Raymond Mikesell

Raymond Mikesell earned his bachelor's degree and Ph.D. in economics from The Ohio State University, completing the doctorate in 1939. His distinguished career in Business & Economics unfolded across several prominent institutions. He served as an assistant professor at the University of Washington from 1937 to 1941. In 1946, he joined the Department of Economics at the University of Virginia as a professor. From 1957 until his retirement in 1993, he held the W.E. Miner Chair in economics at the University of Oregon. Mikesell's research specializations included international economics, foreign aid, and international monetary policy. He made crucial contributions to international economic institutions as a participant in the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference, devising the basic quota formula for the International Monetary Fund in collaboration with the U.S. Treasury.

Mikesell produced a substantial body of influential scholarship. Notable books include United States Economic Policy and International Relations (1952), The Economics of Foreign Aid (1968), and The Bretton Woods Debates: A Memoir, Essays in International Finance 192 (Princeton University, 1994). Key articles encompass "The Key Currency Proposal" in the Quarterly Journal of Economics (1945), "Negotiating at Bretton Woods, 1944" (1951), "America's Stake in Foreign Investments" (1959), "A National Retail Sales Tax? Some Thoughts on Taxing Consumption the American Way" in State Tax Notes (1996), "Bretton Woods - Original Intentions and Current Problems" in Contemporary Economic Policy (2000), and "The Meltzer Commission Report on International Institutions" in Economic Development and Cultural Change (2001). He was a member of the editorial board of the Middle East Journal from 1947 and vice president of the Academy of International Business in 1971-1972. In 1981, Mikesell was elected a Fellow of the Academy of International Business. His work has shaped understandings of international monetary policy and economic development.