I am an economist and research executive bridging the gap between deep quantitative modeling, real-world monetary policy, and frontier public data innovation. As Senior Vice President and Director of Research at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, I lead one of the world's premier economics research divisions and act as a modernizing catalyst—driving strategic technological transformations and digital architecture pivots within a traditionally risk-averse institutional environment.
In my capacity as Director of Research and a member of the Bank's Executive Leadership Committee, I guide a globally recognized research division ranking in the top 1% worldwide, direct the economic briefing frameworks that inform national monetary policy, and provide core strategic counsel to the Bank President ahead of Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings.
Beyond policy briefings, my mandate centers on modernizing the institutional pipelines that democratize economic information globally. Navigating complex regulatory structures, I have consistently driven technical innovation across our premier public data products and system-wide initiatives:
Digital Infrastructure Migration: Architected and executed the strategic migration of FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) to modern cloud environments, ensuring the scalability, resilience, and fast data delivery of global macroeconomic aggregates.
Frontier AI Integration: Directed the development and deployment of the first generative AI application within the Federal Reserve System, establishing a secure framework for utilizing large language models in central banking research operations.
National Rebranding & Scaling: Led the complete structural evolution and full rebranding of our system-wide economic education portfolio, transitioning the legacy platform into the modern FRE.org (Federal Reserve Education) infrastructure to scale public outreach.
Inclusive Data Representation: Championed the strategic development of institutional initiatives like the CBNNI (Central Bank National Native Inclusion) framework, expanding the economic visibility and financial education empowerment of Native American communities.
My personal research agenda mirrors this focus on structural friction, focusing on the critical intersections of macroeconomics, housing finance, and public economics. Rather than treating these as isolated fields, my research constructs quantitative models to evaluate how credit market mechanics, interest rate thresholds, and automated underwriting algorithms interact with broader consumer risk profiles and spatial equilibrium sorting.
These quantitative discoveries have been published in premier peer-reviewed journals, including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Monetary Economics, and the Review of Financial Studies. Backed by funding from institutions like the National Science Foundation (NSF). I have presented these frameworks at more than 300 universities and central banks globally, with my insights regularly featured in leading international outlets including the Financial Times, Bloomberg, CNBC, and the Washington Post.
Prior to my executive appointment at the St. Louis Fed, I built a deep academic footprint within the Federal Reserve System and top-tier research universities, including faculty positions at Florida State University and the Universidad de Barcelona. I hold a Ph.D. in Economics from the Universidad de Barcelona, anchoring my career in a rigorous commitment to structural economic modeling and its capacity to solve pressing global challenges.
Research Division Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis P.O. Box 442 St. Louis, MO 63166-0442
Email: carlos.garriga@stls.frb.org
Executive Administrative Support
Assistant: Julie Fletcher
Media Inquiries
Press Officer: Shera Dalin
Email: mediainquiries@stls.frb.org