Cedric Okou is an economist in the Research Department at the IMF. Before joining the Fund, he led the surveillance and analytical work on Sub-Saharan Africa in the World Bank Prospects Group, was a tenured associate professor of macro finance at the University of Quebec in Montreal, and held various positions in the private sector. His research interests include macro finance, international macroeconomics, risk and asset management, productivity, and climate change. His work has been published in various outlets, including academic journals such as the Journal of Quantitative and Financial Analysis, Journal of Banking and Finance, and Journal of Applied Econometrics. He holds a PhD in Financial Economics from HEC Montreal.