Dr John McDermott is the Executive Director of Motu Economic and Public Policy Research. He received his PhD in Economics from Yale University. Before starting at Motu he spent eleven years as Assistant Governor at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand: Te Pūtea Matua. He has previously worked at Victoria University of Wellington, National Bank of New Zealand, and the International Monetary Fund. He has published numerous articles on international commodity prices, real exchanges rates, and business cycles. He continues to study aspects of New Zealand’s business cycle.
Dr McDermott has won the 2019 NZIER annual economics award, the New Zealand equivalent of the Nobel economics prize in recognition of being the foremost macro-economist in policy circles for at least the past decade.