers' Central Banker to Be Awarded Prize at Stanford

Hey, if you can't give a prize to a money printer, who can you give a prize to?

The Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research has announced that this year’s winner of the SIEPR Prize for Contributions to Economic Policy is Stanley Fischer. Fischer is the former Governor of the Bank of Israel and awaiting confirmation as the Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve. The first two SIEPR Prize recipients were Paul Volcker, and Martin Feldstein.

The idea for the SIEPR Prize and the initial funding came from former Secretary of Treasury, Labor and State, George P. Shultz. Accorsding to SIEPR, "the Prize recognizes those who have made outstanding lifetime contributions to improving the design and conduct of economic policy either in the U.S. or abroad."

SIEPR’s selection committee consists of five exceptional leaders in economic policy: Secretary George Shultz, Jim Poterba (President of the National Bureau of Economic Research), John Shoven (Director of SIEPR), and Kenneth Arrow and Gary Becker, both Nobel Prize winners in economics. The recipient of the SIEPR prize receives an award of $100,000.

A total establishment tool, Fischer is currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He was Governor of the Bank of Israel from 2005 through 2013. Prior to joining the Bank of Israel, Fischer was Vice Chairman of Citigroup from 2002 through 2005. He was the First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, from 1994 until 2001. Before joining the IMF, Professor Fischer was the Killian Professor and Head of the Department of Economics at MIT. He was a member of the MIT Department of Economics from 1973 to 1994. During this time he was also Vice President, Development Economics and Chief Economist at the World Bank (1988 to 1990).

Fischer was born in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) in 1943. He earned a B.Sc. (Econ) and M.Sc. (Econ) at the London School of Economics, graduating in 1966. He obtained his Ph.D. in economics at MIT in 1969. He was an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago from 1969 through 1973, after which he returned to the MIT Department of Economics as an Associate Professor. He became Professor of Economics in 1977. Professor Fischer has held visiting positions at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

SIEPR Director John B. Shoven praised Fischer for his accomplishments and influence on economic policy. “I think Stan is a perfect choice for this prize. His thoughtful leadership has helped the global economy navigate through challenging times from his positions at the World Bank, the IMF, and the Bank of Israel. He has taught many students who went on to become influential economic policy leaders themselves including Ben Bernanke, Mario Draghi and Greg Mankiw. He is a constant source of ideas on how to improve the functioning of the economy.”