Jean headshot 2023

Jean Pisani-Ferry

Senior fellow

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.

Disclaimer of external interests

Declaration of interests 2023

Declaration of interests 2022

Declaration of interests 2021

Declaration of interests 2020

Declaration of interests 2019

Declaration of interests 2018

Declaration of interests 2017

Featured work

Opinion piece

Reinventing the European Union

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and new economic imperatives have called into question the EU’s long-standing reliance on regulatory standards as a form.

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Policy brief

How to make the EU Energy Platform an effective emergency tool

The platform could become an effective emergency tool to safeguard Europe’s gas supply, but policymakers need to address challenges to make it work.

Walter Boltz, Klaus-Dieter Borchardt, Thierry Deschuyteneer, Leigh Hancher, François Lévêque, Jean Pisani-Ferry, Ben McWilliams, Axel Ockenfels, Simone Tagliapietra and Georg Zachmann
Book

Greening Europe’s post-COVID-19 recovery

This Blueprint includes some of the Group’s most prominent voices on the different aspects of the multidimensional issue of green recovery.

Jean Pisani-Ferry, Georg Zachmann, Guntram B. Wolff, Laurence Boone, Simone Tagliapietra, Ottmar Edenhofer, Thomas Wieser, Ian Parry, Antoine Dechezleprêtre, Klaas Lenaerts, Robert Stavins, Mirjam Kosch, Michael Pahle, Laurence Tubiana, Sabine Mauderer and Tomasz Koźluk
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

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Opinion piece

Monetisation: do not panic

The extraordinary operations that are under way in most countries in response to the COVID-19 shock have raised fears that large-scale monetisation wi

Jean Pisani-Ferry and Olivier Blanchard
Event

Bruegel Annual Meetings 2019

Bruegel's 2019 Annual Meetings will be held on 4-5 September and feature the launch of Bruegel's Memos to the New European Commission.

Opinion piece

Retraites : pour la clarté

L’économiste regrette, dans sa chronique au "Monde", que les tensions internes au gouvernement aient conduit à s’écarter de la stricte logique d’un sy

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Opinion piece

Fifty shades of yellow

Who are the Yellow Vests? What are the true roots of their uprising? And what do they want? Six weeks after they started rocking French politics and a

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Opinion piece

Macroéconomie et gilets jaunes

Les analyses de la fronde des gilets jaunes ont surtout mis l’accent sur la répartition des revenus et des prélèvements entre catégories sociales et s

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Blog post

One club does not fit all in Europe

In this column, Jean Pisani-Ferry argues how the EU can become a more effective global player, following the Policy Brief "One size does not fit all:

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Opinion piece

Europe should avoid a no-deal Brexit

The UK government finally tabled a serious proposal for the country’s future relationship with the European Union (EU). The White Paper puts the ball

Jean Pisani-Ferry, André Sapir, Guntram B. Wolff, Norbert Röttgen and Paul Tucker
External publication

Reconciling risk sharing with market discipline: A constructive approach to euro area reform

This publication proposes six reforms to improve the Eurozone’s financial stability, political cohesion, and potential for delivering prosperity.

Jean Pisani-Ferry, Nicolas Véron, Agnès Bénassy-Quéré, Hélène Rey, Philippe Martin, Marcel Fratzscher, Jeromin Zettelmeyer, Isabel Schnabel, Markus Brunnermeier, Clemens Fuest, Henrik Enderlein, Emmanuel Farhi and Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas
Opinion piece

A resilient Euro needs Franco-German compromise

In a piece signed by 15 leading French and German economists, Nicolas Véron lays out a path to a more sustainable Euro. Germany will need to accept so

Jean Pisani-Ferry, Nicolas Véron, Agnès Bénassy-Quéré, Hélène Rey, Philippe Martin, Marcel Fratzscher, Isabel Schnabel, Markus Brunnermeier, Lars Feld, Clemens Fuest, Henrik Enderlein, Emmanuel Farhi and Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas
Video

