Experts

Philippe Aghion is a Professor at the College de France and at the London School of Economics, and a fellow of the Econometric Society and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His research focuses on the economics of growth. With Peter Howitt, he pioneered the “Schumpeterian Growth paradigm” which was subsequently used to analyze the design of growth policies and the role of the state in the growth process. Much of this work is summarized in their joint books Endogenous Growth Theory (MIT Press, 1998) and The Economics of Growth (MIT Press, 2009), in his book with Rachel Griffith on Competition and Growth (MIT Press, 2006), and in his survey “What Do We Learn from Schumpeterian Growth Theory” (joint with U. Akcigit and P. Howitt). In 2001, Philippe Aghion received the Yrjo Jahnsson Award of the best European economist under age 45, and in 2009 he received the John Von Neumann Award.

Theodore Ahlers is an economist with extensive experience in Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East & North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa. He advises numerous countries and institutions on strategic economic issues and recently edited Africa Reset: A New Way Forward (Oxford 2017) and contributed to Central Asia 2050: Unleashing the Region’s Potential (Sage 2016). Over the previous 25 years, he held economist and senior management positions at the World Bank, including Strategy and Operations Director for Europe & Central Asia (2007-12), Maghreb Department Director (2002-07), Strategy and Operations Director for Africa (2000-02), Country Director for Benin, Niger, and Togo (1996-2000), and Lead Economist in West and Central Africa (1994-96). He holds a PhD in Development Economics from Tufts University, Fletcher School.

Montek Ahluwalia is an Indian economist and civil servant who was the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of the Republic of India, a position that carries the rank of a Cabinet Minister. As Deputy Chairman from 2004 to 2014, he supervised the preparation of both the Eleventh Plan (2007-08 to 2011-12) titled "Towards Faster and More Inclusive Growth" and subsequently also the Twelfth Plan (2012-13 to 2016-17) titled "Faster, More Inclusive and Sustainable Growth". He tendered his resignation for this post in May 2014 following the impending end of the UPAII regime at the center. Previously, he was the first Director of the Independent Evaluation Office at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a role he held from 2001 to 2004.

Peter Allgeier was the President of the Coalition of Service Industries (CSI) from September 2012 to March 2016. Allgeier served nearly three decades at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), where he was a negotiator on nearly every major U.S. trade initiative since the Carter Administration. During his career at USTR, Allgeier has conducted major negotiations with countries throughout Asia, Europe (including the former Soviet Union), the Middle East, and Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as multilateral negotiations in the United Nations, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and its predecessor organization, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Previously, Allgeier was President of C&M International, a trade consultancy based in Washington, D.C., and he served as Deputy U.S. Trade Representative from 2001 to 2009.

Hiroto Arakawa is the Special Advisor to the Research Institute of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Previously, he served as Senior Special Advisor of JICA in October 2008 following distinguished careers at the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF). During Mr. Arakawa’s time at these organizations, he worked in a variety of departments charged with handling ODA loan operations, planning and strategy, and research activities. He was appointed as Representative in Manila, Philippines from 1982 to 1985, and New Delhi from 1987 to 1990. In addition to serving on the International Advisory Committee of Growth Dialogue, he is currently a member of Global Agenda Council on Poverty and Economic Development of the World Economic Forum.

Margaret Biggs is Chairperson of the Board of Governors for the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and Matthews Fellow in Global Public Policy at Queen’s University. From 2008-2013 she was President of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) responsible for overseeing Canada's international development and humanitarian assistance efforts worldwide. Previously, Ms. Biggs served as Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet in the Privy Council Office (Priorities and Planning). She has an extensive background in social and labour market polices and global sustainable development. Ms. Biggs has represented Canada in numerous international fora including on the Board of Governors of the World Bank and as International Executive Co-Chair for the China Council on International Cooperation on Environment and Development. She has also served on various Boards and Commissions and is currently Chair of the International Advisory Committee of UNU’s Institute on Water, Environment and Health and on the Executive of World University Services Canada. A native of Vancouver, Ms. Biggs is a graduate of the University of British Columbia and the Norman Patterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University.

Anthony Bigio is an Urban Advisor with over thirty years of experience of urban development projects across the world. Having retired from the World Bank in June 2013 after a nearly 20-years career as a Senior Urban Specialist, he is now a Professor at the George Washington University graduate program on Sustainable Urban Planning, with specific responsibility for courses on urban resilience and low-carbon cities. He is also a Lead Author for the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, contributing to the chapter on urban planning and carbon emissions of its forthcoming Fifth Assessment Report, and a reviewer of the chapter on urban impacts of climate change. He is a member of the Scientific Committees of New York based UCCRN (Urban Climate Change Research Network) and of the Italian Society for Climate Science (SISC).

Nancy Birdsall is a senior fellow and president emeritus of the Center for Global Development, having served as founding president for its first 15 years from 2001-2016. Her current research areas include the roles and financing of the multilateral development banks; climate finance; inequality and the middle class in developing countries; and the long-run effect of modern contraception on women's economic empowerment. From 1993 to 1998, Birdsall served as executive vice president of the Inter-American Development Bank, the largest of the regional development banks, where she oversaw a $30 billion public and private loan portfolio. Before that she worked for 14 years in research, policy, and management positions at the World Bank, including as director of the Policy Research Department. Prior to launching the Center, she served for three years as senior associate and director of the Economic Reform Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace where her work focused on globalization, inequality and the reform of the international financial institutions.

