The son of an economist of Egyptian Jewish descent, Farhi grew up in Paris where he attended the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. At age 16 he won the Concours général in Physics and continued on to study Mathematics in preparatory class. Ranking 1st on the national entry exam to the elite engineering schoolÉcole Polytechnique in 1997, he eventually chose to attend another prestigious French graduate school, École Normale Supérieure. He specialized in Mathematics obtaining 2nd place on the Agrégation de Mathematiques. He was then admitted to the Corps des Minesin 2001. He finished his studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was awarded a Ph.D. in 2006. That same year he began working at Harvard as assistant professor in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. He received tenure four years later when he was named a full professor.
Career
Farhi started his career in the Economics department of Harvard in 2006 and was tenured in 2010. One of the leading economists of his generation both in the U.S. and in France, Farhi’s research focused on macroeconomics and finance, specifically on financial stability and reforming the international monetary system. A former economic adviser to French Prime Minister François Fillon, the International Monetary Fund named Farhi one of the 25 best economists under 45 in 2014. Though highly quantitative, his work shed light on practical issues such as macroprudential regulation, mitigating the impacts of economic crises or understanding the implications of fiscal policies. For example, he assessed the controversial Social VAT, a measure introduced by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and repealed by his successor Francois Hollande only to reemerge under a different form: the "Competitiveness Pact". Farhi’s work cast a spotlight on a range of issues, including monetary economics, public finance, international economics, global imbalances, fiscal policy, and taxation. He also focused on issues like mitigating the impacts of economic crises and macroprudential regulation, a system used to describe the laws, rules, and conditions for banks and financial organizations that are meant to protect the whole financial system from risk. Farhi was granted several awards for his work, including
2009 Bernácer Prize for the best European economist under the age of 40
In September 2014, the IMF published a list of the 25 “economists under 45 will have the most influence in the coming decades on our understanding of the global economy”. Farhi was one of the 7 French economists listed for his work on "monetary economics, international economics, finance and public finance, including research on global imbalances, monetary and fiscal policy, and taxation." Farhi frequently co-authored academic papers with Ivan Werning,, David Baqaee, Xavier Gabaix and Jean Tirole among many others.
Personal Life
On July 23, 2020, Farhi died, unexpectedly, aged 41.
Selected publications
Farhi authored and published many academic articles and a book.
