Alberto Alesina, a prominent Harvard University economist and expert on austerity, has died at age 63, Italian media reported. Alesina, who received his doctorate from Harvard and headed its economics department from 2003 to 2006, was considered an authority on political economy.

He died of cardiac arrest while hiking, the Ansa news agency reported, citing a tweet by the economist David Wessel. Paolo Gentiloni, the European Union’s economy commissioner, said in a tweet that Alesina’s work “enriched our economic debate.”