Eduardo Bitran has been the CEO of CORFO since March 2014. He has held academic positions at the Engineering School of Universidad de Chile and Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, both in Santiago de Chile. Bitran has served as Senior Advisor on Capital Markets and Economic Regulation to the Minister of Finance (1990-94), General Manger of CORFO (1994-97), CEO of Fundación Chile (1997-2006), Minister of Public Works (2006-08) and President of the National Innovation Council (2008-2010). He has also served on several boards of public enterprises and non-government organizations. He was founder of Fundación Exapansiva and Espacio Público. His experience with policies on innovation, competitiveness, cluster-building regulatory reform, and financial and private infrastructure investment, includes several advisory and consulting positions at the World Bank Group, the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the OECD. Bitran holds a degree in industrial engineering from the University of Chile and a Ph.D. in Economics from Boston University.

François Bourguignon is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the Paris School of Economics. Previously, he was the World Bank’s Chief Economist (2003-2007), Director of the Paris School of Economics (2007-2013) and Professor of Economics at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris (1985-2013). In 2016, he was awarded the Dan Davis Prize for his outstanding achievements in combatting poverty. Professor Bourguignon, a global authority on the economics of growth and development, played a vital role in placing economic growth ad its relationship with inequality and income distribution at the center of the World Bank Group’s agenda. In 1999, he received the silver medal for academic achievements from the French National Centre of Scientific Research. Professor Bourguignon is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and was president of the European Economic Association for Population Economics. He has authored or edited several books and over one hundred articles in leading journals. In addition to being the Managing Editor of the World Bank Economic Review from 2000-03, and European Economic Review (1990-2000), he has been an Associate Editor of several other important economic journals. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Western Ontario.

Carlos Braga is a Managing Partner of Brasilpar Financial Advisory Firm since December 2013 and a visiting professor of Corporate Finance at Fundação Dom Cabral. Previously, he was Director of the Evian Group at IMD. Prior to that he served as a corporate and investment banker in Brazil and abroad. Among other functions, he served as Country Manager of the Royal Bank of Scotland in Brazil and as Executive Director responsible for Corporate Bank and Structured Finance for Latin America at ABN AMRO where he worked for 20 years. He was directly involved in the structuring of more than 25 capital raising transactions totalling more than USD 15 billion between 2001 and 2013 for Electricity, Infrastructure, Oil & Gas, Petrochemical, Transportation, Industry, Mining and Telecommunications sectors. He was also the Portfolio Manager responsible for a USD $5 Bln Loan Book across Latin America both at RBS and ABN AMRO. He has a Masters in Finance from IBMEC-RJ, Specialization in Management at IMD in Switzerland and post-graduate degree in International Business from the University of California Los Angeles.

Mayra Buvinic is a Senior Fellow both at the Center for Global Development and the United Nations Foundation and a Senior Advisor to the Growth Dialogue on Gender. Previously, she was Director for Gender and Development at the World Bank and the implementer of the Bank’s Gender Action Plan (2005-2009). Previously Dr. Buvinic headed the Social Development Division at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). A pioneer in her field, she was a founding member and President of the International Center for Research on Women. (ICRW) and a leading advocate for women’s economic empowerment. She has a PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

Carl Dahlman is currently Senior Policy Advisor for the Growth Dialogue. He was the Chief Economist and Head of the Thematic Division of the Development Centre at the OECD between 2013 and 2016. At the OECD he was in charge of the biannual publication Perspectives on Global Development. He joined the OECD in September 2013 from Georgetown University where he was Associate Professor in the School of Foreign Service from 2005 to 2013. Prior to that he spent 25 years at the World Bank in various research, policy, and managerial positions, including: Resident Representative in Mexico (1994-1997), Staff Director of the 1998/1999 World Development Report -Knowledge for Development, Manager and Senior Advisor at the World Bank Institute (1999-2004), Division Chief Private Sector Development, Division Chief for Industrial Strategy and others. Mr Dahlman has an extensive publications record including 12 books and numerous articles. His most publications include: Harnessing the Digital Economy for Developing Countries (OECD Development Centre working paper, 2017); Perspectives on Global Development: International Migration in a Shifting World (OECD, 2017); A New Rural Development Paradigm for Developing Countries for the 21rst Century (2016); Securing Livelihoods for All: Foresight for Action (OECD 2015);) Perspectives on Global Development: Facing the Middle Income Challenge (OECD, 2014) and The World under Pressure: How China and India are Influencing the Global Economy and Environment (Stanford University Press, 2012). Mr. Dahlman holds a PhD degree in Economics from Yale University, and a BA in International Affairs from Princeton University.

Augusto de la Torre is an adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). As former Chief Economist for the World Bank, he provided technical and conceptual leadership to in the Latin America and the Caribbean Regions and was actively involved in the joint IMF-World Bank Financial Sector Assessment Program. He also worked closely with the Office of the Chief Economist for the Latin American and the Caribbean Region. He headed the Central Bank of Ecuador during 1993-96. In November 1996, he was chosen by Euromoney Magazine as the year’s “Best Latin Central Banker.” He is a member of the Carnegie Network of Economic Reformers. From 1986 to 1992 he was an Economist with the International Monetary Fund and during 1991-92 was the IMF’s Resident Representative in Venezuela. De la Torre earned his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Economics at the University of Notre Dame and holds aLicenciatura in Philosophy from the Catholic University of Ecuador.

Jaime de Melo is an Emiritus Professor at the University of Geneva and a Senior Fellow at FERDI (Fondation pour les études et recherches dans le développement international), a CEPR fellow, a fellow of EU-GDN, and a non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institute. Between 1980 and 1993, he held various positions in the former Research Department at the World Bank where he was Division Chief of the Trade Policy division (1991-93). He was Professeur Invité at CERDI, Université d’Auvergne (1986-2012) and at the Université of Aix-Marseille (1998-2001). A founding member of the World Trade Institute, where he taught from 2000 to 2006, he served on its Board from 2000 to 2006. He has served on editorial boards and, from 2005 to 2010, was editor-in-chief of the World Bank Economic Review. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from the Maxwell School, Syracuse University, 1968, an M.A. in international relations from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and a Ph.D. in economics from the Johns Hopkins University in 1975.

