International Conference: Promoting Growth through Effective Policy

The World Bank and the Government of Peru invite you to the international conference on how can public policies boost economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean.

OVERVIEW
AGENDA
MATERIALS
BIOS

The conference aims to provide a strong yet relevant and accessible discussion of the main issues concerning economic growth, its causes and consequences. It will consist of 2 panels of policy makers, where the prospects and reforms for growth in Peru and Latin America will be discussed; and 6 sessions of academics and development practitioners, where specific topics –including productivity improvement, job creation, infrastructure provision, and poverty alleviation– will be presented. Targeted at a wide audience – comprising private and public sector officials as well as academics—the conference will emphasize the applied and policy-related aspects of recent studies.

The conference is jointly organized by the World Bank and the government of Peru, and will be one of the main preparatory events for the 2015 Annual Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which will take place in Lima in October.

You can follow the event live from this page and join the discussion on Twitter using the hashtag #RoadtoLima.

International Conference: Promoting Growth through Effective Policy

Thursday, July 9

*9:00-9:30 am

Welcoming Remarks: Alberto Rodríguez (Director, World Bank) and Alonso Segura (Minister of Economy and Finance, Peru)

*9:30-11:00 am

Panel - The World Economy and Latin America’s Growth Prospects in the Short and Long Runs

Moderator: Claudia Cooper (Compass Group, Peru)
Participants: Alejandro Werner (International Monetary Fund), Julio Velarde (Central Bank of Peru), Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel (Catholic University of Chile), and Augusto de la Torre (World Bank)

Presentations: Augusto de la Torre / Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel

11:00-11:30 am Coffee

11:30-1:00 pm

Session 1 – Efficiency Gaps as Development Traps

Chair: Augusto de la Torre (World Bank)

Lead: Francesco Caselli (London School of Economics), “The Latin America Efficiency Gap”
Discussants: Jorge Araujo (World Bank) and Roberto Chang (Rutgers University)

Presentations: Francesco Caselli / Jorge Araujo / Roberto Chang

1:00-2:30 pm Lunch

2:30-4:00 pm

Session 2 - Poverty, Inequality, and Growth

Chair: César Liendo (Ministry of Economy and Finance, Peru)

Lead: David Dollar (Brookings Institution), “Growth, Inequality, and Social Welfare: Cross-Country Evidence” (co-authored with Aart Kraay and Tatjana Kleineberg)
Discussants: Gerardo Esquivel (Colegio de México) and Carolina Trivelli (Instituto de Estudios Peruanos)

Presentations: David Dollar / Gerardo Esquivel

4:00-4:30 pm Coffee

4:30-6:00 pm

Session 3 - Technological Adoption, Skill Formation, and Job Creation

Chair: Gabriel Natividad (Universidad de Piura)

Lead: William Maloney (World Bank), “Innovation, Human Capital, and Jobs”
Discussants: Hugo Ñopo (IADB) and César Peñaranda (Lima Chamber of Commerce)

Presentations: William Maloney / Hugo Ñopo

Friday, July 10

9:00-9:45 am

Keynote speech “Learning from the Doers: Discipline Drives Turnaround”

Peter Blair Henry (New York University)

Chair: Renzo Rossini (Central Bank of Peru)

Keynote: Peter Henry

9:45-11:15 am

Session 4 – Firms and Labor Flexibility

Chair: Adrián Armas (Central Bank of Peru)

Lead: Ufuk Akcigit (University of Chicago), “Firm Dynamics in Developing Countries” (co-authored with Harun Alp and Michael Peters)
Discussants: Julian Messina (Inter-American Development Bank) and Gustavo Yamada (Universidad del Pacífico)

Presentations: Ufuk Akcigit / Julian Messina / Gustavo Yamada

11:15-11:30 am Coffee

11:30-1:00 pm

Session 5 - Public Infrastructure and Public Investment

Chair: Eduardo Morón (Universidad del Pacífico)

Lead: Luis Servén (World Bank), “Infrastructure, Growth and Inequality – An Overview” (co-authored with César Calderón)
Discussants: Eduardo Engel (Universidad de Chile) and Norman Loayza (World Bank)

Presentations: Luis Servén / Norman Loayza

1:00-2:30 pm Lunch

2:30-4:00 pm

Session 6 – Rethinking Industrial Policies

Chair: Waldo Mendoza (Universidad Católica and Central Bank of Peru)

