| Hélène Rey | |
| Birth Place: | Brioude, France |
| Nationality: | French |
| Alma Mater: | London School of Economics |
| Institution: | London Business School (LBS) |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Charles Bean George de Menil |
| Awards: | Yrjö Jahnsson Award |
| Repec Prefix: | e |
| Repec Id: | pre8 |
Hélène Rey (born 1970) is a French economist who serves as Professor at London Business School (LBS). Her work focuses on international trade, financial imbalances, financial crises and the international monetary system.
The daughter of a teacher and an engineer, Rey was born in Brioude of South-Central France[1] in 1970, where she lived for the early years of her life, speaking both French and English.
Rey received her undergraduate degree from ENSAE Paris in 1994[2] and a Master of Science degree in Engineering Economic Systems from Stanford University the same year. She has Ph.Ds from Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and London School of Economics, both in 1998.
After working as a lecturer at LSE 1997–2000 Rey was assistant professor and later professor (2006) at Princeton University where she also worked at Bendheim Center for Finance and Woodrow Wilson School.[3] [4]
Rey was a member of the Conseil d'Analyse Économique which advises the French Prime Minister on economic matters from 2010 to 2012, and since 2012 has been a member of the Commission Economique de la Nation which advises the Finance Minister of France.[4]
Rey is a regular contributor the French magazine Les Échos.[4] She became a co-editor of the Annual Review of Economics as of 2019.[5]
In 2013 Rey became the first woman to win the Yrjö Jahnsson Award, sharing the prize with Thomas Piketty. Rey was also awarded the Inaugural Carl Menger Preis in 2014, the 2015 Prix Edouard Bonnefous, the 2017 Maurice Allais Prize and the 2020 Prix Turgot.
Rey focuses her research on the determinants and consequences of financial trade and economic imbalances, the theory of financial crisis, and how the international monetary system is organized. Through her research, she has shown that certain countries different gross external asset positions help them predict future financial positions along with their exchange rates.
Rey is credited with ground-breaking research into the structure of international payments and capital flows. By examining the balance sheets of creditor and debtor nations, she offered new insights into relative returns on cross-border investments. She explained her approach in an interview with the Financial Times, which wrote, "She also showed why the US is the world's banker. "We called it 'the US's exorbitant privilege'. The US earns more on external assets than it pays on external liabilities. It has an excess return on the order of 2 per cent ... So it issues a lot of government bonds that are happily bought by the rest of the world."[6] [7]
Rey is married to fellow professor of economics Richard Portes and the couple have a daughter. They live in London.[1]