Mohamed El-Erian is Chief Economic Advisor, Allianz SE. Before Allianz, he served as Chair of the President’s Global Development Council. He was chief executive and co-chief investment officer of PIMCO and President and CEO of Harvard Management Company, the entity that manages Harvard’s endowment and related accounts. Previously, Dr. El-Erian was a managing director at Salomon Smith Barney/Citigroup in London and spent 15 years with the International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC. He has published widely on international economic and finance topics. His 2008 best seller - When Markets Collide - was book of the year (The Economist) and one of the best business books of all time (The Independent (UK)). He was one of Foreign Policy’s “Top 100 Global Thinkers” for four years in a row, and is a contributing editor for the Financial Times. His newest book – The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability and Avoiding the Next Collapse – is another New York Times best seller. He has served on several boards and committees, including the U.S. Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee, and the New York Fed’s Investor Advisory Committee on Financial Markets. Since 2007, he has chaired Microsoft’s Investment Advisory Board. Dr. El-Erian holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Oxford University. He received an undergraduate degree from Cambridge University, where he is now an Honorary Fellow of Queens’ College.

Antonio Estache is Professor of Economics at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles, where he holds the Bernard Van Ommeslaghe Chair and is a member of the European Center for Advanced Research of Economics. Prior to that, he was Chief Economist for the Sustainable Development Network of the World Bank, where he spent 25 years (1982-2007) working across regions on various dimensions of public sector reform. He has published widely on the regulation of network industries (electricity, telecommunications, transport, and water and sanitation); assessment of the performance of the public sector; and the growth and distributional effects of environmental, fiscal, and sectoral policies in developing countries.

Alejandro Foxley was a senior associate in the Carnegie International Economics Program, and at the Corporación de Estudios para Latinoamérica (CIEPLAN) in Santiago, Chile. Before joining Carnegie, Foxley was minister of foreign affairs of the Republic of Chile (2006–2009). Between 1998 and 2006, he was a senator of Chile, serving as chairman of the Finance Committee and the Permanent Joint Budget Committee. Previously, he was also Chile’s minister of finance and concurrently served as a governor of the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank (1990–1994). From 1998 until 2002 Foxley served as a member of the Carnegie Economic Reform Network (CERN), a distinguished group of former ministers and other senior policy makers who played key roles in advancing market-oriented economic reforms in developing and transitional economies. From 1982 to 1989 he was Helen Kellogg Professor of Economics and International Development at the University of Notre Dame, and between 1973 and 1985 he was a visiting professor at the University of California, San Diego; MIT; Berkeley; Oxford; and the University of Sussex. Foxley has been honored by the governments of France (L’Ordre Nacional Legion d’Honneur), Peru (Orden Sol del Perú en el grado de Gran Cruz), Austria (Gran Croix de Premier Class), Brazil (“Orden Nacional Cruzeiro do Sol” Gran Cruz), and Spain (Orden al Mérito Civil) for his contributions to the field of economics. He is a former president and member of the board of directors of Cieplan, a think tank based in Santiago, Chile, and is the author or editor of 15 books on economics, economic development, and democracy.

Maria Emilia Freire is a Professorial Lecturer at Johns Hopkins-SAIS, where she teaches urban economics, and an Independent International Consultant and former Senior Advisor to the World Bank with expertise in macroeconomics, public finance, decentralization, and urban economics. She is an internationally recognized expert on urban economics and public finance, including sub-national finance, municipal finance and related reforms, and national and municipal levels. Dr. Freire worked at the World Bank for more than twenty years. Prior to her retirement, she held management and research positions as Senior Advisor to the Sustainable Development Vice-Presidency and Urban Anchor, Manager of the Urban Department in Latin America, and Director of the Urban Management Program at the World Bank Institute. She has led major programs in Africa and Latin America on sub-national government reform, Housing and Urban Development, and advised teams in several countries including Argentina, India, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Burundi, Rwanda, Brazil, Argentina, Morocco, Egypt, and Peru. Dr. Freire holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley and graduate degrees from the Technical University in Lisbon, Portugal. She is a member of the European Association of Regional Economics, the Advisory Board of the Center for African Cities, as well as the Advisory Board of the Global City Indicators Facility.

Jose Luis Guasch holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University, California, USA and Industrial Engineering Degree from the Polytechnic University of Barcelona, Spain. He is the Former Senior Regional Advisor in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) Region in The World Bank in Washington, DC, responsible for regulation, competitiveness, infrastructure/PPP, innovation and technology issues and investment climate for the LAC Region and was the Head of the World Bank Global Expert Team on PPP. He is also a Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego, since 1980. Over 30 years of experience advising Governments on multiple aspects i) on improving Competitiveness, and Innovation and Mainstreaming SMEs into the value chain; and ii) on Infrastructure and PPPs and Regulation (legal, institutional, processes, contract design, contract oversight, instruments and capacity building, financial issues, pricing etc). He has assisted and adviced Governments in more than 50 countries on a variety of isssues among them on competitiveness, and infrastructure and PPPs. He has written extensively in leading economic and finance journals, and has written several books. His most recent books are: (i) Managing the Regulatory Process: Design, Concepts, Issues and the Latin America and Caribbean Story; (ii) The Challenge of Designing and Implementing Effective Regulation: A Normative Approach and an Empirical Evaluation; (iii) Labor Markets: The Unfinished Reform in Latin America and Caribbean; (iv) Closing the Gap in Education and Technology in Latin America ; (v) Granting and Renegotiating Concessions: Doing it Right; vi) The Impact of Private Participation in Infrastructure; and vii) Does the Investment Climate Matter?

