Robert Triffin

Robert Triffin was a distinguished Belgium-American economist who predicted the demise of the Bretton Woods system in several articles he wrote in the late-1950s and in two important books - Europe and the Money Muddle (1957) and Gold and the Dollar Crisis (1960). An account of his life and work was long overdue. With the publication of Robert Triffin: A Life, Ivo Maes and Ilaria Pasoti have repaired that omission…. The book draws upon an impressive array of published and unpublished material and a large number of interviews conducted by the authors. While Maes and Pasotti generally endorse Triffin’s conclusions, the work is not a hagiography. On the contrary, it is an objective analysis of Triffin’s contributions to economic thought and policy. * History of Economics Review *Maes and Pasotti, wrote an outstanding book on Triffin that is a must-read for economists. * Pierre-Hernan Rojas, Institut Catholique de Paris, Paris, France, European Journal of the History of Economic Thought *Ivo Maes’ volume is a precious contribution to the understanding of Triffin’s role in the history of international economics and policymaking. * Fabio Masini, History of Economic Thought and Policy *Belgium has yet to produce to a Nobel Prize-winning economist. But in Robert Triffin, the country has a great economist whose impact can still be felt today. His story has been well told by Maes, whose extensive personal and academic research shines through on page after page. * Linda Yueh, Central Banking *An outstanding book on Triffin that is a must-read for economists. * European Journal of the History of Economic Thought *Ivo Maes and Ilaria Pasotti have written a small gem of a book: a lucid and sympathetic portrait of the life and intellectual development of the Belgian economist Robert Triffin. At the same time, the book will serve as a marvelous general introduction, for students and indeed a wider audience, to all the central debates of the past seventy-five years about the functioning of the international monetary system (IMS). * Harold James, Journal of European Economic History *Triffin has had to await a biography that would do him and his various roles justice. Ivo Maes’s new book with Ilaria Pasotti succeeds admirably in filling this gap … The result is an outstanding book that will stand as a standard reference in the scholarly literature and attract a wider readership … Maes deserves great credit for having brought back to life - in a full, rounded manner - the character of Triffin. He has written an essential read. * Kenneth Dyson, EH.Net *Presents an intellectual biography of Robert Triffin, focusing on the development of his economic ideas as well as his impact in the academic world and in policy making. * Journal of Economic Literature *

Ivo Maes is Senior Advisor at the Economics and Research Department of the National Bank of Belgium and a Professor, Robert Triffin Chair, at the Université catholique de Louvain, as well as at ICHEC Brussels Management School. He previously served as a member of the Committee for Institutional Reform of the West African Monetary Union and as the President of the Council of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought. He has been a visiting professor at Duke University (USA), the Université de Paris-Sorbonne, and the Università Roma Tre.

Ilaria Pasotti is a researcher and an archivist. She has a Ph.D. in History of Economic Thought from the University of Florence. From 2009 to 2014 she was a researcher at the Catholic University of Milan. She has been a visiting researcher at the National Bank of Belgium, the Université Catholique de Louvain, and Cambridge University.