Sir Charles (Charlie) Bean is Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and Chairman of the Centre for Economic Policy Research.
From 2016 to 2021, he was a member of the Budget Responsibility Committee at the Office for Budget Responsibility, overseeing the production of the agency's economic forecasts. In 2016, at the behest of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, he also delivered a major review of the quality, delivery and governance of UK economic statistics.
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From 2008 to 2014, he was Deputy Governor for Monetary Policy at the Bank of England, serving on both the Monetary Policy Committee (Vice-Chair) and the Financial Policy Committee. In that capacity, he held specific responsibility for overseeing the Bank’s monetary analysis and market operations. He also represented the Bank in international fora, including the G7 and G20. Prior to that, he was the Bank’s Executive Director for Monetary Analysis and Statistics and Chief Economist.
From 1982 until he joined the Bank in 2000, he was a member of the economics department at the London School of Economics, including serving as departmental chair. He started his career as an economic forecaster at HM Treasury in 1975.
He was an undergraduate at Emmanuel College, Cambridge University and holds a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
As an academic, he has published widely, in both professional journals and popular media, on monetary policy, European unemployment, and on macroeconomics more generally. He has served on the boards of several academic journals, and was Managing Editor of the Review of Economic Studies from 1986 to 1990.
Aside from his time at the Bank of England, he has served in a variety of other public policy roles, including: as a consultant to HM Treasury; as an adviser to the Treasury Committee of the House of Commons; and as an adviser to the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Parliament.
He served as President of the Royal Economic Society in 2013-15, is a Vice-President of the Society of Professional Economists, and was knighted in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to monetary policy and central banking.
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Charlie and his wife, Elizabeth, live in Chelsea, London. Away from economics, he is a keen opera and theatre goer and an avid cricket fan.