Han Duck-soo is Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the United States. He is former Prime Minister and former Minister of Finance and Economy. Mr. Han holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University (1984) and a B.A. in Economics from Seoul National University (1971). Mr. Han’s career spans over 35 years, starting at the National Tax Service in 1970 and the Economic Planning Board four years later. In 1982 he moved to what is now the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, where he rose to Vice Minister in 1997-1998, during the Asian financial crisis and later became Minister of Trade Affair (1998-2000), handling trade negotiations with foreign governments. Mr. Han served as presidential secretary of economic affairs under two presidents, first in 1993 and more recently in 2002 under former president Kim Dae Jung. In 2001, he also served as the senior presidential secretary for policy and planning. Other posts include Ambassador to the OECD in 2001, President of the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade (KIET) in 2003 and Minister, Office for Government Policy Coordination in 2004.

Bernard Hoekman is Professor and Director, Global Economics at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute in Florence, Italy. Prior positions include Director of the International Trade Department and Research Manager in the Development Research Group of the World Bank. He has been an economist in the GATT Secretariat and held visiting positions at SciencesPo, Paris. A graduate of the Erasmus University Rotterdam, he obtained his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan. He is a CEPR Research Fellow, where he also co-directs the Trade Policy Research Network; a Senior Associate of the Economic Research Forum for the Arab countries, Turkey and Iran; and a member of the World Economic Forum Global Action Council on Logistics and Supply Chains. Recent publications include Supply Chains, Mega-Regionals and Multilateralism: A Road Map for the WTO(London: CEPR Press, 2014); Structural Issues at the WTO (with Joe Francois), a special symposium issue of the World Trade Review (January 2015); and The Global Trade Slowdown: A New Normal? (London: CEPR Press, 2015).

Robert Holzmann is a professor of economics in Austria and holds a distinguished career in international organizations and academia. He now holds the chair of Old Age Financial Protection at the University of Malaya (Kuala Lumpur), is honorary professor at the Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research, University of New South Wales (Sydney), Fellow of the Austrian Academy of Science (Vienna), and Research Fellow at IZA (Bonn) and Cesifo (Munich), and researches, teaches and consults internationally on pensions, financial literacy/capability, labor and migration issues. Before his return he was the Research Director of the Labor Mobility Program (Marseille Center for Mediterranean Integration) and Senior Advisor of the Financial Literacy & Education Program (Russia Trust Fund) of the World Bank. From 1997 to 2009 he was Sector Director and Head of the Social Protection & Labor Department leading, inter alia, the strategic and conceptual work on pensions and labor at the World Bank. Before joining the Bank he was professor of economics and the director to the European Institute at the University of Saarland, Germany (1992-97), and before professor of economics at the University of Vienna, Austria. He was also Visiting Professor at various universities in Japan, Chile and Austria, and lectured at Harvard University (USA) and Oxford University (UK). As principal administrator at the OECD (1985-87), he wrote a comprehensive report on public pension reform in industrialized countries. As senior economist at the IMF (1988-1990), he was heavily involved in fiscal and social security issues during the initial transition from plan to market in Central and Eastern Europe. His research and operational involvement extends to all regions of the world, and he has published 34 books and over 150 articles on social, fiscal and financial policy issues.

Daniel Hoornweg is a Professor and Jeffrey Boyce Research Chair at the University of Ontario. He teaches and researches energy systems and urban systems engineering at University of Ontario IT. He is also the Province of Ontario’s Chief Safety and Risk Officer and participates on advisory boards for Waste Diversion Ontario, Phillips, GDF Suez, and WWF. Dan is widely published on urban issues such as solid waste management, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and thoughts on how to build and manage more sustainable cities. Dan retired early from the World Bank in 2012 after almost 20 years of experience in the urban sector. He was the Bank’s Lead Urban Specialist, Cities and Climate Change, and remains a Fellow in the Sustainable Development Network. Dan joined the World Bank as a Young Professional in 1993 and has worked in all of the Bank’s geographic regions with a key focus on Sub-Sahara Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, India, Indonesia, China, Vietnam, and the Pacific Islands. He has worked with some 300 cities in more than fifty projects with climate change components. Prior to joining the Bank Dan had almost ten years experience working in local government. Dan's academic background includes degrees in Earth Sciences, Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Joseph K. Ingram is Co-Chair of the Board of Capitalis Investment Ltd, South African based equity advisors focused on renewable energy investments in sub-Saharan Africa. He is currently advising the Canadian Government on key development-related issues. Until 2013, Mr. Ingram was President/CEO of The North-South Institute. From 2006-2010, he was a Senior Advisor to the WTO and a consultant to both the UN High Commission on Human Rights and the Canadian International Development Agency. Over the course of his 30-year career at the World Bank, he held a number of management positions: Special Representative to the United Nations and the WTO, Director of the Bank's office in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Deputy Director of the World Bank Institute, Resident Representative in Cameroon, Deputy Division Chief for the Sahel, Senior Loan Officer for the former Yugoslavia, and Deputy Representative in Nigeria. Before joining the World Bank, Mr. Ingram served as Regional Representative for the Middle East and North Africa at the International Development Research Center, based in Beirut, Lebanon. He has published numerous articles, book chapters and scholarly papers on post-conflict development, Canadian foreign policy, human rights, and natural resource management in Africa. He currently contributes regular op-eds to IPolitics, one of Canada's leading public policy newspapers and has written articles and op-eds for the New York Times, The Huffington Post, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, and The National Post. Mr. Ingram holds an M.A. in political economy and studied at McMaster University and the Harvard Business School.