Lead: Ernesto Stein (Inter-American Development Bank): “Rethinking Productive Development: Sound Policies and Institutions for Economic Transformation” (co-edited with Gustavo Crespi and Eduardo Fernández-Arias)
Discussants: Daniel Lederman (World Bank) and Piero Ghezzi (Minister of Production, Peru)

Presentations Ernesto Stein / Daniel Lederman

4:00-4:30 pm Coffee

*4:30-6:15 pm

Panel - Policies to Spur Growth and Poverty Alleviation in Peru and Latin America

Moderator: Michael Reid (The Economist)

Participants: Alonso Segura (Minister of Economy and Finance, Peru), Jaime Saavedra (Minister of Education, Peru), Luis Felipe Céspedes (Minister of Economy, Chile) and Marcelo Neri (Former Minister of Strategic Affairs, Brazil)

Presentations: Jaime Saavedra / Marcelo Neri / Alonso Segura

*6:15-6:30 pm

Closing Remarks

Alberto Rodríguez (Director, World Bank) and Alonso Segura (Minister of Economy and Finance, Peru)

---------------------------

Note: * denotes sessions that are open to the media

The Latin America Efficiency Gap

The average Latin American country produces about 1 fifth of the output per worker of the US. What are the sources of these enormous income gaps? I report development-accounting results for Latin America. On average Latin America’s overall physical and human capital endowment relative to the USA is essentially identical to Latin America’s efficiency relative to the USA. In my main sample average relative capital and average relative efficiency are both roughly double actual average relative incomes.
Growth, Inequality, and Social Welfare: Cross-Country Evidence

We use social welfare functions that assign weights to individuals based on their income levels to document the relative importance of growth and inequality changes for changes in social welfare. In a large panel of industrial and developing countries over the past 40 years, we find that most of the cross-country and over-time variation in changes in social welfare is due to changes in average incomes.
Innovation, Human Capital, and Jobs

The presentation first documents the dramatic shortfall in lack of scientific and entrepreneurial/managerial human capital related to the introduction of new technologies and industries in Latin America across the last century. This, more than the particular composition of the production or export basket, or business and institutional climate, was arguably the critical barrier to Latin America’s growth across the last century and continues to be so to this day.
Infrastructure, Growth and Inequality – An Overview

Academics and policy makers have long considered an adequate supply of infrastructure services to be essential for economic development. This paper reviews recent theoretical and empirical literature on the effects of infrastructure development on growth and income distribution. The theoretical literature has employed a variety of analytical settings regarding the drivers of income growth, the degree to which infrastructure represents a public or a private good, and the extent of market distortions, notably in capital markets.
Rethinking Productive Development: Sound Policies and Institutions for Economic Transformation

Productive transformation requires seizing the opportunities available and opening new ones in a competitive world. Rethinking Productive Development examines the market failures impeding transformation and the government failures that may make the policy remedies worse than the market illness. To address market failures, the authors propose a simple conceptual framework based on the scope and nature of the policy approach.
Engineers, Innovative Capacity and Development in the Americas

Using newly collected county, sub-national, and international data, and historical case studies this paper argues that dierences in innovative capacity, captured by the density of engineers and patents at the dawn of the Second Industrial Revolution, are important to explaining present income dierences across US counties, sub regions within countries, and between the US and Latin America. This remains the case after controlling for literacy, other higher order human capital, such as lawyers and physicians, as well as demand side elements that might be confounded with engineering or patenting.
Entrepreneurial Human Capital and Development in the Americas

Using industrial census data and secondary sources this paper rst documents that across the 19th century in contrast to the US, in Latin America immigrants were often the principal drivers of industrialization and grew to dominate both manufacturing and natural resource sectors. This suggests that the absence of some dimension of local entrepreneurial human capital, rather than business climate or institutions, was critical to the choices entrepreneurs made between productive and unproductive activities and hence, the weak industrialization process in the region.
Lack of Selection and Limits to Delegation: Firm Dynamics in Developing Countries

Firm dynamics in poor countries show striking dierences to those of rich countries. While some rms indeed experience growth as they age, many rms are simply stagnant in that they neither exit nor expand. We interpret this fact as a lack of selection, whereby producers with little growth potential survive because innovating rms do not expand enough to force them out of the market.

