Takatoshi Ito

Takatoshi Ito

Research Interest

Asian Financial Markets; Japanese Economy; International Finance; Monetary Policy; Fiscal Policy; and Public Pension Funds

Takatoshi Ito, Professor of International and Public Affairs and Associate Director of Research at Center on Japanese Economy and Business, Columbia Business School, has taught extensively both in the United States and Japan since completing his Ph.D. in economics at Harvard University in 1979. Before joining Columbia, he taught as Assistant and tenured Associate Professor (1979-88) at University of Minnesota; as Associate and full Professor at Hitotsubashi University (1988-2002); as Professor at the Graduate School of Economics at University of Tokyo (2004-2014). He has held visiting professor positions at Harvard University, Stanford University, Columbia Business School, and was the Tun Ismail Ali Chair Professor at University of Malaya.

Professor Ito has held distinguished academic and research appointments, such as: President of the Japanese Economic Association in 2004; Fellow of the Econometric Society, since 1992; Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research since 1985; and Faculty Fellow, Centre for Economic Policy Research, since 2006. He was Editor-in-chief of Journal of the Japanese and International Economies and is Co-Editor of Asian Economic Policy Review.

In an unusual move for a Japanese academic, Ito has also been appointed in the official sectors: as Senior Adviser in the Research Department, International Monetary Fund (1994-97); and as Deputy Vice Minister for International Affairs at Ministry of Finance, Japan (1999-2001). He also served as a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy (2006-2008).

In 2010, he was the coauthor of a commissioned study of the Bank of Thailand’s tenth year review of an inflation targeting regime. He frequently contributes op-ed columns and articles to the Financial Times and Nihon Keizai Shinbun. He is the author of many books, including: The Japanese Economy (MIT Press, 1992); The Political Economy of the Japanese Monetary Policy (1997); Financial Policy and Central Banking in Japan (2000) (both with T. Cargill and M. Hutchison, MIT Press), and An Independent and Accountable IMF (with J. De Gregorio, B. Eichengreen, and C. Wyplosz, 1999). He has also authored more than 130 academic (refereed) journal articles, including Econometrica, American Economic Review, and Journal of Monetary Economics, as well as chapters in books on international finance, monetary policy, and the Japanese economy.

Professor Ito’s research interest includes capital flows and currency crises, microstructures of the foreign exchange rates, and inflation targeting. He was awarded the National Medal with Purple Ribbon in June 2011 for his excellent academic achievement.

PUBLICATIONS

BOOKS

Takatoshi Ito and Takeo Hoshi, The Japanese Economy, 2nd Edition (MIT Press, 2023), translated into Chinese (2022) and Japanese (2023). 

Keiko Honda and Takatoshi Ito. ESG Investing: Its Origin, Practices and Future (in Japanese, Nikkei Publishing, 2023).

Takatoshi Ito, Hugh Patrick, and David E. Weinstein, editors, Reviving Japan’s Economy: Problems and Prescriptions (MIT Press, 2005).

Takatoshi Ito, Thomas F. Cargill, Michael M. Hutchison, The Political Economy of Japanese Monetary Policy (MIT Press, 2003).

Takatoshi Ito, Thomas F. Cargill, Michael M. Hutchison, Financial Policy and Central Banking in Japan (MIT Press, 2001).

Takatoshi Ito, The Japanese Economy (MIT Press, 1991).

NEWS

WEAI professor Takatoshi Ito discusses inflation in Japan on Bloomberg Daybreak: Asia. July 19, 2017WEAI professor Takatoshi Ito receives honorary doctorate from the Universidad de Chile. August 20, 2015

WEAI professors Gerald L. Curtis and Takatoshi Ito discuss Japan’s economy in Fortune. February 27, 2015