Aaron Medlin is an Assistant Professor of the Practice in the International Studies program at Boston College and an international economist whose research explores the intersection of political economy, finance, and central bank policy. He teaches courses on international economics, immigration, comparative economic systems, and research methods.
Before joining Boston College, Aaron worked as a research assistant at the Political Economy Research Institute, investigating the causality between Federal Reserve monetary policy and wealth inequality, and before that, at the Center for Economic and Policy Research researching labor market trends in non-standard work arrangements. He earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, specializing in issues of international finance.
Aaron’s dissertation contributes to a deeper understanding of the Federal Reserve’s international lending operations during—and since—the Global Financial Crisis by investigating the disruption of monetary transmission due to the pervasive use of LIBOR, an offshore interbank benchmark rate, by financial institutions in adjustable-rate loans for businesses and households, including subprime mortgages. Due to the breakdown in offshore interbank lending, LIBOR significantly diverged from the Fed’s policy rate path during the financial crisis. The Fed utilized currency swap lines with select central banks in other jurisdictions to influence LIBOR and enhance monetary policy transmission to the domestic economy. Aaron empirically investigates the Fed’s selection criteria for a central bank to receive a swap line and confirms that LIBOR panel banks are the common denominator among central banks granted unlimited and continuous swap line access since the financial crisis; furthermore, he shows that deviations from domestic rates explain swap line use from these central banks. He also explores the political economy of the transition from LIBOR to risk-free rates under central bank oversight—a result of benchmark interest rate reform pushed for by the U.S.—and its implications for wealth and influence in the international financial system.
His work was recognized with the Solomon Barkin Graduate Fellowship by the Economics Department at UMass Amherst, awarded for its insightful analysis into the importance of benchmark interest rate regulation in retail credit markets and its impact on working people, particularly for those who lost their homes due to spikes in house payments as a direct result of their mortgage being indexed to LIBOR.
Aaron has been published in popular media outlets such as The American Prospect, and various academic outlets.
