Jacques Mistral

Jacques Mistral (born September 22, 1947) is a French economist and professor. He is a member of the Conseil d'Analyse Économique in France, a member of the Cercle des économistes, and as of October 2009, a member of the scientific council of the center-right think tank Fondation pour l'innovation politique.

Mistral was born in Toulouse, France.^[1] He graduated from the École Polytechnique in Paris in 1967 and earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Paris I in 1977.^[2]

Mistral has held several professorships: from 1978 to 1992, he was a professor of economics at Université Paris-Nord; from 1974 to 1992, at ENSAE; from 1984 to 1994, at the École Polytechnique; and from 1982 to 1996, at Sciences Po.

He also held several posts as an economic advisor. From 1988 to 1992, he was an economic advisor for the then-prime minister, Michel Rocard; from 2000 to 2001, he was a special advisor of political economy and international relations for the Minister of Economics, Finances, and Industry, Laurent Fabius. He held several executive positions as a member of the AXA Group, including central director and director of human resources in France. He was also a senior fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University from 2005 to 2006.

Mistral was president of the Société d'économie politique from 2008 to 2012.^[3] Currently, Mistral is the head of economic research at the French Institute for International Relations (Institut Français des Relations Internationales), a member of the Conseil d'Analyse Économique for the Prime Minister, and a nonresident senior fellow in Global Economy and Development at the Brookings Institution.^[4]

His economic interests are international economics, the international monetary system, the eurozone crisis, and the relationship between the United States, China, and the EU.^[5]

In the French presidential election of 2012, Mistral endorsed Socialist Party candidate and eventual winner François Hollande.^[6]