Tenth ECB Annual Research Conference 2025 – Speakers

Programme of the Tenth ECB Annual Research Conference 2025

Her research spans banking, financial intermediation in alternative assets, and corporate finance, with a secondary interest in macroeconomics. She is a Foreign Editor of the Review of Economic Studies, a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research, and a Faculty Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. Before Stanford, she taught at Harvard Business School (2014-2017). Her work has been published in leading journals such as the Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, and Journal of Monetary Economics. She holds a PhD in Economics from Stanford University and a Diplom in Economics from Humboldt University in Berlin. She currently serves on the Federal Reserve System’s Model Validation Council.

His research focuses on financial intermediation with a recent focus on financial technology, climate change, and real estate markets. Tobias Berg serves as an Associate Editor at the Review of Finance and previously served as an Associate Editor of the Review of Financial Studies. He has received the Review of Financial Studies Distinguished Referee Award, was ranked among the Top 10 Economists in Germany, and was awarded a European Research Council Consolidator Grant for his work on Banking and Climate Change. Tobias Berg has won a best teaching award for his courses on corporate finance as well as a star lecturer award for his course on financial intermediation.

She is a member of the Group of Central Bank Governors and Heads of Supervision (GHOS) of the Bank for International Settlements. Claudia Buch was the Vice President of the Deutsche Bundesbank from May 2014 to December 2023, and before she was the President of the Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH), professor of economics at the Universities of Magdeburg and Tübingen, and member of the German Council of Economic Experts. She worked for the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, was awarded a doctoral degree and a habilitation (German post-doc degree) by the University of Kiel, and she studied Economics at the University of Bonn.

After studying law and economics at the University of Oviedo and earning his PhD in economics from Harvard University, Mr. Campa taught finance at New York University and the IESE Business School and consulted for a number of international organisations including the World Bank, the IMF, the Bank for International Settlements and the European Commission.

He then served as the 10th Secretary of State for Economy of the Spanish government and was most recently Director of Regulatory affairs of the Santander Bank.

He has represented the New York Fed on many Financial Stability Board's workstreams over the years. He was a member of the original Experts Group formed in 2010 to focus on shadow banking. In those capacities he has contributed to the formulation of the principles for effective monitoring of nonbank financial intermediation activities across the globe, and to the compilation of related regulatory guidelines.

His research has been in the broad areas of financial markets and financial institutions. Over the years he has produced several contributions on themes ranging from competition in banking and its role for the real economy, global banking and the transmission of monetary policy, and the evolution of financial intermediation. More recently he has been focusing on the emergence and growth of nonbank financial institutions, and on the interconnections with banks. He has published extensively in scholarly journals, among which The Journal of Finance, Journal of Economic Theory, American Economic Review, Journal of International Economics. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Brown University and a bachelor’s degree in economics from La Sapienza University in Rome, Italy.

Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas is the Economic Counsellor and the Director of Research of the IMF. He is on leave from the University of California at Berkeley where he is the S.K. and Angela Chan Professor of Global Management in the Department of Economics and at the Haas School of Business. Professor Gourinchas was the editor-in-chief of the IMF Economic Review from its creation in 2009 to 2016, the managing editor of the Journal of International Economics between 2017 and 2019, and a co-editor of the American Economic Review between 2019 and 2022. He is on-leave from the National Bureau of Economic Research where he was director of the International Finance and Macroeconomics program, a Research Fellow with the Center for Economic Policy Research CEPR (London) and a Fellow of the Econometric Society.

Professor Gourinchas' main research interests are in international macroeconomics and finance. His recent research focuses on the scarcity of global safe assets, global imbalances and currency wars; on the International Monetary System and the role of the U.S. dollar; on the Dominant Currency Paradigm; on the determinants of capital flows to and from developing countries; on international portfolios; on the global financial crisis and on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on business failures. Professor Gourinchas is the laureate of the 2007 Bernácer Prize for best European economist working in macroeconomics and finance under the age of 40, and of the 2008 Prix du Meilleur Jeune Economiste for best French economist under the age of 40. In 2012-2013, Professor Gourinchas was a member of the French Council of Economic Advisors to the Prime Minister.