Ravi Kanbur is T. H. Lee Professor of World Affairs, International Professor of Applied Economics and Management, and Professor of Economics at Cornell University. He holds an appointment tenured both in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and in the Department of Economics in the College of Arts and Sciences. Ravi Kanbur was born in India and brought up in India and in England. He holds a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Cambridge and a doctorate in economics from the University of Oxford. He has taught at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Essex, Warwick, Princeton and Columbia. Ravi Kanbur has served on the senior staff of the World Bank, including as Resident Representative in Ghana, Chief Economist of the African Region, and Principal Adviser to the Chief Economist of the World Bank. He has also served as Director of the World Bank's World Development Report. Professor Kanbur's main areas of interest are public economics and development economics. His work spans conceptual, empirical, and policy analysis. He is particularly interested in bridging the worlds of rigorous analysis and practical policy making. His vita lists over 200 publications, covering topics such as risk taking, inequality, poverty, structural adjustment, debt, agriculture, and political economy. He has published in the leading economics journals such as American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Economic Theory, and Economic Journal.

Elizabeth King was formerly Director of Education (February 2009-June 2014), Vice President for Human Development (October 2013-June 2014), and Senior Education Adviser (July-August 2014) of the World Bank, Washington, DC. In these positions, she was the World Bank's senior spokesperson and professional head for global policy and strategic issues related to education development and human development. In 2010, she led the development of the World Bank Group’s education strategy for the next decade. Prior to these positions, she was the World Bank’s Research Manager for human development issues, Lead Economist for human development in the East Asian and Pacific region, and co-author of three World Development Reports, the flagship publication of the World Bank. Currently, she is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. She has published on topics such as household investments in human capital; the linkages between education, poverty and economic development; gender issues in development, especially girls’ and women's education; education finance, and the impact of decentralization reforms. She has worked on countries as diverse as Bangladesh, Colombia, Ghana, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Pakistan, and the Philippines, among others, contributing to public expenditure reviews, country economic assessments, policy analyses of the human development sectors, and impact evaluations of policies and programs. Ms. King has a Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University and a Master’s and B.A. from the University of the Philippines.

Maureen Lewis is the CEO and Founding Director of Aceso Global. Maureen Lewis is a respected thought leader in global health and health economics. She has spent over 25 years advising government and private sector leaders around the world on health system reforms. Dr. Lewis has held a variety of management and leadership positions in global health, including Chief Economist for Human Development at the World Bank. She is the author of more than 75 research publications and working papers, and five books, and is a member of numerous international organizations including the Council on Foreign Relations and the Center for Global Development, where she was a Senior Fellow and continues as a Non-Resident Fellow. Dr. Lewis speaks frequently for private, public and nonprofit audiences across the globe on topics related to global health, hospital management and quality, and health financing. She has a BSFS and an MA from Georgetown University, as well as a PhD in Population Economics from Johns Hopkins University.

Nora Lustig is the Samuel Z. Stone Professor of Latin American Economics and Director of the Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Institute at Tulane University. Professor Lustig’s research focuses on economic development, poverty and inequality, and social policies in developing countries. She has published more than seventy articles and fifteen edited volumes and books. Her current research is centered on assessing the impact of taxation and social spending on inequality and poverty in low and middle income countries, and on the determinants of income distribution in Latin America. She is a founding member and past president of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA) and was a co-director of the World Bank’s World Development Report 2000/1, Attacking Poverty. She is the editor of the Journal of Economic Inequality Forum and a member of the Inter-American Dialogue, the Center for Global Development’s Advisory Board, ECINEQ’s Executive Council, PEP’s Board of Directors, and the World Economic Forum’s Economic Growth and Social Inclusion Stewardship Board. She is also a Nonresident Fellow at the Center for Global Development and the Inter-American Dialogue. Prof. Lustig has served on the Atkinson Commission on Poverty and on the Stiglitz et al. Commission on Measuring Economic Performance and Social Progress. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Rakesh Mohan is Senior Fellow at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, Yale University and Distinguished Fellow at Brookings India. He is also a Senior Adviser to the McKinsey Global Institute and a Non Resident Senior Research Fellow of Stanford University. He was until recently Executive Director on the Board of the International Monetary Fund representing Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Sri Lanka. He was Chairman of the National Transport Development Policy Committee of the Government of India, with rank of Minister of State 2010-2014. He was Secretary, of the Indian Ministry of Finance, and also Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India between 2002 and 2009. In this capacity he co-chaired the G20 Working Group "Enhancing Sound Regulation and Strengthening Transparency" (2009), and the CGFS Working Group on Capital Flows (2008-09). He has a B.Sc. (Eng) from Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London (1969), a B.A. from Yale University (1971) and a Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University.

Fernando Montes-Negret is a financial expert, providing advice across many facets of financial sector policy, central banking, and private sector development. He was an Advisor to the Government of Kazakhstan and to the National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK) to assess the conditions in the banking system, the insurance, pension and securities sectors, and the NBK’s monetary policy framework. Dr. Montes-Negret has been a consultant to the EBRD advising the “Vienna Initiative” on NPL resolution and insolvency regimes. In 2014 he was appointed Coordinator of the Financial Services Advisory Center (FinSAC) – a single-donor trust fund financed by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance -- offering technical assistance on banking regulation and supervision to the countries in Southern and Central Europe. Prior to his current advisory work, he was with the IMF (Monetary and Capital Markets Department, Financial Oversight Division) involved in crisis and distressed countries (Hungary), leading several FSAP Missions (Poland), reviewing Article IV reports, and assessing IMF programs in crisis countries (Ukraine). Before joining the IMF, he was with the World Bank for 22 years during which he was Director of the Finance and Private Sector Development Department of the Europe and Central Asia Region and Manager for Financial Sector Operations for the Latin America Region and Senior Advisor in Mexico. Before joining the Bank, he was Deputy Governor of Colombia’s Central Bank, Advisor to the Monetary Board and Under-Secretary of Finance. Dr. Montes-Negret has a Ph. D. from Rice University.

