Itai Agur - CV

Source details

Canonical URL

Itai Agur - CV

Other formats

• Markdown version
• Structured JSON version
• Bundle manifest

Bibliographic details

• Authors: Itai Agur

Biography

Itai Agur is a Senior Economist at the Macro-Financial Division of the IMF's Research Department. Previously, he worked at the IMF’s Strategy, Policy and Review Department, where he joined IMF missions to Canada and Mongolia, and the IMF’s Singapore Regional Training Institute. Prior to joining the IMF, he worked at the Research Department of the Dutch Central Bank and the European Central Bank. His research centers on fintech, payment systems, and macro-financial interactions and has been published in both policy and academic outlets, including the Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Monetary Economics, Journal of International Money and Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Financial Stability, and Emerging Markets Review, among others. He is an Associate Editor of the IMF Economic Review. His work has earned him the European Economic Association’s Young Economist Award and the Arrow Award for Junior Economists. He holds a PhD from the European University Institute.

Profile

Education

• European University Institute, PhD

• University of Amsterdam, MSc & BSc

Previous Experience

• Dutch Central Bank (2008-2011)

• European Central Bank (2003-2004)

Editorial Activities

• IMF Economic Review, Associate Editor.

Awards and Honors

• The European Economic Association's Young Economist Award, 2007.

• The Arrow Award for Young Economists, 2008

Country work or Mission Assignment

• Mongolia (2016-17)

• Canada (2015-16)

Teaching

• IMF courses taught in Fiji, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam (2011-2015)

IMF Career

• Research Department (2018 - )

• Strategy, Policy and Review Department (2015-2017)

• Singapore Regional Training Institute (2011-2015)

Others

• Fintech (additional field of expertise)

Field of Expertise

• Macro-Financial Issues

• Banking

• Monetary Policy

IMF Occasional Papers, Pamphlets, and Special Issues Papers

• IMF Approach to Central Bank Digital Currency Capacity Development (2023). IMF Policy Paper No. 2023/016.

• Elements of Effective Policies for Crypto Assets (2023). IMF Policy Paper 2023/004.

• Lighting the Path to Recovery. IMF Research Perspectives issue on COVID (Guest Editor), January 2021.

• Digital Money Across Borders: Macro-Financial Implications (2020). IMF Policy Paper 2020/050.

• Strengthening the International Monetary System - A Stocktaking (2016) (with a large group of co-authors). IMF Policy Paper.

IMF Direct Blog Posts

• How Crypto and CBDCs Can Use Less Energy Than Existing Payment Systems

• Should Monetary Finance Remain Taboo?

IMF Publications

IMF Books and Working Papers

• Optimal Policy for Financial Market Tokenization, Working Paper No. 2025/185 , September 19, 2025

• Payment Frictions, Capital Flows, and Exchange Rates, Working Paper No. 2025/171 , August 29, 2025

• Tokenization and Financial Market Inefficiencies, Fintech Notes No 2025/001 , January 29, 2025

• Bank Competition and Household Privacy in a Digital Payment Monopoly, Working Paper No. 2023/121 , June 9, 2023

• Digital Currencies and Energy Consumption, FinTech Notes No 2022/006 , June 7, 2022

• Monetary Finance: Do Not Touch, or Handle with Care?, Departmental Paper No 2022/001 , January 13, 2022

• Politically Robust Financial Regulation, Working Paper No. 2021/001 , January 8, 2021

• Managing External Volatility: Policy Frameworks in Non-Reserve Issuing Economies, Working Paper No. 2020/288 , December 18, 2020

• Designing Central Bank Digital Currencies, Working Paper No. 2019/252 , November 18, 2019

• Monetary and Macroprudential Policy Coordination Among Multiple Equilibria, Working Paper No. 2018/235 , November 2, 2018

• On International Integration of Emerging Sovereign Bond Markets, Working Paper No. 2018/018 , January 24, 2018

• Products and Provinces: A Disaggregated Panel Analysis of Canada’s Manufacturing Exports, Working Paper No. 2016/193 , September 26, 2016

• Will Macroprudential Policy Counteract Monetary Policy’s Effects on Financial Stability?, Working Paper No. 2015/283 , December 29, 2015

• Bank Risk Within and Across Equilibria, Working Paper No. 2014/116 , July 2, 2014

• Leaning Against the Wind and the Timing of Monetary Policy, Working Paper No. 2013/086 , April 3, 2013

• Rules, Discretion, and Macro-Prudential Policy, Working Paper No. 2013/065 , March 8, 2013

• Wholesale Bank Funding, Capital Requirements and Credit Rationing, Working Paper No. 2013/030 , January 31, 2013

IMF Country Reports

• Canada 2016 Article IV Consultation, Staff Report.

• Mongolia 2017 Article IV Consultation, Staff Report.

F&D articles

• What Is Tokenization?

• Analyze This! on Tokenization (based on F&D article)

Selected Issues

• Digital Financial Services and the Pandemic: Opportunities and Risks for Emerging and Developing Economies (2020) IMF Special Series on COVID-19.

Other Published Materials

• IMF G20 Report: Financial Platforms: What are They and What are Their Macro-Financial Implications? (2024)

• IMF-FSB Synthesis Paper: Policies for Crypto-Assets (2023)

• IMF G-20 Report: Macrofinancial Implications of Crypto Assets (2023)

Non-IMF Publications

Publications in Journals (Refereed)

• Tokenization and Financial Market Inefficiencies (2026) (with German Villegas-Bauer, Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli, Maria Soledad Martinez Peria and Brandon Tan). Journal of Financial Services 2, 172-191.

