Robert Wescott

Robert F. Wescott runs an economic and financial advising practice in Washington, DC that serves some of the world’s largest international financial institutions.

Dr. Wescott is supported by a network of high-profile experts, including two Nobel-prize winning economists and former high-level officials from the International Monetary Fund, the White House, and the U.S. Treasury.

From 1999 until 2001, Wescott served as Special Assistant to the President for International Economics and Finance at the National Economic Council (NEC) at the White House. As President Clinton’s top international economic adviser, he helped to develop policies in an interagency setting on a wide range of issues-including policies toward G-7 countries, Russia, China, and key emerging-market economies, and the international financial system. He travelled frequently with the President to brief him on international economic and financial issues.

From 1994 to 1997, Wescott was Deputy Division Chief at the International Monetary Fund. In the IMF’s Research Department he produced the World Economic Outlook, the IMF Fund’s semi-annual review of world economic prospects, key risks and policy challenges. In the European Department he was responsible for the Eastern European countries in transition.
During 1993-94, Wescott was Chief Economist at the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers at the White House, where he developed the Clinton Administration’s macroeconomic forecasts and performed policy analysis. He helped write and edit the Economic Report of the President, and served as Acting Member of the Council for six months in 1994.

Between 1982 and 1993, Wescott was Senior Vice President and Chief Economist at WEFA Group (Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates), the Philadelphia-based economic forecasting and consulting firm. He oversaw all forecasting, data analysis, economic modelling, consulting, and research activities for the U.S. Group.

In 1989-90, Wescott lived in Japan where he helped the University of Pennsylvania establish the International Center for the Study of East Asia Development (ICSEAD) in Kitakyushu. Wescott has published research papers in the areas of fiscal policy, global saving patterns, exchange rate determinants, money and banking, the credit crunch in Japan, inflation targeting, econometric modelling, and economic development, especially issues related to globalization.