Opinion piece

Global asymmetries strike back

This essay addresses an old question that international relations scholars view as fundamental, but which economists regard as secondary: that of asym

Publishing date
02 September 2021

Asymmetries in the global economy arising from economic concentration, global value chains, financial centres, digital networks and the enduring supremacy of the dominant currency are becoming harder to ignore. This essay provides a cross-cutting economic perspective on the analysis of global asymmetries at a time of growing emphasis on polarisation and power relations.

Watch the launch event of this publication with Jean Pisani-Ferry, Hélène Rey, Adam Tooze and Sabine Weyand.

About the authors

  • Jean Pisani-Ferry

    Jean Pisani-Ferry is a Senior Fellow at Bruegel, the European think tank, and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute (Washington DC). He is also a professor of economics with Sciences Po (Paris).

    He sits on the supervisory board of the French Caisse des Dépôts and serves as non-executive chair of I4CE, the French institute for climate economics.

    Pisani-Ferry served from 2013 to 2016 as Commissioner-General of France Stratégie, the ideas lab of the French government. In 2017, he contributed to Emmanuel Macron’s presidential bid as the Director of programme and ideas of his campaign. He was from 2005 to 2013 the Founding Director of Bruegel, the Brussels-based economic think tank that he had contributed to create. Beforehand, he was Executive President of the French PM’s Council of Economic Analysis (2001-2002), Senior Economic Adviser to the French Minister of Finance (1997-2000), and Director of CEPII, the French institute for international economics (1992-1997).

    Pisani-Ferry has taught at University Paris-Dauphine, École Polytechnique, École Centrale and the Free University of Brussels. His publications include numerous books and articles on economic policy and European policy issues. He has also been an active contributor to public debates with regular columns in Le Monde and for Project Syndicate.

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