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, the Loren M. Berry Professor of Economics and an expert on international trade policy and organizations, has been tapped to serve a two-year term as chief economist for the World Trade Organization, beginning Jan. 12. 

Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the WTO is the international body that oversees the rules governing trade among 166 member nations, including the United States.

“This is a remarkable recognition of Professor Staiger’s scholarship and influence on international trade policy that reflects the global leadership ���㽶��Ƶ faculty bring to vital debates,” says . “Please join me in celebrating this achievement.”

As chief economist, Staiger will direct the WTO’s Economic Research and Statistic Division, a group of about 30 economists and statisticians; provide expert advice on economic matters to the WTO’s director-general; and serve as “the public face of WTO economics,” he says.

Staiger takes on the role at a moment when established systems of international trade are in flux, in large part because of shifting trade policy under the current U.S. administration. 

“The WTO (and its predecessor, the GATT, created in 1947) has served as the constitution of the world trading system for 75 years as a rules-based system, put in place largely by the U.S. But the U.S. is now challenging that system at its core. I’m excited about the opportunity to be present at the WTO for what could be a defining moment for the institution and a fork in the road for the world trading system,” Staiger says.

“Most observers would agree that the WTO is in need of reform on a number of dimensions, and has been in need for some time. But the core of the system has an economic logic that, in my view, provides it with a legitimate claim to serve as the constitution of the world trading system. So the challenge as I see it is for the world to find ways to reform the WTO while maintaining its core rules-based features.”

, WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala called Staiger “a highly authoritative voice in world trade, specializing in the study of international trade policy rules and institutions, with particular emphasis on the economics of the GATT/WTO.”

Staiger, who goes by Bob, first came to ���㽶��Ƶ as a 2013 Roth Family Distinguished Visiting Scholar. The following year, he joined the as the Roth Family Distinguished Professor in Arts and Sciences. A member of the and a faculty affiliate of the , he was named to the Loren M. Berry Professorship in 2025.

He is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and the author of dozens of academic papers on international trade, co-author of The Economics of the World Trading System, and author of A World Trading System for the Twenty-First Century, a 2022 collection of lectures delivered as part of MIT’s Ohlin Lecture series.

Previously, Staiger was on the faculties of Stanford University and the University of Wisconsin. He completed his undergraduate degree at Williams College and went on to earn his PhD in economics from the University of Michigan. 

Early in his career, he spent a year as a senior staff economist at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, an experience that gave him insight into how research can inform real-world policy issues—and how policy can inform research. 

“During that year, I gained valuable hands-on knowledge about trade policy that animated and energized my research for years thereafter,” he says. “I hope that my time at the WTO will bring with it a similar two-way relationship.” 

Staiger is one of a long line of ���㽶��Ƶ professors to hold important economic policy jobs. Some recent examples include: 

• Tuck School of Business professor served as chief economist of the U.S. Department of State from January 2022 to November 2023.
• Geisel School of Medicine professor , a health economist at The ���㽶��Ƶ Institute, was director of the Health Analysis Division at the Congressional Budget Office from 2021 to 2023.
• Professor of Economics served on the Monetary Policy Committee, Bank of England, from 2006 to 2009.
• Tuck Dean was a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers from 2005 to 2007, and Professor of Economics was the chief economist on the staff of the Council from 2003 to 2004.
• Professor of Economics also worked on the CEA staff, during the Reagan administration, and later served as an economist for the Division of International Finance, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
• And Professor of Economics worked for the Federal Reserve Board from 1992 to 2012, including as special adviser to the Board on monetary policy, strategy, and communication from 2010 to 2012.

Several faculty members have also held consulting roles in government agencies such as the Department of Labor and the Congressional Budget Office. 

Among alumni who have held prominent economic policy jobs, Henry Paulson ’68 and Tim Geithner ’83 served as secretary of the Treasury in the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations, respectively.

Staiger says he is grateful to ���㽶��Ƶ for supporting this opportunity, which will take him and his wife, Sally, to Switzerland through the beginning of January 2028. 

“Everyone at ���㽶��Ƶ—from my colleagues in the economics department, who will need to take on my teaching and administrative duties while I am on leave, to the administration, which has found creative ways to provide me with the flexibility to spend two years in Geneva—has been amazingly generous and supportive,” he says. “This level of generosity and support is very unusual, and it is one of the things that makes ���㽶��Ƶ so special.”