Claudia Cooper
Claudia Cooper is since February 2014 Manager of Development and Productos and Institutional Clients at Compass Group. Previously, she held various positions at Banco de Credito del Peru, where she served as Chief of Analysis and Development and later as Manager of Treasury Management. She was also part of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), first as a member of the Cabinet of Advisers and then as director of Economic and Social Affairs and board member of the SMV and Cofide. She has been a research associate of the Center for Research at the Universidad del Pacífico and has has a Masters in Economics from New York University.
Alejandro Werner
Alejandro Werner took up the position of Director of the Western Hemisphere Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in January 2013. He is a Mexican citizen, with a distinguished career in the public and private sectors, as well as in the academic world. He was Undersecretary of Finance and Public Credit of Mexico from December 2006 to August 2010, taught Economics at the Business Institute of Madrid, Spain (from August 2010 to July 2011) and was head of corporate and investment banking at BBVA-Bancomer (from August 2011 to end of 2012). He also worked as Director of Economic Studies at Banco de México and as professor at the ITAM. He has published a great number of works. Mr. Werner was designated Young Global Leader by the 2007 World Economic Forum. He obtained his Ph.D. in 1994 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Julio Velarde
Julio Velarde is the President of the Central Reserve Bank of Peru since October 2006. He has been Executive President of the Latin American Reserves Fund from 2004 to October 2006, Director of the Central Reserve Bank of Peru from 1990 to 1992 and from 2001 to 2003. From 1986 to 2003, he held different positions in Universidad del Pacífico (Dean of the Economics Program, Head of the Department of Economics and Full Professor). He has also headed several companies and has been consultant for different international agencies. Mr. Velarde has a degree in Economics by Universidad del Pacífico and a Master’s Degree and a Ph.D. in Economics by Brown University, United States. He has several publications and research papers regarding monetary and financial subjects.
Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel
Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel is an international consultant and advisor. He is Professor of Economics at the Catholic University of Chile. He is President of the Monetary Club, a board member of pension fund AFP Habitat, and an Advisory Board member of the Chilean chapter of Transparency International. Dr. Schmidt-Hebbel held the position of Chief Economist of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Director of the OECD Economics Department in Paris in 2008-2009. He was Chief of Economic Research at the Central Bank of Chile during the previous 12 years. Before that he was Principal Economist in the Research Department of the World Bank in Washington. Dr. Schmidt-Hebbel has been Chairman of Chile’s Advisory Fiscal Council, Chairman of the Financial Advisory Board of Chile’s Sovereign Wealth Funds, General Director of Grupo Res Publica Chile, and President of the Chilean Economic Association. He has worked closely as advisor and consultant with more than 60 international organizations, global and national corporations, 30 central banks, 10 governments, and many universities, conducting research and providing key financial and policy advice on a wide array of topics, ranging from financial markets, macroeconomics and growth policies, to pension systems and capital market reform, institutional organization and policy design. He has been invited as keynote speaker on financial, macroeconomic, and development issues to many corporate, official, and academic meetings and international conferences. Dr. Schmidt-Hebbel is Full Professor of Economics at the Catholic University of Chile and Associate Professor of Economics at University of Chile. He was elected “2008 Economist of the Year” by his peers in Chile. He has been widely published in the fields of international finance, macroeconomics, monetary policy, economic growth, and development. He speaks fluent Spanish, English, German, and Portuguese, as well as basic French. Mr. Schmidt-Hebbel holds a PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a BA and a MA in Economics from the Catholic University of Chile.
Augusto de la Torre
Augusto de la Torre, a national of Ecuador, is the Chief Economist for Latin American and the Caribbean. Since joining the World Bank in 1997, he has held the positions of Senior Advisor in the Financial Systems Department and Senior Financial Sector Advisor, both in the Latin America and the Caribbean region. From 1993 to 1997, Mr. de la Torre was the head of the Central Bank of Ecuador, and in November 1996 was chosen by Euromoney Magazine as the year’s "Best Latin Central Banker." From 1986 to 1992 he worked at the International Monetary Fund, where, among other positions, he was the IMF’s Resident Representative in Venezuela (1991-1992). Mr. de la Torre has published extensively on a broad range of macroeconomic and financial development topics. He is a member of the Carnegie Network of Economic Reformers. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Economics at the University of Notre Dame and holds a Bachelors degree in Philosophy from the Catholic University of Ecuador.