Benno Ndulu is Chairman of the Board and Governor of the Central Bank of Tanzania. Prior to this, he served as an Advisor to the Vice President, Africa Region of the World Bank, and a s the Manager of The Partnerships Group. He is best known for his involvement in setting up one of the most effective research and training networks in Africa, the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC). He served as its first Research director and later as its Executive Director. In 1997, he received an honorary doctorate from the ISS in The Hague in recognition of his contributions to Capacity Building and Research on Africa. In the early1980s, Professor Ndulu taught at the University of Dar es Salaam, where he led a series of seminars on the economic crisis Tanzania was facing. This work made important contributions to the economic reforms that were implemented in the second half of the 1980s. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where he taught economics and published widely on growth, adjustment, governance and trade.

Janice Perlman is the President and CEO of the Mega-Cities Project, which she founded in 1988 with the intention to shorten the lag time between ideas and implementation in urban problem-solving. Working at the intersection of poverty, environment and voice for the disenfranchised, the organization has brokered over 40 transfers of successful urban innovations across boundaries of geography, ethnicity and nationality. Research/action teams in cities with over 10 million people across Asia, Africa, Latin America and the United States are hosted by university research centers or non-profit organizations and use leaders from government, business, non-profits, grassroots groups, academia and the media to help identify unrecognized local initiatives. In 1996, at HABITAT II in Istanbul, the United Nations adopted the Mega-Cities approach, methodology and database. The idea of changing the incentive system by rewarding innovators was translated into Best Practice Awards financed by Dubai. Perlman served as an official non-profit representative on the US State Department delegation to that Urban Summit and was a keynote speaker at the World Urban Forum 5 in Rio de Janeiro in March 2010. Prior to creating the Mega-Cities Project, Perlman was a tenured professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley. She has also taught at Columbia University, New York University, Hunter College and Trinity College as well as several universities abroad.

Adam S. Posen has been president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics since January 2013, after first joining in July 1997. Over his career, he has written about the financial and economic challenges faced by the European Union following the adoption of the euro, the lasting impact of Japan's economic crisis of the 1990s, and monetary and fiscal policies in the G-7. While at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York during 1994–97, he coauthored Inflation Targeting: Lessons from the International Experience with Ben Bernanke and others. He was one of the first scholars to seriously address the political foundations of central bank independence. In September 2009, Posen was appointed by the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer to serve a three-year term as an external voting member of the Bank of England's rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). During this critical period for the world economy, Posen advocated an activist policy response to the financial crisis, led the MPC into quantitative easing, supported efforts to stimulate business investment, and accurately forecasted global inflation developments. Leading up to the successful London G-20 summit of 2009 during the global financial crisis, he consulted for the UK Cabinet Office. Posen received his B.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. In addition to his leadership at the Institute, Posen advises the US Congressional Budget Office. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission.

Ana Revenga is a poverty and gender expert, currently a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and an Adjunct Lecturer at Brown University. Most recently, she was the Deputy Chief Economist of the World Bank Group. In her 26-year career at the World Bank, she held a number of senior management and technical positions in the East Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, Latin America, and Middle East and North Africa regions. Dr. Revenga was the was the Senior Director for the Poverty & Equity Global Practice in charge of the Bank’s teams working on poverty and equity, and serving as the principal spokesperson for the World Bank Group on these issues. Previously she was Director of Human Development in the Europe and Central Asia Region at the World Bank. In 2011-2012, she was co-Director of the 2012 World Development Report on Gender Equality and Development. Prior to joining the World Bank, Dr. Revenga worked in the Central Bank of Spain and taught international economics at the Centro de Estudios Monetarios y Financieros. She has published extensively on employment, globalization, inequality, social protection, poverty, and trade issues. She has a PhD and an M.A. in Economics from Harvard University, a B.A. in Economics and Mathematics from Wellesley College.

Dani Rodrik is the Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He rejoined the Kennedy School in July 2015 after two years at the Institute for Advanced Study as the Albert O. Hirschman Professor in the School of Social Science. Professor Rodrik is an economist whose research covers globalization, economic growth and development, and political economy. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the inaugural Albert O. Hirschman Prize of the Social Science Research Council, and honorary doctorates from universities in Europe and Latin America. He is affiliated with the National Bureau of Economic Research, Centre for Economic Policy Research (London), and the Center for Global Development among other research organizations. He is currently President-Elect of the International Economic Association. Professor Rodrik's newest book is Straight Talk on Trade: Ideas for a Sane World Economy (forthcoming 2017). He is also the author of Economics Rules: The Rights and Wrongs of the Dismal Science (W.W. Norton, 2015) and The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy ((W.W. Norton, 2011). His articles have been published in the American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Economic Growth, Journal of International Economics, Journal of Development Economics, and other academic journals.

Liliana Rojas-Suarez is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development with expertise on Latin America, financial regulation, Basel II and III and the development impact of global financial flows. She is the co-author or editor of almost a dozen books. Her most recent book is Growing Pains in Latin America: An Economic Growth Framework as Applied to Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and Peru. She also co-chaired the CGD Working Group on “Policy Principles for Expanding Financial Access”. She is also the chair of the Latin American Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee (CLAAF). From March 1998 to October 2000, she served as managing director and chief economist for Latin America at Deutsche Bank. Before joining Deutsche Bank, Rojas-Suarez was the principal advisor in the Office of Chief Economist at the Inter-American Development Bank. Between 1984-1994 she held various positions at the International Monetary Fund, most recently as deputy chief of the Capital Markets and Financial Studies Division of the Research Department. She has been a visiting fellow at the Institute for International Economics, a visiting advisor at the Bank for International Settlements and has also served as a professor at Anahuac University in Mexico and advisor for PEMEX, Mexico’s National Petroleum Company. Rojas-Suarez has also testified before a Joint Committee of the US Senate on the issue of dollarization in Latin America.

