Dr. Jean-Paul Fitoussi is Professor Emeritus of the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris and the LUISS, Roma. Currently he is research director at the Observatoire Français des Conjonctures Econoniques, an institute dedicated to economic research and forecasting.

Born in 1942, Dr. Fitoussi received a Ph.D. cum laude in Law and Economics from the University of Strasbourg (France). His doctoral thesis was on inflation, equilibria and unemployment. Professor Fitoussi began his academic career as a lecturer and taught at the University of Strasbourg. From1979 until 1983, he was a professor at the European University Institute in Florence, and a visiting professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1984.

Since 1998, Professor Fitoussi has been a member of the board of the Ecole Normale Supérieure. In 1997, he became a member of the Council of Economic Analysis of the Prime Minister while, in 1996, he was appointed member of the Economic Commission of the Nation. Since 2000, he has been an expert at the European Parliament, Commission of Monetary and Economic Affairs. From 1990 until 1993, Dr. Fitoussi was the Chairman of the Economic Advisory Board of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Professor Fitoussi's editorial activities are Managing Editor of the Revue et Lettre de I'OFCE, Member of the Scientific committee of Revue Française d'Economie, Member of the Editorial Board of Labour and The International Journal of Development Planning Literature, member of the Scientific Committee of the International Labour Review, and member of the Scientific Committee of Critique Internationale. Dr. Fitoussi has contributed regularly to French and foreign newspapers and is columnist for La Repubblica and Le Monde. His research has focused on the theories of inflation, unemployment, foreign trade and the role of macro- economic policies. As President of the OFCE, and founder and member of an International Economic Policy Group within this institution (composed by Anthony Atkinson, Olivier Blanchard, John Flemmig, Edmond Malinvaud, Edmund Phelps and Robert Solow), he has made numerous written contributions to the current economic policy debate, notably on issues of European economic integration, and the economics of transition.

He has published several books, among which :

• Modern macroeconomic theory, Basil Blackwell : Oxford 1983

• The slump in Europe (with Edmund S. Phelps), Basil Blackwell : Oxford 1988

• Il dibattito proibito, Il Mulino, 1997

• Il dittatore benevolo, Il Mulino, 2003

• La democrazia e il mercato, Feltrinelli, 2004

Dr. Fitoussi was awarded the Prize of the Association Française de Sciences Economiques, and the Rossi Prize of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques. He has received distinctions, including Honorary Dean of the Faculty of Economy of Strasbourg, Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Buenos Aires, Professor onorario of the University of Trento, and decorations of Officier de l'Ordre National du Mérite and Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur in his own nation.