Paul De Grauwe

Education and career

De Grauwe studied economics at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven from 1964 until 1969. Having received a scholarship from the Belgian Fulbright Commission, De Grauwe obtained his PhD degree at Johns Hopkins University in 1973. He started to work as an intern at the European Economic Community in 1969 and later went on to become a research assistant, and subsequently a professor at the Center for Economic Studies of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

In 1973 De Grauwe began to work as an economist at the International Monetary Fund and accepted positions at the Centre for European Policy Studies and the European Central Bank. He has also been professor at the College of Europe, the Free University of Berlin, and the Norwegian School of Management. Furthermore, he has been a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan, Tilburg University, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, University of Kiel, Bank of Japan, Université libre de Bruxelles, University of Saarbrücken, Ghent University, the Catholic University of Portugal, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, University of Amsterdam, Humboldt University of Berlin, and Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. In addition, De Grauwe has been given doctoral honorary degrees at the University of St Gallen, the university of Valencia, the Turku School of Economics and Business Administration and the University of Genoa.

During 1991-1995 and 1999-2003, Paul De Grauwe was a member of the Belgian Senate, and from 1995 until 1999 he became a member of parliament in the Belgian Chamber of Representatives. In both houses of parliament he was part of the Flemish Liberals and Democrats.

He is editor of various economic academic journals and a former member of the Group of Economic Policy Analysis advising the European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, as well as director of the money, macro and international finance research network of CESifo at the University of Munich. He has had a column in the Financial Times. Belgian media often make use of his expertise when dealing with current economic affairs, primarily with regard to European economic and monetary issues. Besides hundreds of scientific articles, he has published various books as well. Furthermore, he is co-editor and author of economic textbooks in both Dutch and English. He is the author of The Economics of Monetary Union, which was translated in ten languages. From December 2011 until May 2012, De Grauwe served as member of the Jacques Delors Institute’s Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa group, a high-level expert group to reflect on the reform of the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union.

In 2012, De Grauwe reached the legal age for mandatory retirement in Belgium, after which he was offered the John Paulson Chair in European Political Economy at the London School of Economics and Political Science and retired from his position at the University of Leuven. He has expressed his discontent with the legal retirement age: I felt disparaged, like an old machine in a factory. Our [Belgian] legislation says: "you have become economically worthless," but I also felt struck in my identity as a person. You have to give people the freedom of choice if they want to continue working after their 65th [birthday], end of story. I understand those who feel exhausted and quit, but I wanted to continue functioning academically and this wasn't an option here [in Belgium].

Recognition

In May 2013, De Grauwe was awarded the Arkprijs van het Vrije Woord (Ark Prize of Free Speech).

Market ideology

As a liberal and advocate of the free market De Grauwe has long time been a strong proponent of the market economy and globalisation. In De onvoltooide globalisering (The Uncompleted Globalisation), written for a broader audience, he explains why he favors globalisation and discusses the statements of anti-globalists, which he finds somewhat pessimistic. He sees himself as an optimist and believes that market forces and economic growth will offer a solution to the issues related to natural resources, energy, environment and climate. However, De Grauwe has recently pointed out the necessity of government in this market economy. He said he used to uphold financial markets as bearers of the truth but now acknowledges that it is a world where rationality is intertwined with emotions. In an interview, he stated that certain entities are needed to correct market forces. Because of the global financial crisis, the need to correct the market is greater today than before. For this reason his acknowledgement of a strong government has increased.

Selected publications

With others