Ronald MacDonald (economist)


Ronald MacDonald OBE is a Scottish economist with interests in a wide range of topics in International Finance and Macroeconomics and a considerable amount of his research focuses on the economics of exchange rates and currency regime choice. He is currently Research Professor of Macroeconomics and International Finance in the at the Adam Smith Business School in the University of Glasgow.

Education and career

Qualifications and appointments

MacDonald holds a B.A. degree from Heriot-Watt University, M.A. and PhD from the University of Manchester. He has previously the Robert Fleming Professorial of Investment and Finance at the University of Dundee, Professor of International Finance at the University of Strathclyde from 1992, the Bonar Macfie Chair of Economics, 2005-2006, Department of Economics University of Glasgow and the Adam Smith Professor of Political Economy at the Adam Smith Business School in the University of Glasgow from January 2006-2015.
He has been a visiting Professor at the University of New South Wales, Australia, Queen's University, Canada, European University Institute, Florence, University of Cergy-Pontoise, Paris, ZEW, Mannheim, and Centre for Economic Studies, Munich.

Timeline

BA, with First class Honours, in Economics at Heriot-Watt University
MA in Economics at the University of Manchester
PhD in Economics at the University of Manchester
Midland Bank Fellow in Monetary Economics at Loughborough University
Lecturer and Senior Lecturer at the University of Aberdeen
Robert Fleming Professor of Finance and Investment at the University of Dundee
Professor of International Finance at the University of Strathclyde, formerly Professor of International Macroeconomics
Bonar MacFie Chair of Economics University of Glasgow
Adam Smith Professor of Political Economy at the Adam Smith School of Economics and Finance in the University of Glasgow
Research Professor of Macroeconomics and International Finance in the at the Adam Smith Business School in the University of Glasgow.

Research ranking and grants

Research ranking

MacDonald has consistently been ranked amongst the top 1% of economists in the world by the IDEAS/RePEc ranking, and amongst the top 1% of all research in international finance and open economy macroeconomics. He ranks amongst the top 6% of SSRN Top Economics authors.
With a wide range of interests focused around exchange rates through to macroeconomics and international finance, he has published over 130 articles in peer-reviewed journals and authored or edited over 15 books. He has over 18,000 citations to his work recorded on Google Scholar

Fellowships and grants

MacDonald is an International Fellow at the Kiel Institute of Economics, and Research Fellow of the CESifo Research Network Munich and was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh from 2002 to 2014.
Since 1996 he has been involved in successful Research Grant applications totalling over £2,000,000.

Academic research

Current research

MacDonald's current research interests span a range of topics in Macroeconomics, International Finance and Finance.

The Behavioural Equilibrium Exchange Rate Model

MacDonald's research on exchange rate modelling has been highly influential with many implications for policy-markers. The Behavioural Equilibrium Exchange Rate, developed jointly with Peter Clark at the International Monetary Fund, has been widely applied by central banks and financial researchers to assess the extent of mis-alignment between major world currencies. In terms of policy-based research, he has proposed phasing out the Barnett Formula in favour of fiscal autonomy in the Scottish Parliament.

Non-academic positions

As a prominent figure in economic academia, MacDonald has held posts as Consultant Researcher and Visiting Scholar at the International Monetary Fund on fourteen separate occasions, and has presented five-day courses on the 'Economics of Exchange Rates' at the International Monetary Fund Institute. He has furthermore acted as consultant to a wide range of Central Banks, International Banks, and other financial institutions and private sector industry, including
European Commission and the European Central Bank. MacDonald has also served as a member of the executive committee of the Scottish Doctoral Programme, Member of Council of the Scottish Economic Society, and was one of the founding directors of the Scottish Institute for Research in Economics, which resulted in a significant funding uplift for economics in Scotland from the Scottish Funding Council. He has acted as an expert witness to various committees of the Scottish Parliament, the House of Commons Scottish Affairs Committee and the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh from 2002 until his resignation in 2014.

Publications

Books