Miranda Xafa ( el, Μιράντα Ξαφά, ) is a
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
economist
An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics.
The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...
, formerly
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...
's representative at the
IMF Executive Board and chief economic adviser to the
Prime Minister of Greece, and currently
CEO of an
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
-based
advisory firm. She is also a senior fellow at the
Centre for International Governance Innovation
The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI, pronounced "see-jee") is an independent, non-partisan think tank on global governance. CIGI supports research, forms networks, advances policy debate and generates ideas for multilateral ...
.
Education
After graduating from the
American College of Greece
The American College of Greece (ACG) is a private college and high school in Agia Paraskevi, Greece. It was founded by United Church of Christ American missionaries in 1875. It was originally a primary and secondary school for girls. As of 2020, ...
in 1974,
she enrolled in the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
where she received a
Master's
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. and a
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
in
Economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...
.
[
]
Career
Xafa started working for the International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster glo ...
in Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
in 1980, where she focused on economic stabilization programs in Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
. Following the center-right New Democracy
New Democracy, or the New Democratic Revolution, is a concept based on Mao Zedong's Bloc of Four Social Classes theory in post-revolutionary China which argued originally that democracy in China would take a path that was decisively distinc ...
party win in the 1990 general elections in Greece, Xafa was appointed in 1991 chief economic advisor to prime minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
Konstantinos Mitsotakis
Konstantinos Mitsotakis ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Μητσοτάκης, ; – 29 May 2017) was a Greek politician who was 7th Prime Minister of Greece from 1990 to 1993. He graduated in law and economics from the University of Athens. Hi ...
.
Following the party's defeat in the 1993 legislative elections, Xafa worked as a financial-market analyst at Salomon Brothers
Salomon Brothers, Inc., was an American multinational bulge bracket investment bank headquartered in New York. It was one of the five largest investment banking enterprises in the United States and the most profitable firm on Wall Street durin ...
/ Citigroup in London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, UK. In the period 2004–09, she served as a member of the board of the IMF in Washington D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...
, representing countries such as Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
, Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...
, and Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
, and subsequently worked as senior investment strategist and member of the advisory board of I.J. Partners in Geneva
, neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier
, website = https://www.geneve.ch/
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...
, Switzerland.[
She is currently CEO of an ]Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
-based advisory firm, and a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation
The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI, pronounced "see-jee") is an independent, non-partisan think tank on global governance. CIGI supports research, forms networks, advances policy debate and generates ideas for multilateral ...
.
Academia
Xafa has taught Economics at the University of Pennsylvania and at Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
. She has authored articles on international finance
International finance (also referred to as international monetary economics or international macroeconomics) is the branch of financial economics broadly concerned with monetary and macroeconomic interrelations between two or more countries. Inter ...
, the Latin American debt crisis, European monetary unification.[ and sovereign debt restructuring. She is currently a senior scholar at the Center for International Governance Innovation, where she focuses on the Eurozone economy.][
]
Views
Xafa supports the austerity measures undertaken by various governments in Greece and the reform and financial assistance program agreed between Greece and the troika
Troika or troyka (from Russian тройка, meaning 'a set of three') may refer to:
Cultural tradition
* Troika (driving), a traditional Russian harness driving combination, a cultural icon of Russia
* Troika (dance), a Russian folk dance
Pol ...
. She is a supply sider.
She has publicly denounced the "magician's tricks" that ostensibly "beautified" Greece's state finances and economic ratios at the time of the country joining the Eurozone
The euro area, commonly called eurozone (EZ), is a currency union of 19 member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro ( €) as their primary currency and sole legal tender, and have thus fully implemented EMU polici ...
,[
] as well as any attempt at Grexit. She has called on Greek governments to close down the Greek state's defense manufacturing industries because "they are operating at a financial loss."[
] In the 2010s, she joined the "free market
In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ot ...
", "pro-business" ''Drassi
Drassi (, "Action") was a liberal political party in Greece. The party was founded in 2009 by Stefanos Manos and was led by former New Democracy member Theodoros Skylakakis.
The party had no representation in the Hellenic Parliament or European ...
'' ("Action") party, serving on its executive committee.
Selected works
*
*
*
*
*«Lessons from the 2012 Greek Debt Restructuring», CIGI Paper No 32, June 20
*«EU Bank Resolution Post-Cyprus», Cayman Financial Review, July 12, 2013. Available at https://www.mirandaxafa.com/mediaupload/pdf/eu_bank_resolution_post_cyprus.pdf
*«The IMF’s Lending Framework and Sovereign Debt Restructuring», CIGI Commentary, July 201
https://www.cigionline.org/publications/imfs-lending-framework-and-sovereign-debt-restructuring/
*«European Banking Union, Three Years on», CIGI Paper No 73, June 2015 https://www.cigionline.org/publications/european-banking-union-three-years
*«European Banking Supervision: The First 18 Months», in D. Schoenmaker and N. Veron, editors, Bruegel blueprint, June 2016 http://bruegel.org/2016/06/blueprint-european-banking-supervision-the-first-eighteen-months/
*«Playing with Matches in the Ammunition Warehouse» CIGI Policy Brief No 100, March 2017 https://www.cigionline.org/publications/greece-playing-matches-ammunition-warehouse
*«European Capital Markets Union after Brexit» CIGI Paper No 140, August 2017 https://www.cigionline.org/publications/european-capital-markets-union-post-brexi t
*«Greece’s “Clean Exit” from Third Bailout: A Reality Check» CIGI Policy Brief No 124, March 2018 https://www.cigionline.org/publications/greeces-clean-exit-third-bailout-reality-check
*«Euro area governance reform: The Unfinished Agenda» CIGI Paper No 203, November 2018 https://www.cigionline.org/publications/euro-area-governance-reform-unfinished-agenda
*«A Statistician’s Ordeal: The Case of Andreas Georgiou» World Economics, Vol. 20, No 3, July–September 2019 https://www.worldeconomics.com/Andreas-Georgiou
*Robert Mundell, 1932-2021: Ahead of his Time” Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, April 2021 https://sites.krieger.jhu.edu/iae/files/2021/04/Robert-Mundell-1932-2021-Ahead-of-his-Time.pdf
See also
*Yanis Varoufakis
Ioannis "Yanis" Varoufakis ( el, Ιωάννης Γεωργίου "Γιάνης" Βαρουφάκης, Ioánnis Georgíou "Giánis" Varoufákis, ; born 24 March 1961) is a Greek economist and politician. A former academic, he served as the Gree ...
References
External links
Article IV Consultation—Staff Report: Statement by the Executive Director for Greece
IMF, January 2006
{{DEFAULTSORT:Xafa, Miranda
Living people
Greek bankers
20th-century Greek economists
Writers from Athens
Greek women economists
Year of birth missing (living people)
21st-century Greek economists