WASHINGTON - The World Bank on Thursday announced the appointment of Yale University professor Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg as its new chief economist.

"(Goldberg) has spent her career examining many of the most complex issues that affect developing countries, and she will help answer the most important -- and difficult - questions of our time," World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said in a statement.

Such questions, Yong said, "include how to help developing countries prepare for the economy of the future, and how to ensure equality of opportunity everywhere in the world."

Goldberg's research focuses on developing countries and has been widely cited. Specifically, her areas of interest include the effects of trade on inequality and firm productivity, profits and innovation, and enforcement of intellectual property rights.

A Greek and US national, she was the first female editor-in-chief of the American Economic Review, one of the most influential journals in economics.

Before her current position at Yale, Goldberg had served on the economics faculty at Princeton University and Columbia University.

The World Bank said the date on which Goldberg will assume her new post will be announced shortly.