Karel Mertens

Karel Mertens is the director of research and senior vice president overseeing the Statistics Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, where he leads research initiatives and informs monetary policy through data analysis. Mertens specializes in business cycles, fiscal policy, banking and monetary economics, empirical macroeconomics, and time series econometrics. He has contributed to the understanding of macroeconomic effects of fiscal and credit policies, with research publications on tax policy, economic measurement, and the impact of government interventions.

Before joining the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Mertens was an associate professor of economics at Cornell University. He has held research fellowships at the Center of Economic Policy Research and served as a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His academic background includes advanced degrees from Ghent University, the London School of Economics, and the European University Institute.

Mertens frequently participates in economic forums and communicates economic concepts to a range of audiences, including policymakers and the public. His leadership at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and scholarly work position him as a key contributor to discussions on monetary policy and macroeconomic research.