Alberto Rodríguez
Alberto Rodríguez, a Colombian national, joined the World Bank in 1997. He is currently Director of the World Bank for Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. He is responsible for the strategic alliance of the Bank and for supervising the portfolio of projects and operations of the Bank in these five countries. He previously worked as Manager of the Education Sector for Europe and Central Asia and was responsible for education-related activities in more than 30 countries in this region. Mr. Rodríguez headed the political dialogue and was responsible for the World Bank’s projects in Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Trinidad & Tobago, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Slovakia, Poland, Bulgaria and Bolivia. He participated in the reforms of the educational systems in all these countries, with special emphasis on the effects these reforms have on national competitiveness and economic growth. His academic interests focus on educational policy and administration, specifically in financing models for the educational system, decentralization, strategic development based on school education, innovation and competitiveness and high school education, both general and technical/vocational. He is the author of studies that show the relation between education and competitiveness and economic growth of the countries, and he is a usual lecturer in international conferences and forums related to skills development, educational reforms and economic development. Before he joined the World Bank, Mr. Rodríguez was Technical Secretary of the Ministry of Education of Colombia. He graduated as Industrial Engineer from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana of Bogota and holds a Master’s Degree in Educational Administration, a Master’s Degree in Public Administration and a Ph.D. in Educational Policy and Administration by the University of Michigan.
Francesco Caselli
Francesco Caselli is the Norman Sosnow Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics. He earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Bologna in 1992 and a Ph.D. at Harvard University in 1997. Previous appointments include Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, and Paul Sack Associate Professor of Economics at Harvard University. His research interests include macroeconomics, economic development and political economy, on which he has published extensively in the major professional journals. He is an elected fellow of the British Academy, and the director of the Macroeconomics Program at the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP). He has served as joint managing editor of the Review of Economic Studies, co-editor of the Journal of Economic Development, and editor at large of Economica. He has served as a member of the governing council of the European Economic Association, and as a member of the LSE growth commission.
Jorge Thompson Araujo
Jorge Thompson Araujo, a Brazilian national, is an Economic Adviser in the Office of the Vice President, Latin America and the Caribbean. Mr. Araujo joined the World Bank in 1996 as an Economist. He has since held various positions in the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean regions, as well as corporate assignments in the organization. Prior to joining the Bank, he was an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Brasilia, Brazil. Mr. Araujo has published widely in the areas of economic growth, functional distribution of income, and public finance. He co-authored the recent World Bank regional report “Beyond Commodities: The Growth Challenge in Latin America and the Caribbean (forthcoming in the Latin America Development Forum series) and co-edited and contributed to the upcoming World Bank volume “Understanding Latin America and the Caribbean’s Income Gap” (forthcoming in the Directions in Development series). He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Cambridge, UK and a M.Sc in Economics from the University of Brasilia.
Roberto Chang
Roberto Chang is a Professor of Economics at Rutgers University, the State University of New Jersey, and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Before joining Rutgers, he was an Assistant Professor at New York University and a Research Officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He has also taught at Princeton and Columbia. Professor Chang has published extensively on monetary economics, exchange rate policy, and financial crises. He has written on the dynamics and credibility of monetary policy; the links between banking panics, exchange rate regimes, and currency crashes; and the macroeconomic impacts of balance sheet effects, currency mismatches, and financial frictions. He has been a Peter Kenen International Economics Fellow at Princeton University and recently received a Rutgers University Board of Trustees Award for Excellence in Research. He is a frequent visitor, consultant, and advisor to several international financial organizations and central banks around the world.
César Liendo
