Bio

Ruchir Agarwal is an economist with experience across advanced, emerging, and frontier economies. He is an M-RCBG Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School and Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Global Talent Network and the Global Talent Lab. Before these roles, he spent over a decade at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), served as a Senior Advisor to the G20 Finance Health Task Force, and was an Executive Fellow at the Yale School of Management.

During the pandemic, Ruchir created and implemented the $50 billion IMF Pandemic Plan as the Head of the IMF Global Health & Pandemic Response Task Force. He also established the Multilateral Leaders Task Force, which brought together the heads of the IMF, WHO, World Bank, and WTO to fight the pandemic.

He has been exploring strategies to finance global public goods such as pandemic prevention, frontier science and talent, and climate security. He co-founded the Global Talent Network and the Global Talent Lab, which aim to discover and nurture individuals who have the potential to drive breakthroughs in science and innovation.

Ruchir's previous roles include lead economist for India during the COVID-19 pandemic, lead economist for Mongolia during the 2017-18 crisis, and lead economist for Sweden, Lebanon, and Bhutan. He also worked on the rescue package for Cyprus and the restructuring of Greek bank subsidiaries during the European debt crisis. His work covers financial, fiscal, and growth policy issues across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas. He has worked on various topics including financial crisis management, macro policy design, stress testing of the financial sector, management of long-run risks, pandemic & climate finance, exchange rate management, housing dynamics, growth & diversification policies, etc.

Cited by major publications and governments, Ruchir's research focuses on the future of money, global public goods, and the impact of talent on long-term growth.

Ruchir earned his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University under the supervision of Greg Mankiw and Jeremy Stein. He received the Allyn A. Young prize for teaching excellence, and continues to share his experience with students through economics and finance lectures at various universities. He is also a Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Global Development, Innovation Fellow at Schmidt Futures, honorary faculty at SPPG, and advisor to the IMF and United Nations Development Programme.