Emmanuel Farhi

Emmanuel Farhi (born September 8, 1978) is a French economist who is currently a professor of economics at Harvard University. His research focuses on macroeconomics and finance. He was a member of the French Economic Analysis Council to the French Prime Minister from 2010 to 2012.

The son of an economist, Farhi grew up in Paris where he attended the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. At age 16 he won the Concours général in Physics and continued on to study Mathematics in preparatory class.
Ranking 1st on the national entry exam to École Polytechnique in 1997, he eventually chose to attend École Normale Supérieure. He specialized in Mathematics obtaining 2nd place on the Agrégation de Mathematiques (French degree). He was then admitted to the Corps des Mines in 2001.

He finished his studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and was awarded a Ph.D. in 2006.

Farhi started his career in the Economics department of Harvard in 2006 and was tenured in 2010. Though highly quantitative, his work strives to shed light on practical issues such as macroprudential regulation, mitigating the impacts of economic crises or understanding the implications of fiscal policies. For example, he assessed the controversial Social VAT, a measure introduced by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and repealed by his successor Francois Hollande only to reemerge under a different form: the "Competitiveness Pact".

Farhi has been granted several awards for his work, including

• 2009 Bernácer Prize for the best European economist under the age of 40
• 2011 Malinvaud Prize
• 2013 Best Young Economist prize awarded by the Cercle des économistes
• 2013 Banque de France and Toulouse School of Economics (BDF-TSE) Award in Monetary Economics and Finance

In September 2014, the IMF published a list of the 25 “economists under 45 [who] will have the most influence in the coming decades on our understanding of the global economy”. Farhi is one of the 7 French economists listed for his work on "monetary economics, international economics, finance and public finance, including research on global imbalances, monetary and fiscal policy, and taxation."

Farhi frequently co-authors academic papers with Ivan Werning, Xavier Gabaix and Jean Tirole among many others.

Farhi has authored and published many academic articles and a book.

• Reforming the International Monetary System
• « Speculative Growth: Hints from the US Economy » (en coll.), American Economic Review, vol. 96, n° 4, septembre 2006.
• « Saving and Investing for Early Retirement: A Theoretical Analysis » (en coll.), Journal of Financial Economics, vol. 83, n° 1, 2007.
• « An Equilibrium Model of Global Imbalances and Low Interest Rates » (en coll.), American Economic Review, 2008.
• « A Theory of Liquidity and Regulation of Financial Intermediation » (en coll.), Review of Economic Studies, 2009.
• « Progressive Estate Taxation » (en coll.), Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2010.
• « Nonlinear Capital Taxation without Commitment » (with Christopher Sleet, Iván Werning, and Sevin Yeltekin) Review of Economic Studies, October 2012, 79, no. 4: 1469–1493.