Charles Calomiris is the Henry Kaufman Professor of Financial Institutions in the Division of Finance and Economics at the Graduate School of Business, Columbia University.  He is also Professor of International and Public Affairs at the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs.  He is one of the country’s leading authorities on financial institutions.  His recent books include Sustaining India’s Growth Miracle (Columbia University Press, 2007), China’s Financial Transition at a Crossroads (Columbia University Press, 2006), and U.S. Bank Deregulation in Historical Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2^nd ed. 2006).  He has also published numerous journal articles and chapters in scholarly volumes.

Professor Calomiris brings a deep historical understanding of financial institutions to his research into current issues.  He received his B.A. in economics magna cum laude from Yale University in 1979 and his Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University in 1985.  He was an assistant professor of economics at Northwestern University from 1984 to 1991; from 1992 to 1996 he was associate professor of finance at the University of Illinois, where he received the designation of University Scholar.  In 1996 he became Paul M. Montrone Professor at Columbia Business School, where in 2003 he was named the Henry Kaufman Professor of Financial Institutions.

Professor Calomiris has taught courses in corporate finance, banking, monetary economics, economic history, corporate governance, and business ethics.  His course on emerging market financial transactions, designed with David Beim, won the Columbia Business School’s Chazen International Innovation Prize. 

In 1997, Professor Calomiris became co-director of the American Enterprise Institute Project on Financial Deregulation, a role he played until 2007; and from 2001 to 2006 he was Arthur Burns Fellow in International Economics at AEI.  He has also been a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the Pew Trusts Task Force on Financial Reform.  In 2000 he served on the International Financial Institution Advisory Commission (the Meltzer Commission), established by Congress to advise the U.S. government on needed reforms to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, regional development banks, and the World Trade Organization.  He is presently a member of the Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee, a group of independent experts that works to identify problems in the financial services sector and assess policy responses.  He is also a member of the Shadow Open Market Committee, the Financial Economists Roundtable, and the Hoover Institution’s Task Force on Property Rights, as well as a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Professor Calomiris has served as a consultant to numerous public and private organizations.  He has written for general publications including The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times and is a regular contributor to “The Arena” on politico.com.  In a recent poll of leading economists by The Economist magazine, Professor Calomiris was listed among the economic thinkers whose ideas are most relevant to the post-financial-crisis world.