World Bank President David Malpass announced the selection of Indermit Gill as the Chief Economist of the World Bank Group and Senior Vice President for Development Economics.
Gill succeeds American economist Carmen Reinhart in the role. His appointment is effective on September 1, 2022.
Gill spearheaded the influential 2009 World Development Report on Economic Geography. His pioneering work includes introducing the concept of the “middle income trap” to describe how developing countries stagnate after reaching a certain level of income. He has published extensively on policy issues facing developing countries, sovereign debt, green growth, labor markets, poverty and inequality, and managing natural resource wealth
Gill is the second Indian to take up this post at World Bank after Kaushik Basu who served from 2012-2016. Other prominent Indian-origin economists Raghuram Rajan and Gita Gopinath have served as chief economists at the International Monetary Fund, the sister-organization of the World Bank.
“Indermit Gill brings to this role a combination of leadership, invaluable expertise and practical experience working with country governments on macroeconomic imbalances, growth, poverty, institutions, conflict, and climate change,” said Malpass. “Indermit is widely respected for his intellectual contributions to development economics.”
Gill has taught at Georgetown University and the University of Chicago. A student of Nobel Laureates Gary Becker and Robert E. Lucas Jr., Gill holds a PhD. in economics from the University of Chicago.