• Bank Competition and Household Privacy in a Digital Payment Monopoly (2025) (with Anil Ari and Giovanni Dell'Ariccia) Journal of Financial Economics 166, 104019.

• Government Finance by Central Banks and Inflation Expectations at the Onset of the COVID Pandemic (2024) Applied Economics Letters 31(2), 107-112.

• Lessons from Crypto Assets for the Design of Energy Efficient Digital Currencies (2023) Ecological Economics 212, 107888.

• Measuring the Speed of Currency Substitution (2023) Applied Economics Letters 30(10), 1385–1389.

• Designing Central Bank Digital Currencies (2022) (with Anil Ari and Giovanni Dell'Ariccia) Journal of Monetary Economics 125, 62-79.

• Managing External Volatility: Policy Frameworks in Non-Reserve Issuing Economies (2022) Journal of Financial Crises 4(3), 165-188.

• Central Bank Independence and Low Inflation: Who Leads the Dance? (2021) Applied Economics Letters 28(6), 477-481.

• Monetary and Macroprudential Policy Coordination Among Multiple Equilibria (2019). Journal of International Money and Finance 96, 192-209.

• Revisiting the Institutional Determinants of Central Bank Independence (2019) Applied Economics Letters 26, 1649-1654.

• On International Integration of Emerging Sovereign Bond Markets (2019) (with Melissa Chan, Mangal Goswami and Sunil Sharma). Emerging Markets Review 38, 347-363.

• Will Macroprudential Policy Counteract Monetary Policy's Effects on Financial Stability? (2019) (with Maria Demertzis). North American Journal of Economics and Finance 48, 65-75.

• Populism and Central Bank Independence: Comment (2018) Open Economies Review 29(3), 687-693.

• Bank Risk within and across Equilibria (2014). Journal of Banking and Finance 48, 322-333.

• "Leaning Against the Wind" and the Timing of Monetary Policy (2013) (with Maria Demertzis). Journal of International Money and Finance 35, 179-194.

• Multiple Bank Regulators and Risk Taking. (2013) Journal of Financial Stability 9(3), 259-268.

• Wholesale Bank Funding, Capital Requirements and Credit Rationing (2013) Journal of Financial Stability 9(1), 38-45.

• Credit Rationing When Banks are Funding Constrained (2012) North American Journal of Economics and Finance 23(2), 220-227.

• Trade Liberalization, Firm Selection and Variety Growth (2010) Review of International Economics 18(3), 582-594.

• The US Trade Deficit, the Decline of the WTO and the Rise of Regionalism (2008) Global Economy Journal 8(3).

• Testing the Links Between Institutional Integration and Trade Deepening: Clues from Europe (2007) Open Economies Review 18(5), 599-612 (with Ettore Dorrucci and Francesco Mongelli).

• How Did European Institutional Integration and Intra-European Trade Interact? (2007) Economie Internationale 109(1), 107-146. (with Ettore Dorrucci and Francesco Mongelli)

Publications in Books and Conference Volumes

• Macroprudential Policies and Capital Flow Measures (2023) (with Sunil Sharma). In "Challenges and Options in Managing Capital Flows for Small, Open, and Financially Integrated Economies", Box 5, SEACEN publications.

• Populism, Institutional Quality, and Central Bank Independence (2020) in "Populism, Economic Policies and Central Banking", Ernest Gnan and Donato Masciandaro (eds.), SUERF Conference Proceedings 2020/1.

• Casting Light on Central Bank Digital Currencies (with Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli, Maria Soledad Martinez Peria, Anil Ari, John Kiff, Adina Popescu, and Celine Rochon). In: "Cryptoassets: Legal, Regulatory and Monetary Perspectives" Chris Brummer (ed.), Oxford University Press, 2019

• Central Bank Digital Currencies: An Overview of Pros and Cons. In: "Do We Need Central Bank Digital Currencies? Economics, Technology and Institutions" Ernest Gnan and Donato Masciandaro (eds.), SUERF/BAFFI CAREFIN Conference Volume, 2018.

• Lessons for Frontier Economies from Emerging Markets (with Mangal Goswami, Shinichi Nakabayashi and Sunil Sharma). In: "Frontier and Developing Asia: The Next Generation of Emerging Markets" Alfred Schipke (ed), International Monetary Fund Press, 2015.

• Rules, Discretion, and Macro-Prudential Policy (with Sunil Sharma) In: 2014 "Institutional Structure of Financial Regulation: Theories and International Experiences" Robing Hui Huang and Dirk Schoenmaker (eds.), Routledge.

Other Published Materials

• For a list of other publications, please see my personal site.

Content in this bundle

• g20-report-macrofinancial-implications-crypto-assets-february23
  • g20-report-macrofinancial-implications-crypto-assets-february23 (Markdown version)
  • g20-report-macrofinancial-implications-crypto-assets-february23 (PDF)
• g20-report-2024-financial-platforms-macrofinancial-implications-imf-oct2024-final-board-publish
  • g20-report-2024-financial-platforms-macrofinancial-implications-imf-oct2024-final-board-publish (Markdown version)
  • g20-report-2024-financial-platforms-macrofinancial-implications-imf-oct2024-final-board-publish (PDF)
• 022216b (PDF)
• Index (PDF)