IMF seal blue

IMF SEMINAR EVENT

DATE: October 8, 2014

DAY: Wednesday

11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

LOCATION: George Washington University, Jack Morton Auditorium

More Seminars

Overview

Fostering and sustaining robust and balanced economic growth is a policy imperative across all countries in the world today. This high-level conference will bring together policy makers, experts and analysts to exchange views on the nature of the challenges and on the reforms needed to jumpstart job creation and ensure more inclusive growth. The one-day event will discuss challenges to delivering robust and sustained growth, the role of public debt and investment, and sharing the fruits of growth. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde will provide opening remarks. The conference will conclude with a policy panel to discuss the critical dilemmas that countries face as they seek to implement reforms to deliver job-rich and inclusive growth.

Session 2: The global financial crisis has left a legacy of very high public debt across advanced economies, which has elicited calls to gradually decrease public debt in order to reduce risks of sovereign debt crises and re-establish buffers. Public infrastructure in many countries has also deteriorated and consequently impacted growth trajectories, prompting calls for scaling up public investment, given the still very low real costs of public borrowing. Some key questions for discussion in this session include: (i) is a further debt buildup warranted to meet public investment goals? How can the efficiency of public investment be improved?; (ii) is the legacy of high public debt a problem, or should countries simply live with higher public debt in the future?; and (iii) what normative guidelines are appropriate for countries as they try to manage the multiple challenges associated with high public debt, deficient public infrastructure, and lackluster medium-run growth prospects?

View other sessions:

Session 1: The Imperative of robust and sustained growth
Session 3: Sharing the fruits of growth
Concluding Session: Growth and Reform Challenges

Join the conversation via #sharedgrowth

Challenges of Job-Rich and Inclusive Growth - Session 2 Public debt, public investment, and growth

Challenges of Job-Rich and Inclusive Growth - Session 2 Public debt, public investment, and growth

Panelists

Panelist: Paul Krugman

Paul Krugman is professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University. He is the author or editor of 20 books and more than 200 journal articles, primarily about international trade and finance. He is also nationally known for his twice-weekly columns in The New York Times. He was the recipient of the 1991 John Bates Clark Medal. In 2008, he won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to New Trade Theory and New Economic Geography.

Panelist: Kenneth Rogoff

Kenneth Rogoff is Thomas D. Cabot Professor at Harvard University. From 2001-2003, he served as Chief Economist at the International Monetary Fund. His 2009 book with Carmen Reinhart, This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly has been widely cited by academics, policymakers and journalists. He is also known for his seminal work on exchange rates and on central bank independence. He serves on the Economic Advisory Panel of the New York Federal Reserve. He is also an international grandmaster of chess. He holds a Ph.D. from M.I.T.

Panelist: Christina Romer

Christina Romer is the Class of 1957-Garff B. Wilson Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley and a former Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Obama administration from 2009 to 2010. She is a macroeconomist with a particular interest in monetary and fiscal policy, and economic history. She is co-director of the Program in Monetary Economics at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and is a member of the NBER Business Cycle Dating Committee.

Panelist: Naoyuki Shinohara

Mr. Naoyuki Shinohara assumed office as Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund on March 1, 2010. Born in 1953, Mr. Shinohara holds a B.A degree in Economics from Tokyo University (1975) and Master in Public Affairs, from Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University (1979). He was an Associate at the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University (1986) and a Visiting Professor at Saitama National University (1990-1992).

Panelist: Gillian Tett

Gillian Tett serves as US managing editor. She writes weekly columns for the Financial Times, covering a range of economic, financial, political and social issues. In 2014, she was named Columnist of the Year in the British Press Awards and was the first recipient of the Royal Anthropological Institute Marsh Award. Her other honors include a SABEW Award for best feature article (2012), President’s Medal by the British Academy (2011), being recognized as Journalist of the Year (2009) and Business Journalist of the Year (2008) by the British Press Awards, and as Senior Financial Journalist of the Year (2007) by the Wincott Awards. In June 2009 her book Fool’s Gold won Financial Book of the Year at the inaugural Spear’s Book Awards.