Mario Draghi, influential EU economist, receives 2026 SIEPR Prize

Mario Draghi, an Italian economist and statesman who helped steer the European Union through a severe financial crisis in the 2010s, has been awarded the 2026 SIEPR Prize.

The honor, from the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), recognizes a scholar or policymaker who’s had a profound impact on economic policy.

Draghi is one of the most influential economic policymakers in modern Europe. As president of the European Central Bank (ECB) in the 2010s, he helped guide the EU through a debt crisis that threatened its future. As Italy’s prime minister from 2021 to 2022, he led the country through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic recovery.

More recently, Draghi was tapped by the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, to advise on policy steps for addressing its structural economic weaknesses and strengthening its competitiveness relative to the United States and China. His 2024 report has framed policy debates about future directions for the EU.

“Dr. Draghi has had an unparalleled career stretching from academia to the pinnacle of central banking and government leadership," said Neale Mahoney, the Trione Director of SIEPR and the TG Wijaya Professor of Economics in the Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences. "He is an inspiration to me and to every economist who believes in the power of economic research and policy to improve our world."

Draghi, an Italian who earned his PhD in economics from MIT, became president of the ECB in 2011. At the time, the central bank, created in 1998 ahead of the euro’s debut, was facing several major economic challenges. Lingering effects of the 2008-09 global financial crisis, coupled with high levels of government debt and lax banking standards were crippling several eurozone countries — including Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal. Draghi played a pivotal role in calming financial markets when he declared in 2012 that the ECB would do “whatever it takes to preserve the euro.” His remarks sent a powerful signal that the euro bloc was prepared to bail out member countries in distress, avoiding investor flight and laying the groundwork for needed EU reforms. Today, 21 of the 27 EU countries have adopted the euro as their currency.

Draghi led the ECB until 2019. Two years later, he became the prime minister of Italy. After he stepped down from that role in 2022, the European Commission invited him to address Europe’s longstanding economic challenges and issue recommendations for restoring its competitive edge. Draghi’s 400-page report didn’t pull any punches: He warned that the EU faces an “existential challenge” and is “stuck in a static industrial structure with few new companies rising up to disrupt existing industries or develop new growth engines.”

Underlying his extensive policy recommendations was a clear message: To compete with the U.S. and China, the EU would need to become more centralized, fiscally and strategically.

"The SIEPR Prize celebrates the importance of policy research in shaping policy-making," said Draghi, who will be a featured keynote speaker at the SIEPR Economic Summit on March 6, in a statement. "I am greatly honored to receive the SIEPR Prize and to join such a distinguished list of previous recipients."

Past recipients of the SIEPR Prize include Ben Bernanke and Paul Volcker, former chairs of the U.S. Federal Reserve; Alice Rivlin, founding director of the Congressional Budget Office; and former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley, a key architect of 1986 federal Tax Reform Act.