Profile

 

Currently a Visiting Professor of Economics at Williams College, Dr. Heller was employed for 29 ½ years at the International Monetary Fund (1977-2006). Previously, he lectured at the IMF’s regional Institutes in 2012-2014. During 2007-2011, he was the Senior Adjunct Professor of International Economics at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of The Johns Hopkins University. He has also lectured at the Graduate School of Governance of the University of Maastricht and at CERDI, University of Clermont-Ferrand. During 1972-1977, he was an Assistant Professor of Economics and Research Fellow at the Center for Research on Economic Development at the University of Michigan.

 

·      As Academic: since 2007, he has been teaching courses on public finance, international monetary theory, international financial institutions, scenario analysis, and long-term fiscal challenges as well as lecturing on issues of fiscal policy in low-income countries and social insurance.

 

·      Intellectual Leader, with over 20 years of experience in catalyzing ground-breaking work across departments and discipline at the IMF

 

·      Scholarly Practitioner, with 47 years of applying economic analysis to address practical and important economic policy problems. He is a member of Bermuda’s 3-person Fiscal Responsibility Panel, responsible for preparing an annual report on the fiscal position of the Bermuda Government. He recently prepared an evaluation of the IMF’s work on pension policy issues for the Independent Evaluation Office of the International Monetary Fund. Earlier, he has worked with Center for Economic Policy Studies (Brussels) on a project on the fiscal implications of adaptation to climate change in Europe; with the Centennial Group on infrastructure policy as a countercyclical policy tool. He is a frequent reviewer of papers on fiscal policy issues in both industrial and developing countries. He has also written and lectured on health policy reform in the United States.

 

·      Senior Manager (1995-2006) of a large department involving 11 divisional teams (with a total departmental staff of about 185 drawn from over 60 different countries) that work in the multiple disciplines of public finance (fiscal policy, tax policy, public expenditure policy, budgeting, revenue administration, etc). In addition, the department employs about 25 years of short-term consultants drawn from many fiscal disciplines.

 

·      Organizational ambassador to policy teams exploring such issues as the macroeconomics of health, the challenges of achieving the Millennium Development Goals, the macroeconomic implications of aging populations, and tobacco control.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Selected Accomplishments

 

Academic

 

·      Visiting Professor of Economics, Williams College, 2013-present: Master’s level Oxford tutorial on Long Term Fiscal Challenges

 

·      Lecturer on fiscal policy issues for the IMF’s regional Institutes in Vienna and Singapore (2012-2014)

 

·      Research Fellow, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University, Fall 2011

 

·      Senior Adjunct Professor of International Economics, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University (January 2007-June 2011)

 

·      Visiting Professor of Economics, CERDI, University of the Auvergne, Clermont Ferrand (2007-2010)

 

·      Visiting Professor of Economics, Maastricht School of Governance, University of Maastricht, Netherlands (2007-2014).

 

·      Visiting Scholar, CESifo, University of Munich (October 2008).

 

Intellectual Leader

 

·      Catalyzing work in the IMF on such issues as

o   The fiscal consequences of aging populations,

o   The integration of long-term fiscal challenges into the IMF’s surveillance efforts and in government budgetary practices,

o   The potential consequences of a scaling up of international aid efforts

o   The inclusion of distributional concerns in the design of IMF adjustment programs,

o   The incorporation of health policy issues in IMF program design and surveillance; and

o   The macroeconomic impact of climate change.

o   Government employment and wage policies

o   The integration of gender issues into the Fund’s operational work

 

 

 

Scholarly Practitioner and Consultant

 

·      Member of 3-person Fiscal Responsibility Panel to the Government of Bermuda, 2015-present

 

·      Consultant to the Internal Evaluation office of the International Monetary Fund, preparing a background report on the IMF’s work over the previous decade on pension policy issues, (2016-2017)

 

·      Consultant to the Office of Internal Audit of the International Monetary Fund, preparing a report on the IMF’s Risk Management Practices, 2011-2013)

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·      Consultant to the UNDP and the Centennial Group on the role of infrastructure spending as a potential countercyclical tool.

 

·      Consultant to the International Social Security Association on the impact of the financial crisis on social security systems

 

·      Consultant to the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization on tobacco taxation and financing challenges associated with realizing the Millennium Development Goals.

 

·      Consultant to the Center for Economic Policy Studies (Brussels) on a European Commission project on the fiscal implications of adaptation to climate change in Europe (since September 2008)

 

·      Participated in DFID Mission to Rwanda, July 2007, to analyze impact of significant increase in aid flows on the long-term sustainability of Rwanda’s budget.

