HISTORIC PRESS RELEASE : Chancellor announces new appointment, Stephen Nickell, to the Monetary Policy Committee [February 2000]
The press release issued by HM Treasury on 11 February 2000.
Professor Stephen Nickell has been appointed to the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), the Chancellor Gordon Brown announced today.
Professor Nickell is currently School Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics (LSE). Professor Nickell will take up his membership of the MPC on 1 June. He will replace Professor Willem Buiter whose three-year term as a member of the MPC expires on 31 May. Professor Buiter has been appointed Chief Economist of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Gordon Brown said:
“I am delighted that Stephen Nickell has agreed to join the Monetary Policy Committee. He has had a long and distinguished academic career, and his expertise in such areas as the labour market and productivity growth will be of invaluable assistance to the work of the Committee.
“I am very grateful to Willem Buiter for his excellent contribution to the Committee’s work in the first three years of its existence, and wish him well in his new post.”
CURRICULUM VITAE
Name: STEPHEN JOHN NICKELL
Date of Birth: 25 April 1944
Nationality: British
UNIVERSITY EDUCATION
1. 1962-65 BSc Mathematics
Pembroke College, Cambridge University
2. 1968-1970 MSc Mathematical Economics and Econometrics (distinction)
London School of Economics
Ely Devons Prize
EMPLOYMENT
1. 1998 – Date School Professor of Economics, London School of Economics
2. 1984 – 1998 Professor of Economics and Director of the Institute of Economics and Statistics, University of Oxford. Professorial Fellow of Nuffield College.
3. 1979-84 Professor of Economics, London School of Economics.
4. 1979 Visiting Research Associate, University of Princeton (Industrial Relations Section).
5. 1977-79 Reader in Economics, London School of Economics
6. 1974-75 Visiting Research Fellow, Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l’Administration Economique, Paris.
7. 1970-77 Lecturer in Economics, London School of Economics
8. 1965-68 Mathematics Teacher, Hendon County School, London.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
General Academic Activities:
1973-87 Editorial Board, Review of Economic Studies
1974-75 Assistant Editor, Review of Economic Studies
1975-78 Joint Managing Editor, Review of Economic Studies
1977-79, Programme Committee, Econometric Society
1981-83 European Meetings
1980-85 Programme Committee, Econometric Society World Congress
1981-89 Treasury Academic Panel
1981- Associate Editor, Economic Journal
1983-87 Associate Editor, International Journal of Industrial Organization
1983- Fellow, Centre for Economic Policy Research
1984-98 Editor, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics
1984-94 Council, Royal Economic Society
1984-87 Economic Affairs Committee, ESRC (vice-chairman 1985-87)
1985-88 Founding Council Member, European Economic Association
1985 N&g Lecture, Austrian Economic Association
1987-93 Council, Econometric Society
1987-90 Research Grants Board, ESRC; Industry, Economics and Environment Research Development Group, ESRC
1987 President’s Lecture, Scottish Economic Association
1988-94 Scientific Council of the Center for Economic Research, University of Tilberg, Holland
1990-94 Chairman, Research Grants Board, ESRC;
Member of Council, ESRC
1990- Advisory Board of the Institute for International Economic Studies, University of Stockholm, Sweden
1990- Governor of the National Institute of Social and Economic Research
1992 Mitsui lectures, University of Birmingham
1994- International Board of Advisers of the Tinbergen Institute, Amsterdam
1996- Labour Markets Panel, H.M. Treasury
1998 Adam Smith Lecture, European Association of Labour Economists
1999- Council, European Economic Association.
Academic Consulting:
H.M. Treasury; Manpower Services Commission; Department of Employment; Department of Health and Social Security; Economic and Social Research Council; Morgan Grenfell; Reserve Bank of New Zealand; OECD.
Academic Honours:
1980 Fellow of the Econometric Society
1993 Fellow of the British Academy
1997 Foreign Honorary Member of the American Economic Association
LETTER TO: THE RT HON GORDON BROWN MP FROM PROFESSOR WILLEM BUITER
I believe you have been informed by the Governor that I will not be a candidate for a second term as external member of the MPC. I am writing to you to explain the reason for this decision.
It was a singular honour to be appointed a member of the MPC. My period on the Committee has been the high point of my professional career. Membership of the MPC is the most rewarding responsibility a monetary economist can aspire to.
Your decision to grant operational independence over the conduct of monetary policy to the Bank of England was a bold and imaginative move. So was your insistence that the sole criteria for membership of the MPC would be professional competence and independence. The division of labour between the elected political authority which sets the target of monetary policy, and the appointed MPC charged with the pursuit of this target, without political interference of any kind, is a model of how a monetary authority should be designed. Even those who were sceptical at first must now be convinced of the wisdom of its design and implementation: the clear, numerical and symmetric inflation target, the existence of the ‘open letter procedure’, the transparency and openness of the arrangements and the accountability of those who participate in it. There is now a widely-based constituency for low inflation. There is growing awareness of the sometimes uncomfortable truth, that it is through the uncompromising pursuit of macroeconomic stability for the country as a whole, that we best serve the long-term interests of all its citizens and of its diverse regions, sectors and industries.
With the end of my term approaching, I have given considerable thought to whether I should be a candidate for re-appointment. I have come to the conclusion that both the appearance and the substance of independence of the external members of the MPC are best served by restricting their membership to a single term – three years as envisaged in the Bank of England Act 1998. Come May 2000, I will have served for three years, one year under the interim arrangement in effect between June 1997 and the coming into force of the new Bank of England Act, and the two-year term I was appointed to in June 1998, as part of the procedure for staggering the appointments of the external members.
Having reached the conclusion that, as a matter of principle, external members should be appointed for a single term only, I cannot in good faith claim special circumstances for myself, much as I feel tempted to do so. The past 2_ years have exceeded all my expectations. The new arrangements have worked and the UK’s model of central banking compares favourably with best practice elsewhere. I will look back with gratitude and a measure of pride on my term as a member.
I hope that, in the years to come, I will be able to support in some other capacity, the process of progressive, radical reform of policies and institutions in this country, which is now my home. I want to thank you personally for having given me the opportunity to be part of the process of embedding macroeconomic stability in the UK in a set of rules and institutions that will stand the test of time.
REPLY TO: PROFESSOR WILLEM BUITER FROM THE CHANCELLOR
Thank you for your letter of 18 January.
I would like to thank you very sincerely for the excellent work you have done on the Monetary Policy Committee. You have played a significant role in helping to establish the credibility of the new institutional framework.
I am delighted you enjoyed your time on the Committee and I wish you every success for the future.
