The Center for Dynamic Economics (CEDEC) started life on July 1, 2006, on the initiative of Dean Edward Macias and Professor Ping Wang, Chair of the Economics Department, with Professor Costas Azariadis as its inaugural director (2006-09), succeeded by Professors Ping Wang (2011-14), Yongseok Shin (2014-2016), Michele Boldrin (2016-2019), Rodolfo Manuelli (2009-11 and 2019 – 2023), Michele Boldrin and Francisco (Paco) Buera (2023-present) with co-director Limor Golan (2023-present).
CEDEC is an umbrella group of the Washington University macroeconomics faculty and affiliated researchers from other institutions. CEDEC supports theoretical, empirical and policy-oriented research by campus and visiting faculty on a wide of macroeconomic issues. Among these, of particular relevance are growth, development and poverty; capital mobility, technology and trade; financial markets, banks and asset prices; labor and unemployment; wealth and income distribution; money and credit; monetary and fiscal policy.
CEDEC aims to promote the production and distribution of new knowledge, to contribute to a learned debate on important issues of public policy, to bring economics students in contact with cutting-edge research, to help the Department of Economics attract first-rate faculty in macroeconomics and related areas, and to raise the quality and international visibility of research at Washington University in the broadly defined of macroeconomics listed above.