Bruegel year in review - 2013

Jean Pisani-Ferry, André Sapir, Zsolt Darvas, Reinhilde Veugelers, Georg Zachmann, Guntram B. Wolff, Karen Wilson, Mario Mariniello and Suparna Karmakar
Opinion piece

Europe’s Troika should grow up

In early 2010, a group of men (and a few women) in dark suits landed in Athens. They belonged to a global institution, the International Monetary Fund

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Book

EU-Korea Economic Exchange

Articles published during the Bruegel/Korea Institute of Finance project on ‘EU-Korea policy responses to the global financial and economic crisis and

Jean Pisani-Ferry, Nicolas Véron, Zsolt Darvas, Reinhilde Veugelers, Georg Zachmann, Shahin Vallée and Mario Mariniello
Blog post

Is the Euro Crisis Over?

Financial crises tend to start abruptly and end by surprise. Three years ago, the euro crisis began when Greece became a cause for concern among polic

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Blog post

Europe’s banks need to be recapitalised – now

Europe’s growth performance was disappointing before the financial crisis. It has been dismal since. Five years into the “great recession”, the r

Jean Pisani-Ferry, Zsolt Darvas and Guntram B. Wolff
Blog post

The Politics of Moral Hazard

It is an old and a never-ending contest. On one side are the moral-hazard scolds, claiming that one of the major responsibilities confronting policyma

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Blog post

Chypre : calculs, cafouillages et émotions

Une bonne intrigue combine classiquement le froid calcul des acteurs rationnels, la dose de cafouillage nécessaire au réalisme, et ce qu’il faut d’émo

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Blog post

Is struggling Europe on the right track?

The latest European Commission outlook forecasts 2014 unemployment rates above 25 per cent in Greece and Spain, in the vicinity of 15 per cent in Irel

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Blog post

What Mr Rehn should tell France.

When he presents the forecasts on Friday, should Olli Rehn, the commission’s vice-president, coerce governments in France and other countries int

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Blog post

L’Europe en morceaux

Avec un David Cameron acharné à préserver son rabais et à dégraisser la bureaucratie bruxelloise et un François Hollande soucieux de sauvegarder

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Blog post

L’euro fort : fausses frayeurs et vrais dangers

Les dirigeants français, François Hollande en tête, s’alarment de la remontée de l’euro. Leurs homologues allemands rétorquent qu’il n’est pas suréval

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Blog post

The eurozone will muddle through (again)

At the last European Council summit of 2012, politicians decided to go ahead with the banking union while ending their reflections on fiscal union the

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Blog post

Bruegel's Franco-German roots

'I have not been an enthusiastic supporter of every French, German, or Franco-German initiative, but I must say that this one was worth supporting.'

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Blog post

Tim Geithner and Europe’s phone number

According to a famous (yet apocryphal) joke by Henry Kissinger, there is no telephone number to call to speak to Europe. Indeed the fragmentation of E

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Blog post

Wie alles anfing

„Ich habe mich nicht für jede französische, deutsche, oder deutsch-französische Initiative begeistert, aber diese hier war die Unterstützung wert“. Mi

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Blog post

Kein schmerzfreier Ausweg

Das fiskalische Kliff in den USA können wir vergessen. Das eigentliche Problem ist der Schuldenberg - in Amerika, aber auch in Europa. Die Aufgabe, di

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Blog post

British angst over Europe will continue

David Cameron’s speech on Europe was predominantly tactical. So, too, are the reactions from Berlin and Paris. But the British pri

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Blog post

Alternative Fiscal Medicine?

Forget the fiscal cliff. The real issue is the fiscal mountain. According to the International Monetary Fund, the challenge of reducing the public deb

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Blog post

Un budget pour la zone euro?

Faut-il un budget pour la zone euro ? Enfouie depuis plus de vingt ans, la question a ressurgi ces derniers mois. Visiblement, beaucoup de ceux q

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Blog post

The Great Austerity Debate

Is it time for fiscal consolidation or stimulus? Should governments cut or increase spending? Once again the issue is a matter of dispute among poli

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Blog post

Why France will have no budget rule

Like in other countries, the French Constitutional Council was asked to decide on the compatibility of the European fiscal treaty with the Constitutio

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Blog post

Which way for Europe?