Barney Rush is an energy expert with extensive experience in the private sector and significant exposure to emerging market economies. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of ISO – New England, the authority which oversees the wholesale supply of electric power for the New England states, where he serves on the Markets and Compensation Committees. Mr. Rush also serves on the Board of Directors of Azure Power, a solar energy developer based in New Delhi and listed on the NYSE, and he is Senior Representative for Fieldstone, an investment bank focused on financing power and infrastructure projects in Africa and other emerging markets. Mr. Rush was an Operating Partner for Denham Capital Management LP, and served on the boards of five of Denham’s portfolio companies. Previously, he was CEO of H2Gen Innovations, Inc., a venture capital backed company which manufactured skid-mounted hydrogen generators. Mr. Rush was Senior Vice President at Mirant Corp, where, as head of European operations, he served as the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Bewag, the integrated electric utility serving Berlin, Germany. Earlier positions included Executive Vice President at Oxbow Power, where he helped develop geothermal and co-generation plants, and Senior Vice President at Lehman Brothers, where he worked to finance renewable energy projects. Mr. Rush began his career at the World Bank and has worked in the US Department of State. He received a B.A. from Harvard College in 1974, and a Masters in Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

Enid Slack is the Director of the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance (IMFG) at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. The IMFG focuses on the fiscal health and governance challenges facing large cities and city-regions. The Institute’s mandate is to conduct independent research, spark and inform public debate, and to engage the academic and policy communities around important issues of municipal finance and governance. Enid has been working on municipal finance issues in Canada and abroad for 35 years. Prior to establishing the IMFG, she was a consultant specializing in municipal finance. Enid has worked with the World Bank, the IMF, CIDA, UN Habitat, ADB, and IADB in countries such as Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Mexico, Mongolia, the Philippines, and South Africa. She has written several books and articles on property taxes, intergovernmental transfers, development charges, financing municipal infrastructure, municipal governance, municipal boundary restructuring, and education funding. Recent publications include A Tale of Two Taxes: Property Tax Reform in Ontario (co-authored with Richard Bird and Almos Tassonyi), UN Habitat Guide to Municipal Finance, and Governance and Finance of Metropolitan Areas in Federal Systems (with Rupak Chattopadhyay). Enid is an Adjunct Professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs where she has taught graduate courses on the political economy of global cities. Currently, she is co-teaching a course on Big Data and Global Cities. Enid received her B.A. in Economics from York University (Glendon College), and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Toronto. In 2012, Enid was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for her work on cities.

Andres Solimano holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and is founder and Chairman of the International Center for Globalization and Development (CIGLOB) based in Santiago, Chile. He is a research associate of Universidad Mayor. Previously, he was also a Regional Advisor at the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Country Director at the World Bank and Executive Director at the Inter-American Development Bank and Director of FLACSO-Chile. Dr. Solimano served as Director of the project on International Mobility of Talent with the United Nations University-World Institute of Economic Research (UNU-WIDER). His most recent books as sole author include: Global Capitalism at Disarray, Inequality, Debt and Austerity, Oxford University Press, 2017; Pensiones a la Chilena, Editorial Catalonia, 2017; Economic Elites, Crises and Democracy, Oxford University Press, 2014; International Migration in the Age of Crisis and Globalization, Cambridge University Press, 2010. He also edited International Mobility of Talent: Types, Causes and Development Impact, Oxford University Press, 2008.

Robert Solow is one of the major proponents of the neoclassical synthesis (the synthesis of standard neoclassical microeconomics and Keynesian macroeconomics). In the vanguard of this theoretical orientation is a quintet of distinguished economists: P. A. Samuelson, J. Hicks, J. Tobin, F. Modigliani and Solow himself. It is worth noting that each of them is a Nobel laureate. Solow was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1987 for his contributions to the theory and measurement of economic growth. His pioneering work in the field of growth theory had a profound effect on the further development of economics and instigated a discussion on the factors ensuring economic growth and, more importantly, a completely new explanation of how technological progress contributes to the growth of national income and social wealth. In 1950 Solow was offered and accepted an Assistant Professorship in the Economics Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After initially teaching courses in statistics and econometrics, he focused his research on macroeconomics. Daily contact with Paul Samuelson and conversations on economics, politics and ordinary life, eventually drew Solow back to "straight" economics and he discovered in himself an instinctive macroeconomist. Apart from his research and teaching, Solow has been involved in practical activities in the government sector. In 1960 – 1961 he served on President John F. Kennedy's Council of Economic Advisors, and later he was part of a government commission examining the problems of welfare recipients. For five years in the late 1970s Solow was a director of the Federal Reserve Bank in Boston.

Michael Spence is Nobel Laureate in Economics (2001) and a professor of economics at the New York University Stern School of Business. He is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Philip H. Knight Professor Emeritus of Management in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Professor Spence, whose scholarship focuses on economic policy in emerging markets, the economics of information, and the impact of leadership on economic growth, was chairman of the independent Commission on Growth and Development (2006 - 2010), a global policy group focused on strategies for producing rapid and sustainable economic growth, and reducing poverty. He also serves as a consultant to PIMCO, a senior adviser at Oak Hill Investment Management, and as a member of the board of the Stanford Management Company as well as a number of public and private companies. A Rhodes Scholar and the recipient of many honors and awards, Professor Spence was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2001 and the John Bates Clark Medal from the American Economics Association in 1981. He is the author of three books and 50 articles, and is a member of the American Economic Association and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Econometric Society. Professor Spence served as Philip H. Knight Professor and dean of the Stanford Business School from 1990 to 1999. Before that, he was a professor of economics and business administration at Harvard University, chairman of its economics department, and dean of its Faculty of Arts and Sciences. He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University, a B.A./M.A. from Oxford University and a B.A. (summa cum laude) from Princeton University.