He attended Ecole Polytechnique and received his PhD in Economics in 1996 from MIT. He taught at Stanford Graduate School of Business and Princeton University before joining UC Berkeley department of economics in 2003.

She is involved in theoretical and empirical research in monetary and financial economics, with a particular interest in central bank policies, financial stability, and financial regulation. Her research has been published in the Review of Economic Studies, the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, and the Journal of Monetary Economics, among others. She received her Ph.D. in 2006 from Cornell University’s Economics Department. During her studies, she was supported by a Fulbright Fellowship. Additional information about Marie can be found on her webpage.

He was also a member of the Governing Council and the General Council of the European Central Bank, member of the European Systemic Risk Board, member of the International Monetary Fund's Board of Governors and a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements.

Klaas holds several secondary positions. Since 2005, he has been professor of economics of central banking at the University of Groningen, and since 2015 he has also been honorary professor of monetary stability at the Economics and Business Department of the University of Amsterdam. Klaas has published a variety of articles in leading Dutch and international journals in the fields of monetary and financial economics. He is also a member of the Group of Thirty, a global advisory body comprised of economic and financial leaders.

Before assuming DNB’s presidency, Klaas Knot served as Deputy Treasurer-General and Director of Financial Markets at the Dutch Ministry of Finance (2009–2011). From 1995 to 2009, he fulfilled various roles at DNB, interrupted by positions at the International Monetary Fund (1998-1999) and the former Dutch Pensions and Insurance Supervisory Authority (2003-2004).

In 1991, he graduated with honours in economics from the University of Groningen. In 1995, he obtained his PhD in economics there.

Prior to this he worked at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. His research focuses on banking and international finance issues, and has been widely published in academic journals, including the American Economic Review, the Review of Economic Studies, the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, and the Review of Financial Studies. He has also published books on Systemic Risk, Crises and Macroprudential Regulation (MIT Press), Systemic Financial Crises: Containment and Resolution (Cambridge University Press), and Deposit Insurance Around the World: Issues of Design and Implementation (MIT Press). He is a Professor of Finance at Tilburg University, Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), Chair of the ESCB Heads of Research Committee, Chair of the Steering Committee of the Euro Area Business Cycle Network, Editor of the Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, and Member of the Board of Directors of TalentNomics. He studied at Tilburg University, the University of Amsterdam, and the London School of Economics.

Between 2011 and 2019 she served as Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. Prior to that she served as French Minister of Economy and Finance from 2007 to 2011, having been Trade Secretary from 2005 to 2007. A lawyer by background, she practised for 20 years with international law firm Baker McKenzie, of which she became Global Chair in 1999. She was the first woman to hold each of these positions.

In 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024 President Lagarde was ranked the second most influential woman in the world by Forbes. She has also been recognised by TIME as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. She was named Officer in the French Order of the Legion of Honor in April 2012 and Commander in the National Order of Merit in May 2021.

His research focuses on corporate finance, behavioral economics, sustainable finance, and banking economics. He holds a PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has taught at the Toulouse School of Economics, New York University, and the University of Chicago, and has been a resident scholar at the IMF as well as a visiting professor at Princeton and Harvard and a member of the French Council for Economic Analysis (CAE).

Levine’s research examines how financial regulations and the operation of financial systems impact economic prosperity, including aspects like growth, stability, technological innovation, entrepreneurship, job creation, poverty, income distribution, and the environment. In addition to authoring or editing six books, he has published nearly 200 articles in leading economics, finance, and management journals.

Two of his books, Rethinking Bank Regulation: Till Angels Govern and Guardians of Finance: Making Regulators Work for Us, along with many articles, emphasize the importance and difficulties of creating financial rules and policies that improve the human condition.

He was the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India between 2013 and 2016, Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Bank for International Settlements (2015-16) and Chief Economist at the International Monetary Fund (2003-2006).

