January 2016: Press release on the appointment of Dr. Juan Castañeda as the Director of the Institute of International Monetary Research

Dr. Juan Castañeda is to become the first full-time Director of the Institute of International Monetary Research in January 2016. Dr. Castañeda, currently a lecturer in economics at the University of Buckingham, has extensive experience researching in monetary policy and central banking. In particular, he has worked as an expert adviser to the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee.

The Institute of International Monetary Research's founder is Professor Tim Congdon CBE, who has served as part-time Director during the Institute's establishment. He is the Institute's principal donor and is now to be its Chair. He is usually regarded as the UK's foremost advocate of the quantity theory of money, which today is sometimes called "monetarism". He was heavily involved, as a commentator and adviser, in the transformation of British macroeconomic policy in the late 1970s and 1980s which led to the so-called Great Moderation of better macroeconomic outcomes from 1992 to 2007.

Commenting on his appointment, Dr. Castañeda said, "I will be very honoured and pleased soon to become the Director of the Institute of International Monetary Research. I look forward to working closely with its founder, first Director and Chair, Professor Congdon. Both the large body of theory linking money to nominal income and prices, and the ample empirical evidence which supports it, have been neglected in recent decades. Mainstream academics and central bankers have embraced theories that expressly reject the use of monetary aggregates in the framing of monetary policy decisions. The mission of the Institute and my primary role as its Director will be to foster solid research in this field, and to contribute to the analysis of the pivotal role of money in explaining output and price fluctuations in the economy.".

Professor Congdon welcomed the new appointment, remarking "Much needs to be done, in terms of research and analysis, to understand how economies with modern banking systems work. Critically, the Great Recession demonstrated - yet again - the centrality of money and banking in the determination of macroeconomic outcomes, even though most fashionable theories ignore that role. The Institute is fortunate to have found Dr. Castañeda and appointed him as its first full-time Director. He is committed to improving research and analysis in these vital areas of economic policy-making, and I look forward to working with him."

The Institute of International Monetary research is an educational charity. Its work is to inform the public debate on economic policy and enhance knowledge about how the economy works. The Institute is currently developing a Master's Programme in money and banking with the University of Buckingham.

Notes

  1. A Doctor of Economics since 2003 and lecturer in Economics at the University of Buckingham since 2012, Juan Castañeda is an Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow in the faculty of finance (Cass Business School). He has been a visiting researcher at Cass Business School and the Centre of Monetary and Financial Alternatives at Cato, and lecturer at UNED University in Madrid. He has been awarded a Bank of Spain annual scholarship to develop research on monetary history, in particular on monetary policy and deflations in historical perspective, and has authored and edited academic books and research articles on the economic crises, monetary policy and central banking. He is the review editor of Economic Affairs, and has been a columnist of Expansion and of several online papers and sites.
  2. Professor Congdon spent most of his career as an economist in the City of London, and is a successful businessman and investor. Nevertheless, he has given much time to economics and economic policy-making, and has written academic papers and other works on money, banking and the economy since the 1970s. His main contribution to the public debate has been his consistent support for stable growth of the quantity of money as the key to wider macroeconomic stability. He set up Lombard Street Research in 1989 and for long it was one of the City of London's leading economic advisory companies. He served on the Treasury Panel of Independent Forecasters (the so-called "wise men") from 1993 to 1997. In 1997 he was appointed CBE for "services to the economic debate". His latest book is his 2011 collection of essays, Money in a Free Society.
  3. The purpose of the Institute of International Monetary Research is to inform the public debate on economic policy and enhance knowledge about how the economy works. The Institute will provide support for the teaching of economics in educational institutions, including schools and sixth-form colleges. Its particular concern is the role of money in modern economies (that is, economies with a commercial banking system and a central bank).The Institute aims to prepare and distribute research papers, and to hold conferences, lectures and seminars on monetary policy. The events will be held at both the University of Buckingham and other locations around the country. It is also keen to work with other research institutes, both in the UK and around the world.

Tim Congdon

Chair, Institute of International Monetary Research