Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas grew up in France where he attended Ecole Polytechnique. He received his PhD in 1996 from MIT and taught at Stanford Graduate School of Business and Princeton University before joining UC Berkeley department of economics.

Professor Gourinchas' main research interests are in international macroeconomics and finance. His recent research focuses on the importance of the valuation channel for the dynamics of external adjustment and the determination of exchange rates, on the determinants of capital flows to and from developing countries, and on global imbalances.