Press Release No. <a name="P16_75"></a>03/161

Kenneth Rogoff, Economic Counsellor and Director of the Research Department of the IMF, made the following statement on the death, on September 25, of Professor Franco Modigliani:

"It is with great sadness that we acknowledge the passing of Professor Franco Modigliani, who possessed one of the most curious and broad-ranging intellects in modern macroeconomics. Modigliani was perhaps the first to fully appreciate the integral links between problems of finance, banking and macroeconomics, links that famously triggered the 1990s Asian crisis but that also underlie many major economic problems facing the International Monetary Fund today. Many of us at the Fund were students of Modigliani, and even more are "grandchildren": students of Modigliani's students. He was a genial man. When commenting on the work of younger researchers, Modigliani seemed to be able, in one breath, to mix razor sharp critiques with words of encouragement and support. He leaves a great legacy of ideas, not least the famous Modigliani-Miller theorem that is the cornerstone of modern corporate finance."