Economics Professor named to Minnesota committee on International Economic Policy

Macalester College economics professor Raymond Robertson has been named to the U.S. State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy (ACIEP) for a two-year term, beginning August 2010.

The committee, which meets three or four times a year at the State Department, provides policy advice on issues such as international economic and commercial challenges; economic sanctions policy; the impact of the global financial crisis on U.S. international business operations; U.S.–China relations; free trade agreements; private sector development in Iraq and Afghanistan; and Africa and U.S. malaria policy. “I’m pleased to be a part of this committee and look forward to working with others who share a deep interest in our country’s economic policy and how it affects others around the world,” says Robertson.

Committee members have extensive international experience and are senior representatives of U.S. corporations, state and local governments, policy institutions, trade and labor organizations, and academia.

In remarks to the ACIEP, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said, “Economic issues, particularly here in the State Department with the international breadth that we try to reach in terms of both diplomacy and development, are absolutely critical to everything we do.”

Professor Robertson received his PhD in economics from the University of Texas at Austin. His dissertation and subsequent research focus on international, development, and labor economics. As a Fulbright scholar, Robertson spent a year in Mexico City studying the effects of NAFTA. In 2010 he became a non-resident fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington, D.C.

Robertson’s work has been published in the American Economic Review, the Review of Economics and Statistics, World Economy, the Journal of International Economics, and other journals. His current research is supported by the World Bank and the ILO.