Richard Stren is Emeritus Professor of Political Science, and Senior Fellow at the Global Cities Institute. His major area of interest is comparative urban policy with a special interest in developing countries. Professor Stren is a member of the editorial advisory board of three international journals. He has written or edited 18 books in both English and French, and more than 60 articles and book chapters. He has been consultant to UN-Habitat, CIDA, SIDA (Sweden), the World Bank, USAID, and the Cities Alliance. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political economy from the University of Toronto, and a master’s and doctoral degree in political science from the University of California, Berkeley. In 2014, he was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Quebec (INRS), and the Norton Long Career Achievement Award by the American Political Science Association.

Jan Svejnar is the James T. Shotwell Professor of Global Political Economy and Founding Director of the Center on Global Economic Governance, at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). Professor Svejnar is also a founder and Chairman of CEREGE-EI in Prague (an American-style Ph.D. program in economics that educates economists for Central-East Europe and the Newly Independent States). He is a Fellow of the European Economic Association and Research Fellow of the Center for Economic Policy Research, London, and Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn. Svejnar is a recipient of 2015 IZA Prize in Labor Economics. He received his BS from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations and his MA and PhD in Economics from Princeton University. In 2008, Professor Svejnar was one of two candidates for the Presidency of the Czech Republic.

Silvina Vatnick is a Managing Parnter at Global Outcomes, LLC. She has extensive international experience over a 20 year policy and project management career at the World Bank with assignments on Brazil, Venezuela, Uzbekistan, Nigeria, and Russia during the 1998 financial crisis. She is the Co-founder and President of the Board of the Center for Financial Stability(CEF), a leading think tank and forum for public-private sector discussion. Previously, she was the Senior Advisor to Secretary of Finance in Argentina's Economy Ministry and to Central Bank Chairman (2000-2002) and a Senior Analyst at the U.S. Federal Mortgage National Corporation (FannieMae). Dr. Vatnick holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Buenos Aires, an M.A. in Economics from CEMA, and a M.Phil./Ph.D. (abd) in Economics from Columbia University.

Andrés Velasco is a Professor of Professional Practice in International Development at SIPA. From 2006 - 2010, Mr. Velasco served as Finance Minister of Chile under President Michelle Bachelet. He served as Sumitomo-FASID Professor of International Finance and Development at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government from 2000 - 2011. He previously taught economics and served as director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University. Mr. Velasco has published works in economic development, international economics, and the political economy, and has recently written on the causes of financial crises in emerging markets. He was Chile’s Ministry of Finance Chief of Staff between 1990 and 1992, International Finance coordinator between 1992 and 1994, and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiator in 1995. Mr. Velasco has consulted for the International Monetary Fund, the Inter-American Development Bank, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America, the World Bank, and for the governments of the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Ecuador, and El Salvador. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University and M.A. and B.A. degrees from Yale University. He was a postdoctoral fellow in political economy at Harvard and MIT from 1994 - 1995.

Tony Venables is Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford where he also directs the Centre for the Analysis of Resource Rich Economies. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Econometric Society. Former positions include Chief Economist at the UK Department for International Development, professor at the London School of Economics, research manager of the trade research group in the World Bank, and advisor to the UK Treasury. He has published extensively in the areas of international trade and spatial economics, including work on trade and imperfect competition, economic integration, multinational firms, and economic geography. Publications include The spatial economy; cities, regions and international trade, with M. Fujita and P. Krugman (MIT press, 1999), and Multinationals in the World Economy with G. Barba Navaretti (Princeton 2004).

Soogil Young is a member of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) Leadership Council as well as the founding Director of the SDSN Korea, Dr. Soogil Young served as Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Green Growth of ROK under President Lee Myung- bak during 2010-2012. He is now a Leading Professor in the Dept of Technology for Society at the State University of New York (SUNY) Korea where he is Director of the Institute of Sustainable Development. Dr. Young is a senior development economist of Korea with many years of association with the Korea Development Institute as a senior fellow, with the Korea Transport Institute, and the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, each as President. Dr. Young has served on numerous advisory committees for economic and foreign ministries and four Presidential committees, and as Korea's Ambassador to the OECD and Chairman of the Korea National Committee on Pacific Economic Cooperation, a member of PECC. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Johns Hopkins University.

Shahid Yusuf is currently Chief Economist of the Growth Dialogue. Dr. Yusuf brings many decades of economic development experience to the Dialogue, having been intensively involved with the growth policies of many of the most successful East Asian economies during key periods of their histories. He has written extensively on development issues, with a special focus on East Asia and has also published widely in various academic journals. He has authored or edited 24 books on industrial and urban development, innovation systems and tertiary education. Dr.Yusuf holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University, and a B.A. in Economics from Cambridge University. He joined the World Bank in 1974 as a Young Professional and while at the Bank spent more than 35 years tackling issues confronting developing countries. During his tenure at the World Bank, Dr. Yusuf was the team leader for the World Bank-Japan project on East Asia's Future Economy from 2000-2009. He was the Director of the World Development Report 1999/2000, Entering the 21st Century. Prior to that, he was Economic Adviser to the Senior Vice President and Chief Economist (1997-98), Lead Economist for the East Africa Department (1995-97) and Lead Economist for the China and Mongolia Department (1989-1993).

Roberto Zagha is the former World Bank Country Director for India. Prior to this assignment, he was a Senior Advisor in the World Bank Vice Presidency in charge of economic policies and poverty reduction strategies. His most recent work was as Secretary of the Commission on Growth and Development which has recently published The Growth Report. His previous work consisted of a review of the growth experience of the 1990s--a two-year program whose results are summarized in three reports which review growth experiences, explore the current thinking on growth and the role of policies in growth strategies. Previous positions in the Bank include Director for South Asia for the Bank department in charge of economic policies and poverty reduction in South Asia, Lead Economist for India, and several assignments in Central and East Africa, India, Sri Lanka, Argentina and Bolivia. He also was part of the core team for the World Development Report of 1991. Prior to joining the Bank, Roberto Zagha taught at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and worked as senior economist in the Economic Research Institute associated with that university in areas related to taxation and fiscal policies.