George Kopits seminar: “Rules-Based Fiscal Framework: Rationale, Experience, and Good Practices”

George Kopits (former chair of the Hungarian Fiscal Council) will give a talk in TCD on March 22, 12.30-2 in IIIS seminar room on “Rules-Based Fiscal Framework: Rationale, Experience, and Good Practices”.

All welcome!

Bio:

George Kopits is former chair of the Fiscal Council, Republic of Hungary—elected unanimously by Parliament in February 2009. During 2004-09, he was a member of the Monetary Council, National Bank of Hungary.

Kopits began his professional career in 1968-74 at the Office of the Secretary, U.S. Treasury Department. In 1974, he joined the International Monetary Fund, where he served as assistant director until 2003. In the Fund’s European Department, his assignments included surveillance of major Mediterranean and Eastern European economies. In 1990, he was appointed group leader in the Task Force on the Soviet Economy. In the Fiscal Affairs Department, he coordinated several projects for the Executive Board, and contributed to the design and monitoring of Fund-supported adjustment programs.

In addition to involvement in fiscal and monetary policymaking in Hungary and the United States, Kopits headed technical assistance missions on various economic policy issues to Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Indonesia, Madagascar, Mexico, Peru, and Ukraine. Also, he was invited to give technical advice to the authorities of Argentina, China, Colombia, India, Israel, Korea, Nigeria, Thailand, United Kingdom and Venezuela.

Kopits has held visiting academic appointments at Bocconi, Budapest, Cape Town, Johns Hopkins, Siena, and Vienna universities. Currently, he is on the adjunct faculty of the Central European University. He authored more than fifty publications. Kopits holds a Ph.D. in economics from Georgetown University. He was an NDEA fellow, and was awarded the Heller Farkas and Popovics prizes for contributions in economics and finance. He is a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.