Philip R. Lane MRIA
Image caption from left to right: Robert-Jan Smits, Alan Smeaton, 2015 RIA Gold Medallist in the Engineering Sciences, Mary E. Daly MRIA, President of the RIA (2014-2017), Tom Boland and Philip R. Lane MRIA, 2015 RIA Gold Medallist in the Social Sciences.
Citation on the awarding of the 2015 RIA Gold Medal in the Social Sciences to Philip R. Lane MRIA
Written on 23 February 2016
We are fortunate to have in Ireland an economist of the global stature of Professor Philip Lane.
He is universally acknowledged as one of the leading thinkers in the quantitative analysis of the spectacular growth in international financial trade, which has reshaped the world economy and been at the centre of the recent global financial crisis. His major academic contributions have been in three key areas of economics: measuring financial globalisation; understanding the cyclical behaviour of fiscal policy; and interpreting the macro-financial dynamics of European monetary integration.
Professor Lane’s work on the creation of international economic databases has transformed the debate on globalization, by making available consistent measures of both foreign assets and foreign liabilities, for more than 145 countries over forty years. His work on building the ‘External Wealth of Nations Database’ has made it possible to investigate the balance sheet implications of shocks to exchange rates and to asset prices – shocks which were of high importance during the recent Global Financial Crisis.
Professor Lane’s research on the dynamics of fiscal policy has contributed to the understanding of why de-stabilising ‘pro-cyclical’ fiscal policies are so widely prevalent, and how they can be offset by introducing independent fiscal councils and medium-term fiscal rules.
His work on topics that relate to European monetary integration is of continuing significance and his empirical work in this area has provided an indispensable underpinning for macroeconomic modelling and for the work of many other economists.
Professor Lane’s data work has been driven by an attempt to understand important theoretical and policy-related questions. This painstaking work has more than transformed the debate on globalisation; it has had a significant influence on the discussion of policy choices in a number of countries.
Professor Lane has published influential papers across a wide range of economics topics and he has become an intellectual leader in each of these areas. He has acted as an academic consultant to international organisations and national central banks and as an editor of the widely read journal Economic Policy. In addition, he has made influential contributions to public debate about economic policy.
Professor Lane was appointed as Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland in November 2015. Prior to this, he was the Whately Professor of Political Economy at Trinity College Dublin. He is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy and an Irish Research Council award holder and, through his work with the London-based Centre for Economic Policy Research, he has been involved in leading the economics profession in Europe and beyond.