Stijn Claessens

In September 2004 after relocating back to the United States he rejoined the World Bank assuming the position of Senior Adviser to the Vice-President for Financial Setor at the Bank. He left the Bank in January 2007 to join The International Monetary Fund IMF as the Chief of the Financial Studies Division in the Research Department. Currently he is also the assistant director, reporting to Olivier Blanchard. Claessens remains a fellow at the Wharton School and at the London-based CEPR, among other networks.

His research has been published in the Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Finance and Quarterly Journal of Economics. He has edited several books, including International Financial Contagion (Kluwer 2001) Resolution of Financial Distress (World Bank Institute 2001) and A Reader in International Corporate Finance (World Bank).

During his time at Wharton he was a Research Fellow and taught International Financial Management, Micro-economic Theory & Monetary Economics to aspiring MBA students. In the Spring of 1987 he taught at New York University as a visiting Assistant Professor of International Corporate Finance and International Financial Management. In mid-1987 he joined the World Bank as a Financial Officer, becoming a Lead Economist towards the end of his fourteen-year tenure at the Bank. He moved back to The Netherlands, to join the University of Amsterdam as the Professor of International Finance Policy in 2001 where he taught for three years and is still currently on staff as a professor.

Stijn Claessens (born Constantijn Anton Marie Francois Claessens, June 19, 1959) is a Dutch economist who currently serves as the Head of Financial Stability Policy department of the Bank for International Settlements. He worked for fourteen years at World Bank beginning in 1987 until 2001 where he assumed various positions including that of Lead Economist. Following his tenure at the World Bank he became Professor of International Finance Policy at the University of Amsterdam where he remained for three years and still is on the faculty. Stijn has many distinguished academic publications and his work has been cited in many outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The Economist, The Washington Post and various other publications and he has appeared in several television programs.

Claessens was born in Udenhout, the Netherlands on June 19, 1959. The second son of four, he attended a nearby high school where he excelled in mathematics. After graduating from high school, Claessens applied to Erasmus University in Rotterdam where, in May 1979, he received his bachelor's in Business Economics, and later, in 1981, his Bachelor of Laws. He then went on to receive his doctorate in Business Economics and applied for further education in the United States, specifically The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Claessens earned his doctorate in economics from Erasmus University in 1984 and his Ph.D from The Wharton School of Business in 1986.