César Liendo Vidal has a degree in economics by the pontificia universidad católica del Peru and a master’s degree in economics by the universitat pompeu fabra, of Barcelona, Spain. He currently holds the position of Director General of Macroeconomic Policy and Fiscal Decentralization in the Ministry of Economy and Finance, having previously worked for highly relevant entities such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), SCOTIABANK Peru and APOYO Consultoría. He combines his professional activity with teaching at Universidad del Pacífico and Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola. He is in charge of the design and proposal of the Multi-annual Macroeconomic Framework to be considered for the preparation of the public budget, as well as the permanent analysis on the evolution, perspectives and risks of the Peruvian economy, fiscal revenues and enforcement of fiscal regulations, and the proposal of measures deemed convenient.
David Dollar
David Dollar is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s John L. Thornton China Center. He is a leading expert on China's economy and U.S.-China economic relations. From 2009 to 2013 he was the U.S. Treasury's economic and financial emissary to China. Before his time at Treasury, Dollar worked at the World Bank for 20 years, and from 2004 to 2009 was country director for China and Mongolia. His other World Bank assignments primarily focused on Asian economies, including South Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Bangladesh and India. From 1995 to 2004, Dollar worked in the World Bank’s research department. Prior to his World Bank career, Dollar was an assistant professor of economics at UCLA, spending a semester in Beijing teaching at the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Gerardo Esquivel
Gerardo Esquivel is professor of economics at UNAM and El Colegio de México in Mexico City. He has a PhD in economics from Harvard University and was a Tinker Fellow at the Harris School of Public Policy of the University of Chicago in 2010-11. He has written in areas related to economic growth and economic development.
Carolina Trivelli Avila
Carolina Trivelli Avila. Economist, with a Master’s Degree in Agricultural Economics by Pennsylvania State University, USA, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Sciences with specialization in Economics by the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru. She is currently Manager of the Electronic Money Project of CEFI at the ASBANC (Center for Financial Studies of the Association of Banks of Peru). She is President of the Administration Board of the Backus Foundation, member of the Board of Directors of SEPIA (Permanent Seminar for Agricultural Research), the Board of Directors of Colegios Peruanos – Innova Schools, of the Steering Council of CARE Peru, the International Consulting Council of RIMISP (Latin American Center for Rural Development), the Executive Committee of CGAP (the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor) and the Consulting Committee for Poverty Estimation and other country indicators under the INEI. She was Minister of Social Development and Inclusion from 2011 to 2013, former Director General of the Peruvian Studies Institute (IEP), member of the Board of Directors of the Peruvian Society of Environmental Law (SPDA) and the Consulting Council for Rural Development ST – CIAS of the Prime Minister’s Office. Ms Trivelli has also been President of the Rural Consortium of the Andean Eco-region (CONDESAN) and of SEPIA. She specialized in social politics, rural poverty, financial inclusion and rural development subjects and taught at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru and Universidad del Pacifico. She is currently a columnist of Peru 21.
Gabriel Natividad
Gabriel Natividad (Ph.D., UCLA, 2008) is a professor of Economics at Universidad de Piura in Miraflores, Lima, Peru. His work on the economics of firms and markets spans across several fields such us industrial organization, finance, organizational economics, applied microeconomics and strategy. His work has been published or is forthcoming in the Journal of Finance, the Review of Financial Studies, the RAND Journal of Economics, and Management Science, among other outlets.
William F. Maloney
William F. Maloney is Chief Trade and Competitiveness Economist in the World Bank Group and Visiting Professor at the University of the Andes in Bogota, Colombia. He was a Professor of Economics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (1990-1997) and then joined the World Bank, working as Lead Economist in the Office of the Chief Economist for Latin America until 2009. From 2009 to 2014, he was Lead Economist in the Development Economics Research Group. Mr. Maloney received his PhD in economics from the University of California Berkeley (1990), his BA from Harvard University (1981), and he studied at the University of the Andes in Bogota, Colombia (1982-83). He has published on issues related to international trade and finance, developing country labor markets, and innovation and growth. In addition to publications in academic journals, he coauthored Natural Resources: Neither Curse nor Destiny and Lessons from NAFTA, Does What you Export Matter: In Search of Empirical Guidance for Industrial Policy, as well as several flagship publications of the Latin American division of the Bank, most recently Informality: Exit and Exclusion. Mr. Maloney was born in Boston, MA, on August 2, 1959.
Hugo Ñopo
