He was a faculty member of the economics department at Yale University (1988-95). He was senior economist for international affairs at the White House Council of Economic Advisers (1998-99), and senior adviser to the undersecretary for international affairs and the director of the Office of Policy Development and Review at the U.S. Treasury Department (1999-2000). He has been a long-time consultant to the IMF and a number of other public and private institutions. He is a fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Centre for Economic Policy Research. He is co-author of Political Cycles: Theory and Evidence (MIT Press, 1997).