Jeremy C. Stein Nominated to Federal Reserve Board

The economics professor has investigated flaws in the financial markets.

Jeremy C. Stein

Safra professor of economics Jeremy C. Stein, a specialist in finance, has been nominated by President Barack Obama to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Stein has served briefly in the Obama administration: as a senior advisor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and on the staff of the National Economic Council from February to July 2009. Also nominated was Jerome H. (Jay) Powell, a lawyer and investment banker who served as undersecretary of the Treasury for finance under President George H.W. Bush, prompting speculation in the media that the paired appointments might help both men win Senate confirmation, unlike Obama’s previous nominee, Nobel laureate in economics Peter A. Diamond.

Stein joined the economics faculty in 2000; he was an assistant professor of finance at the Business School (HBS) from 1987 to 1990. In between, he taught at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, rising to Penney professor of management. (A Princeton graduate, he received his Ph.D. from MIT in 1986.) His website notes that his research interests have included behavioral finance and stock-market efficiency; corporate investment and financing decisions; risk management; capital allocation inside firms; banking; financial regulation; and monetary policy. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Financial Advisory Roundtable. In 2008, he was president of the American Finance Association. If his nomination is approved, he will join two other Harvard affiliates on the Federal Reserve Board, Sarah Bloom Raskin, J.D. ’86, and chairman Ben S. Bernanke ’75.

The Harvard Crimson, in its coverage of Stein’s nomination, reported that his teaching has earned “sky-high Q Guide ratings.” The catalog entry for his spring 2010 course Economics 1759, “The Financial Crisis,” stated that it “provides a detailed examination of events in financial markets during the crisis period that began in August of 2007. Topics include: the housing bubble and mortgage markets, the role of the banks and the shadow banking system, policy responses by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve, and longer-run regulatory reform. The conceptual approach to these topics will draw heavily on recent research in financial economics.” According to the University’s current online course catalog, he is scheduled to teach a course at HBS this spring on “The Financial System in Extremis.” 

Learn more about Stein in articles from the Harvard Magazine archives about:

Sub topics

You might also like

Plans for a Faculty Senate Move Forward

And annual awards for excellence in teaching, advising, mentoring, and scholarship

An Original Magna Carta, Hidden in Plain Sight

A rare original surfaces at Harvard at an “almost providential” moment. 

Harvard Discloses Top Administrator and Investment Manager Compensation

Investment pay drops—top six managers’ earnings total a little more than $25 million

Most popular

The New Gender Gaps

What to do as men and boys fall behind

Danielle Allen Debates Far-Right Blogger Curtis Yarvin

Popular monarchist debates Allen on democracy.

Harvard President Responds to Secretary of Education

Alan Garber outlines steps the University has taken, and emphasizes compliance with the law.

Explore More From Current Issue

Shepherdess Mary Berle's Massachussetts Mountain Farm

A former educator takes on one last big project: sheep farming

Paper Peepshows at Harvard's Baker Library

How “paper peepshows” brought distant realms to life

Jung Yeondoo: Building Dreams at the Peabody Essex Museum

South Korean artist’s socially themed photographs at the Peabody Essex Museum