Professor Hélène Rey awarded prestigious ERC research grant
Professor Hélène Rey awarded prestigious ERC Advanced Grant as part of the 2024 funding round
London Business School proudly congratulates Professor Hélène Rey, Lord Bagri Professor of Economics, OBE, FBA, CEPR and NBER, on receiving a prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant in the 2024 funding round.
The award is a testament to her outstanding contributions to international economics and her continued leadership in global research.
The €2.12m grant will support Professor Rey’s five-year research programme, ‘NIMFE: New International Monetary and Financial Environment’, an ambitious project which explores the shifting dynamics of the global financial system.
Rey’s study will examine how evolving trade patterns, currency dominance, and commodity markets influence economic stability. It will encompass the declining share of US and European trade, the rise of Asia, and China's growing role in international markets, despite the continued global influence of the US dollar.
Through analysis of very granular data, the research aims to map global financial networks, track how economic shocks spread, understand the dynamics of exchange rates, and evaluate hedging strategies and wealth transfers linked to shifts in commodity markets. By uncovering these interconnections, Professor Rey’s work will provide crucial insights into the transformation of monetary and financial power worldwide.
Speaking about her ERC Advanced grant, Professor Rey said: “ I am extremely grateful for this ERC grant which will allow me to explore new grounds in international finance. I will work on issues that fascinate me, particularly the unexplored links between equity markets and exchange rates and the changing international financial networks in the world economy. My research will make use of new datasets and will have implications for the roles of the dollar, the euro and the RMB in international finance, the co-movements of asset prices, hedging and shifts in financial power. Those considerations have become even more first order recently with the stark increase in geopolitical risks.”
This year’s ERC funding, worth in total €721m, will go to 281 leading researchers across Europe. The Advanced Grant competition is one of the most prestigious and competitive funding schemes in the EU. It allows senior researchers to pursue ambitious, curiosity-driven projects that could lead to major scientific breakthroughs. The new grants are part of the EU’s Horizon Europe programme.
President of the European Research Council, Professor Maria Leptin, said: “Congratulations to the new grant winners! Much of this pioneering research will contribute to solving some of the most pressing challenges we face - social, economic, and environmental.”
Professor Sergei Guriev, Dean of London Business School, commented: "Winning a highly competitive ERC Advanced grant is a remarkable achievement and a point of pride for our entire School. It recognises not only Professor Rey's outstanding scholarship in international economics but also the forward-looking spirit that defines our faculty. Her project is especially relevant and timely today, when unprecedented economic policy uncertainty results in dramatic shifts in the international financial system. The NIMFE project will have a profound impact on policymaking around the world and on global business; it will also inspire the next generation of researchers. On behalf of the School, I offer Hélène my warmest congratulations and full support as she embarks on this important work."
Professor Hélène Rey Lord Bagri Professor of Economics, OBE, FBA CEPR, and NBER
Hélène Rey is the Lord Bagri Professor of Economics at London Business School. Until 2007, she was at Princeton University as Professor of Economics and International Affairs in the Economics Department and the Woodrow Wilson School. She was elected President of the European Economic Association in 2022.
Hélène Rey's research focuses on international macroeconomics and finance with special emphasis on financial stability, international capital flows, exchange rates, and the international monetary system.
Professor Rey is one of the world’s foremost experts on international macroeconomics and finance. The ERC Advanced Grant is one of Europe’s most competitive and prestigious research awards, given to established, exceptional leaders in their fields.
Professor Rey has previously secured funding from the ERC:
ERC Advanced Grant (2016-2021): ERC-2015-ADG call: International Finance and Monetary Policy - INFIMOP. EUR 2,441,154.
ERC Starting Grant (2008-2013): ERC-2007-STG call: Countries' external balance sheets, dynamics of international adjustment and capital flows - IFA DYNAMICS. EUR 1,340,000.
About the European Research Council (ERC)
The ERC, set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. It funds creative researchers of any nationality and age, to run projects based across Europe. The ERC offers four core grant schemes: Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants, Advanced Grants and Synergy Grants. With its additional Proof of Concept Grant scheme, the ERC helps grantees to bridge the gap between their pioneering research and early phases of its commercialisation. The ERC is led by an independent governing body, the Scientific Council. Since November 2021, Maria Leptin is the President of the ERC. The overall ERC budget from 2021 to 2027 is more than €16 billion, as part of the Horizon Europe programme, under the responsibility of European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, Ekaterina Zaharieva.
