Carmen M. Reinhart

Carmen M. Reinhart is a Cuban-American economist and the Minos A. Zombanakis Professor of the International Financial System at Harvard Kennedy School. Previously, she was the Dennis Weatherstone Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Professor of Economics, and Director of the Center for International Economics at the University of Maryland. She is a National Bureau of Economic Research research associate, a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research, a Founding Contributor of VoxEU, and a Council on Foreign Relations member. 

She is also a member of the American Economic Association, the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association, and the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy. She became the subject of general news coverage when mathematical errors were found in a research paper she co-authored. On May 20, 2020, Reinhart was appointed World Bank Chief Economist, starting on June 15, 2020.

According to Research Papers in Economics (RePec), Reinhart is ranked among the top economists worldwide based on publications and scholarly citations. She has testified before Congress and is listed among Foreign Policy's Top 100 Global Thinkers, Thompson Reuters' The World's Most Influential Scientific Minds, and Bloomberg Markets Most Influential 50 in Finance. In December 2018, Reinhart received the King Juan Carlos Prize in Economics and Nabe's Adam Smith Award.

Born in Havana, Cuba, Reinhart arrived in the United States on January 6, 1966, at the age of 10, with her mother and father and three suitcases. They settled in Pasadena, California, during the early years before moving to South Florida, where she grew up. When the family moved to Miami, Reinhart started college at two-year Miami Dade College before transferring to Florida International University. She received a B.A. in Economics (summa cum laude) in 1975. 

After her B.A., Reinhart worked for her master's degree in Philosophy, eventually receiving this degree in 1981 from Columbia University. A few years down the road, Reinhart also received her Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1988. Recommended by Peter Montiel, an M.I.T. graduate teaching at FIU, Reinhart 1978 went on to attend Columbia University graduate school. After Reinhart passed her field examinations, she was hired as an economist by Bear Stearns and rose to the investment bank's chief economist three years later. 

In 1988 she returned to Columbia to obtain her Ph.D. under the supervision of Robert Mundell. In the 1990s, she held several positions in the International Monetary Fund. From 2001 to 2003, she returned to the International Monetary Fund as deputy director of the Research Department. She has been the Minos A. Zombanakis Professor of the International Financial System at Harvard Kennedy School since 2012.

She has served on the editorial boards of The American Economic Review, the Journal of International Economics, International Journal of Central Banking, among others. In both 2011 and 2012, she was included in the 50 Most Influential ranking of Bloomberg Markets. Reinhart has received compensation for conference-related and speaking engagements, advisory boards, and writing and royalties outside of her professional activities.