Dr. Rajan’s book Fault Lines (2010) won the Financial Times prize for best business book and his book The Third Pillar: How Markets and the State hold the Community Behind (2019) was a finalist for the award. His most recent book (December 2023) is Breaking the Mold: India’s Untraveled Path to Prosperity, with Rohit Lamba

Dr. Rajan was the President of the American Finance Association (AFA). He received the AFA’s inaugural Fischer Black Prize in 2003, the Deutsche Bank Prize for financial economics in 2013, Euromoney magazine’s Central Banker of the Year award in 2014, and The Banker magazine's Global Central Banker award in 2016. 

He is Fellow of the Econometric Society and of the European Economic Association, Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), member of the Financial Economists Roundtable, founding member of the European Corporate Governance Institute, and member of Academia Europaea. He has a PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics (LSE). He has been President of the Spanish Economic Association, Executive Vice-President of the Econometric Society, member of the Executive Committee of the Econometric Society and of the European Economic Association, Chair of the Scientific Council of Toulouse School of Economics, and Co-Editor of the International Journal of Central Banking.

He holds a Ph.D. in mathematical economics from Paris University. He has taught, at the London School of Economics, Zürich and Geneva. He has visited many universities and central banks all over the world. He was President of the Econometric Society in 2012 and has been a Fellow of this society since 1995. He has published more than 80 articles in international scientific journals and 7 books, including “Microeconomics of Banking” (with X. Freixas) MIT Press, “Balancing the Banks” (with M.Dewatripont and J.Tirole) and “Why are there so many banking Crises?”, Princeton UP. His research interests include banking, financial stability, industrial organization of financial markets, and contract theory.

She is currently on leave from the University of Bonn, where she has been Professor of Financial Economics since 2015. From 2014 to 2019 she served as a member of the German Council of Economic Experts. She also served as Co-Chair of the Franco-German Council of Economic Experts and Vice Chair of the Advisory Scientific Committee (ASC) of the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB). Isabel Schnabel studied economics at the Universities of Mannheim, Paris (Sorbonne) and Berkeley. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Mannheim. Her research focuses on financial stability, banking regulation, central banking, international capital flows and economic history.

He is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a Research Affiliate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. His research focuses on financial intermediation, monetary policy, and corporate finance.

Professor Schnabl’s work has been published in leading journals including the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Review of Financial Studies. He has received several awards, including the Journal of Finance Brattle and Amundi Pioneer Prizes.

He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University, an M.P.A. from the Harvard Kennedy School, and a B.A. and M.A. from the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

He was formerly a tenured faculty member at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. Seru’s primary research interest relates to financial intermediation and regulation, with recent work concentrating on bank regulation in the era of fintech and shadow banking. He has served on several editorial boards and was most recently a coeditor of the Journal of Finance. He has received various National Science Foundation grants and the Alexandre Lamfalussy Research Fellowship from the Bank for International Settlements, and was named as one of the Top 25 Economists under 45 by the International Monetary Fund in 2014. He has presented his research to US and international regulatory agencies. His research has been featured in leading economics and finance journals and major media outlets. Seru earned his PhD in finance from the University of Michigan.

He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and co-director of the NBER Research Program on Corporate Finance. He was elected as a Fellow of the Econometric Society in 2022, and as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2024. Professor Sufi was awarded the 2017 Fischer Black Prize by the American Finance Association. His expertise lies within the fields of finance and macroeconomics, and he is currently researching topics related to intangible capital and corporate finance. He teaches courses related to leveraged finance, private credit, distressed debt investing, and corporate restructuring. He has been on the faculty at Chicago Booth since 2005.

His research lies at the intersection of finance and macroeconomics, with a particular focus on understanding the causes and consequences of financial crises. His work has been published in the American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Studies, and the Journal of Finance. Verner is a recipient of various awards, including the Sloan Research Fellowship, the Kiel Institute Excellence Award, the Jamieson Prize for Excellence in Teaching at MIT, and the ESRB Ieke van den Burg Prize for Research on Systemic Risk. Before joining MIT, he earned a PhD in economics from Princeton University.