Torbjörn Becker has been Director of the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE) at the Stockholm School of Economics since August 2006.
Prior to this he worked at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) since 1997 where his most recent position was as Senior Economist in the Research Department. In this capacity, his research and policy work focused on international financial architecture issues and particularly on how emerging markets can protect themselves against adverse shocks and what role IFIs could have in preventing and resolving crises.
More generally, his work covers macroeconomics, international economics, financial markets, debt management, fiscal policy and development issues. In previous positions at the IMF, he worked on emerging markets and developing countries in Eastern Europe and Russia, the Asia Pacific and the Middle East.
Torbjörn holds a Ph.D. in economics from the Stockholm School of Economics where he also did his undergraduate studies. He has also studied at U.C. Berkeley and the Manchester Business School.
Selected Research Publications
Becker, T., A. Sy, 2006, “Were Bid-Ask Spreads in the FX Market Excessive During the Asian Crisis?”, International Review of Financial Analysis, vol 15(4-5), pp. 434-449.
Becker, T., A. Richards and Y. Thaicharoen, 2002, “Bond restructuring and Moral Hazard: Are Collective Action Clauses Costly?”, Journal of International Economics.
Becker, T., G. Gelos, and A. Richards, 2002, “Devaluation Expectations and the Stock Market – Mexico in 1994/95”, International Journal of Finance and Economics.
Becker, T., 1997, “An Investigation of Ricardian Equivalence in a Common Trends Model. “ Journal of Monetary Economics, Vol. 39, pp. 405-431.
Becker, T. and A. Paalzow, 1996, “Real Effects of Budget Deficits? – Theory and Evidence”, Swedish Economic Policy Review, Vol. 3, No. 2 Autumn, pp. 343.383.
Becker, T. and A. Paalzow, 1995, “Har Sveriges budgetunderskott haft reala effekter”” (in Swedish) in Ekonomisk politik i omvandling. L. Jonung, (ed.).
Becker, T., 1995, Stochastic Fiscal Policy, Public Debt and Private Consumption, Ph.D. thesis, Stockholm School of Economics. SELECTED WORKING PAPERS
Becker, T., and P. Mauro, 2006, “Output drops and the shocks that matter”, IMF Working paper 06/172.
Becker, T., 1999, “Public Debt Management and Bailouts”, IMF Working paper 99/103. Becker, T., 1999, “Common Trends and Structural Change – Money demand and PPP in pre- and post-revolution Iran”, IMF Working paper 99/82.
Selected Policy Papers
Becker, T. and Jesper Roine, 2008, SITE country report: Belarus.
Becker, Torbjorn, Olivier Jeanne, Paulo Mauro, Jonathan Ostry, 2007, “Country Insurance: The Role of Domestic Policies”, IMF Occasional Paper No. 254.
Selected Policy Briefs
Becker, T., 2009, IMF and Latvia—Why going for third best?
Becker, T., 2008, How to avoid that the Georgian economy becomes the next casualty of war
Becker, T., 2008, Current Account Turnarounds 101 - or Be careful what you wish for