Alvaro Pedraza is a Senior Economist in the Finance and Private Sector Development Team of the World Bank's Development Research Group. His research interests include financial economics, asset pricing and macroeconomics. Prior to joining the Bank he worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Colombian Association of Pension Fund Administrators and the National Collateral Fund of Colombia. He holds a B.A. in Physics and a M.A. in Economics from Universidad de los Andes in Colombia, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Maryland.