Chasing prices
It’s not often that shoveling snow inspires a discussion of foreign exchange rates. But that’s what happened when economist Gita Gopinath offered her 7-year-old son Rohil $10 for helping out. He insisted on being paid in rupees — 45 of them for every dollar. “He gets to hear more economics than he needs at the dinner table,” said Gopinath, the first Indian woman with tenure in Harvard’s Department of Economics. Her husband, Iqbal Dhaliwal, is also an economist, and is director of policy at the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At home in Lexington, Mass., Gopinath said, “We keep exchanging notes.” Gopinath, who is 39 today and was barely 38 when she earned tenure, is a rising star in international macroeconomics. Her research interests are timely, considering the volatile financial state of the world. Gopinath studies how international prices respond to movements in exchange rates, the rapid...