August was quieter than feared on the European bond markets. While resting on Europe’s celebrated beaches and mountains, policymakers could therefore

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Blog post

François Hollande doit choisir ses contraintes

Les grammairiens s’étonneront peut-être de la lecture que le Conseil constitutionnel vient de faire du traité budgétaire européen. Certains de nos par

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Blog post

Should the eurozone be mutualised?

The debate on Eurobonds is at risk of missing the forest for the trees. Discussions about their various colours and shapes, their incentive properti

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Blog post

Eine Agenda für die Rettung Europas

ie Staats- und Regierungschefs der EU treffen sich Ende Juni wieder in Brüssel. Diesmal müssen sie nicht nur die Frage beantworten, ob sie dieses od

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Policy brief

What kind of European banking union?

This policy contribution discusses in detail how a future banking union could be organised by examining seven fundamental choices that decision makers

Jean Pisani-Ferry, André Sapir, Nicolas Véron and Guntram B. Wolff
Blog post

G20: Decreasing returns

Macroeconomic coordination, the hallmark of the first few G20 summits, went through three successive phases. The first phase, from Washington to Pit

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Policy brief

Propping up Europe?

This Policy Contribution is based on a briefing paper prepared for the European Parliament Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee’s Monetary Dialogue

Jean Pisani-Ferry and Guntram B. Wolff
Blog post

Sudden stops in the euro area

Many analysts and observers have put forward that the euro crisis is a balance-of-payments crisis at least as much as a fiscal crisis. The issue has g

Jean Pisani-Ferry and Silvia Merler
Policy brief

The messy rebuilding of Europe

The euro crisis and subsequent policy responses have challenged the assumptions underpinning the euro-area's governance, and the relationship bet

Jean Pisani-Ferry, André Sapir and Guntram B. Wolff
Policy brief

Sudden stops in the euro area

There is a view that the euro crisis is a balance-of-payments crisis at least as much as a fiscal crisis.The balance-of-payments discussion lacks clar

Jean Pisani-Ferry and Silvia Merler
Blog post

Pourquoi l’Europe ne parle pas francais

“Jetzt auf einmal wird in Europa Deutsch gesprochen” (“Tout d’un coup, on s’est mis à parler allemand en Europe”). En s’enorgueillissant ainsi, fin

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Working paper

The G20: characters in search of an author

The G20 has produced mixed results. After initial high hopes and some success, negotiations within the G20 forum have slowed, progress is less visibl

Jean Pisani-Ferry and Ignazio Angeloni
Policy brief

Who's afraid of sovereign bonds?

The December large-scale provision of liquidity to banks by the ECB contributed to reducing spreads on Southern European sovereign bonds, but did it c

Jean Pisani-Ferry and Silvia Merler
External publication

Don’t let the euro-area crisis go east

The European Union is committed to strengthening its partnership with China, as demonstrated by the fourteenth EU-China summit, to take place in Bei

Jean Pisani-Ferry, Yung Chul Park, Agnès Bénassy-Quéré, Fan He, Masahiro Kawai and David Vines
Policy brief

The Euro crisis and the new impossible trinity

The search for solutions to the euro crisis is based on a partial diagnosis that overemphasises the lack of enforcement of existing fiscal rules. Euro

Jean Pisani-Ferry
Book

An evaluation of IMF surveillance of the euro area

This report evaluates International Monetary Fund surveillance of the euro area in the years before the financial crisis and during 2008-10.

Jean Pisani-Ferry, André Sapir and Guntram B. Wolff
Policy brief

Europe's growth emergency

This Policy Contribution puts forward policy recommendations to move towards growth rebuilding in the EU, reducing the fragility of the European ban

Jean Pisani-Ferry and Zsolt Darvas
External publication

Rethinking central banking

Jean Pisani-Ferry, Barry Eichengreen, Dani Rodrik, Carmen Reinhart, Hélène Rey and Andrés Velasco