Michael Mussa’s career was divided between academia, public service and policy analysis. He studied at UCLA and then at the University of Chicago where he obtained his PhD in economics. He taught at the University of Rochester from 1971 to 1976 and was a Professor of economics at the Graduate School of Business of the University of Chicago from 1976 to 1991. He served on President Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers from 1986 to 1988 and, for ten years (1991-2001), he was the International Monetary Fund’s Economic Counsellor and Director of the Research Department—the IMF’s Chief Economist for short. After he left the IMF and until his death, Mike (as he was familiarly known) Mussa was a Senior Fellow at Washington’s Peterson Institue of International Economics. During his academic career, Mussa also served as a visiting professor, notably at the London School of Economics and at the Graduate Institute.

His association with the Institute has been a long and fertile one. It started as he collaborated with two research projects on international monetary issues run jointly by Harry Johnson, Alexander Swoboda and Clifford Wymer, one at the LSE, the other at the Graduate Institute. This culminated in his first stint as a visiting professor at the Institute in the fall and winter of 1976. Michael Mussa returned to the Institute as a visiting professor in the spring and summer of 1981 and then again during the summer semester of 2002. He also frequently travelled to Geneva, or stopped by on his trips abroad, to visit with his colleagues and former students from the Institute and to give seminars and talks.

Michael Mussa made fundamental contributions to economic literature during his academic career. His perhaps most frequently cited 1986 paper documented, explained and contrasted graphically the behaviour of real exchange rates under fixed and floating nominal exchange rates. But his contributions to economic analysis antedate and extend far beyond that article. Here is a citation for the Prix Mondial Nessim Habif which he was awarded in 1982 by the University of Geneva on recommendation of the Institute:

"Professor Mussa is without doubt one of the leading international economic theorists in the world today. He has by his research and writings made significant contributions in a number of areas in the field such as the economics of flexible exchange rates, the analysis of balance of payments theory and policy, the analysis of the effects of tariffs on the distribution of income, the adjustment of employment and investment in response to changes in external trade conditions…In addition to his qualities as a researcher, Professor Mussa…has the ability to express complicated arguments in a manner accessible to a wider audience than professional economists, a task which is not always easy but which is important at an institution like the Institute with its wide diversity of students and staff."

The ability to communicate in simple and effective terms served him well in his career as a policy economist, first at the Council of Economic Advisers, then at the IMF, as did his mastery of a wide range of economic theory. He could cut to the core of an argument and would defend his positions eloquently and fearlessly. His frankness and low tolerance for nonsense cut a refreshing figure in the sometimes drab environment of large administrations. His wit was famous as were the stories he used to make his points. But there was always a serious point to the humour: it was used to support an argument and to convince, not just to entertain, although that it did, even in the austere setting of the IMF’s executive board room. The extent to which Mussa contributed to the institutions for which he worked and to public policy can be garnered from the testimonials gathered in the news release issued by the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Mike Mussa was not only a great economist but, as those of us who knew him well know, a lovely human being. The economics profession has lost an outstanding and formidable intellect, the Institute a friend and admired teacher, and the policy community a clear-sighted and fearless critic. He was a true gentleman. We shall sorely miss his wit, kindness and friendship.

Alexander Swoboda, Emeritus Professor, International Economics