 

·      Participated in IMF negotiating teams as the fiscal expert (in China, Korea, India, Thailand, Liberia, Israel)

 

·      Headed mission teams to negotiate IMF adjustment programs in East Africa (Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia)

 

·      Headed technical assistance missions to develop fiscal reform programs (Bosnia), pension reform (Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Thailand, Jordan, West Bank-Gaza); public expenditure management reforms (Russia, Botswana, Malawi, Zambia); and public expenditure policy (Indonesia)

 

·      Undertook both individual research projects as well as leading team projects on a wide range of topics encompassing fiscal policy in industrial and developing countries, long-term fiscal policy planning, global aging and its economic ramifications, pension reform, globalization, health policy issues in low income countries, the economics of tobacco control, the fiscal costs of adaptation to climate change; public expenditure policy issues in developing countries, and the fiscal policy challenges of scaling up aid.

 

·      Lectured and spoke in academic fora, international conferences, government agencies, policy institutes, international agencies, global conferences (e.g., World Economic Forum during 2004-2007), NGO groups, and Parliamentary fora.

 

·      Organized conferences on fiscal policy in India and on the challenges of incorporating HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment into macroeconomic policy frameworks.

 

·      Member of the Editorial Board, Journal of Public Policy.

 

 

Senior manager

 

·      Deputy Director of the Fiscal Affairs Department during 1995-2006 including a period (1999/2000) when I was Acting Director. The challenge of departmental management is to guide, in a collegial way, the work of each division of highly accomplished professionals in order to meet the multiple objectives of the department in supporting area departments, providing technical assistance, and producing innovative research on operational fiscal policy problems. My present focus is to:

o  Work with the Director to formulate departmental strategy

o  Guide the departmental effort on issues related to poverty reduction

o  Manage the departmental technical assistance program in Africa, and

o  Supervise the review of country programs in selected regions.

 

·      Chairman of the IMF’s interdepartmental Technical Assistance Committee.

 

·      Member and sometimes chairman of numerous Fund committees

 

Organizational Ambassador to Policy Teams

 

Recently nominated by the Assistant Secretary for Aging of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to serve on the National Advisory Committee on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (November 2008).

 

Member, Center for Global Development Project Team on the agenda for the next Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (2006)

 

Member, UNAIDS Global Steering Committee on Scaling Up Towards Universal Access (2006)

 

Member, UN Millennium Project Task Force on Poverty and Growth (2003-2005).

 

Principal IMF representative to the WHO Commission on Macroeconomics and Health (1999-2001) as well as member of the Task Force on Health Care Financing.

 

Member, Policy and Strategic Advisory Committee to WHO Director-General on Tobacco-Free Initiative, 2000-2002.

 

IMF representative to Group of 10 Committee on Macroeconomic and Financial Implications of Aging Populations (1997-98).

 

Member, Advisory Board, Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel (Jerusalem)

 

 

 

Academic Background

 

Harvard University, Ph.D., 1972 (fields: Public Finance, International Trade, Economic Development).

 

Trinity College (Hartford, Conn.). B.A., summa cum laude, 1967.

 

 

Work History

 

Member, Fiscal Responsibility Panel, Government of Bermuda, 2015-present

Consultant, Independent Evaluation Office, International Monetary Fund 2016-2017

Consultant, Office of Internal Audit, International Monetary Fund, 2011-2013

Visiting Professor of Economics, Williams College 2013-present

Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of Governance of the University of Maastricht, Netherlands (2007-2014)

Senior Adjunct Professor of International Economics, SAIS, Washington DC, 2008-2011

AGIP Professor of Economics, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), University of Bologna campus, The Johns Hopkins University  (Spring and Fall Terms, 2007)

Deputy Director of Fiscal Affairs Department, IMF (1995-2006)

Chairman of the IMF’s Technical Assistance Committee (1999-2001)

Chief, East Africa Division, African Department (1989-95)

Leading missions to Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, and Eritrea

Chief, Expenditure Policy Division, Fiscal Affairs Department (1987-1989)

Chief, Fiscal Studies Division, Fiscal Affairs Department (1986-87)

Economist/Senior Economist:

Fiscal economist on IMF missions to China, India, Thailand, Israel, Korea, and Liberia (between 1977-86).

Led technical assistance missions to Indonesia, Liberia, Swaziland, Korea, and Venezuela

Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Michigan, 1971–77

 

References

 

Professor Gerard Caprio, Professor of Economics, Williams College (gcaprio@williams.edu

 

Charles Collyns, Director, Internal Evaluation Office, International Monetary Fund

 

George Abed, Senior Advisor, International Institute of Finance (gabed@iif.com)

 

Teresa Ter-Minassian, former Director, Fiscal Affairs Department, International Monetary Fund (tterminassian@imf.org)

 

Susan Schadler, former Deputy Director, European Department, International Monetary Fund (susanschadler@gmail.com

 

Leslie Lipschitz, former Director, IMF Institute, International Monetary Fund (leslielipschitz@gmail.com)