I am a monetary, macroeconomist and concentrate on analyzing the effects of financial markets on macroeconomic stability. Most recently, I have become interested in studying monetary policy in South Africa. Under the new government, the Reserve Bank of South Africa has had the challenging task of promoting strong economic growth to alleviate poverty and unemployment, while avoiding rapid inflation. I have written a number of papers analyzing how the Reserve Bank has tried to meet these objectives with a monetary policy strategy called inflation targeting. Under inflation targeting, the primary objective of the central bank is to stabilize the rate of inflation. The Reserve Bank’s experience is of more general interest in that many emerging market economies have adopted the inflation-targeting strategy.
In addition to my interest in macroeconomics, I have also become interested in higher education finance, particularly among the top liberal arts colleges. This research is focused on normative questions such as how much of the endowment should be spent in a given year, and positive questions such as what has determined spending and student fees at these institutions. In this research I have been fortunate to work with my good friend and colleague Roger Kaufman of Smith College.