Hugo Ñopo is the Lead Economist of the Education Division at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). As such, he is in charge of leading the Bank’s analytic work on educational issues. Previously, at the Bank, he worked at the research Department and on the analysis, design and implementation of educational projects with the private and public sector. Before joining the IADB he was Assistant Professor at Middlebury College, affiliated Researcher at Group for the Analysis of Development (GRADE) and advisor at the Ministry of Labor and Social Promotion in Peru. Hugo actively maintains a broad research agenda that includes early child development, gender and racial inequalities in different spheres, educational systems, labor markets, impact evaluation of public policies, and trust and reciprocity among economic agents. His research work has been published in different specialized academic journals and books (http://ideas.repec.org/e/pno16.html). Currently he is also a Research Affiliate at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn, Germany. Hugo Ñopo holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Northwestern University (Evanston Illinois), a MsSc in Mathematical Economics from the Instituto de Matemática Pura e Aplicada (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and two college degrees, one in Mathematics from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru (Lima, Peru) and another in Systems Engineering from the Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería (Lima, Peru).
César A. Peñaranda Castañeda
César A. Peñaranda Castañeda holds a degree in Economics, a Master’s and a Ph.D. (ABD) by Cornell University, USA. He is currently Executive Director of the Institute of Economics and Business Development (IEDEP) of the Lima Chamber of Commerce (CCL), an Arbitrator of the Conciliation and Arbitration Center of the Lima Chamber of Commerce, and President and Director of several companies in the fields of consultancy, services and manufacturing. He writes a monthly opinion column in the editorial page of the newspaper Gestión. He has taught at Universidad del Pacífico, Pontificia Universidad Católica, Universidad de Lima and Universidad ESAN. He is the author of three books on economics published by the IADB-INTAL (1984), Universidad del Pacífico (1996), and Banco de Comercio and the Lima Chamber of Commerce (2008); the latter under the name “Agenda Económica para el Cambio, Crecer con menos pobreza e inequidad” (Economic Agenda for Change, Growing with Less Poverty and Inequality). Furthermore, he is co-author of three IEDEP-CCL books (2010, 2011 and 2012): “Crecer con Inclusión” (Growing with Inclusion); “Peru País del Primer Mundo: ¿Cómo, cuándo?” (Peru, a First World Country: How? When?; and “Ruta al Primer Mundo: Cuatro Desafíos del Quinquenio 2011-2016” (Path to the First World: Four Challenges for the 2011-2016 Period). He has published more than 60 articles in prestigious academic institutions, both locally and abroad. He was Vice President of Banco de Comercio (2004-2013); Vice President of the Institute for Freedom and Democracy (ILD, 2007-2008) presided by the Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto; Director of the Steering Council and the Executive Committee of the CCL (2006-2008); member of the Committee for Market Access of INDECOPI (2002-2008), which he presided during the last year; Executive Technical Secretary of the Business Council for International Negotiations (CENI, 2005-2005); spokesman on technical matters for the Peruvian private sector in the FTA negotiations with the USA; Advisor to the Presidency of the CCL (2001-2004); Advisor to the ILD (2003); Leading Advisor to the President of Congress (1993); and Leading Advisor and Head of Advisors to the Minister of Economy and Finance of Peru (1991-1992). Mr. Peñaranda has also been a Consultant for the Governments of Bolivia (1987) and Honduras (1996); Head of the Industrial Development Department of the Andean Community (1972-1982); and Head of the Economic Research Department of the Central Reserve Bank of Peru (1967-1972). Since 1982 he is an international consultant for the IADB, INTAL, UN, ECLAC/CEPAL, CAN, LAIA/ALADI CAF, having been Director of the latter in 1992.
Peter Blair Henry
Peter Blair Henry is the Dean of New York University’s Stern School of Business and a former Professor of International Economics at Stanford University. He is also the author of TURNAROUND: Third World Lessons for First World Growth (Basic Books, 2013). In 2008, Peter led Barack Obama’s Presidential Transition Team in its review of international lending agencies such as the IMF and World Bank. A member of the board of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and the Council on Foreign Relations, and a member of the board of directors for Kraft Foods Group and for Citi (as of July 1, 2015), Peter received his PhD in economics from MIT and Bachelor’s degrees from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and the University of North Carolina, where he was a Morehead Scholar and a finalist in the 1991 campus-wide slam dunk competition. Born in Jamaica, Peter became a US citizen in 1986. He lives in New York City with his wife of nearly 20 years and their four sons.
Renzo Rossini
Renzo Rossini is the General Manager of the Central Reserve Bank of Peru since September 2003. Previously, from 1991 to 2003, Mr. Rossini worked as Manager of Economic Studies at the Central Bank. He joined the Central Bank in 1982. He studied economics at Universidad del Pacífico and has a Master’s Degree in Economics by The London School of Economics in 1986. He has several publications in the field of monetary policy and since 1995 teaches Economic Policy at Universidad del Pacífico.
Adrián Armas
Adrián Armas is Central Manager of Economic Studies of the Central Reserve Bank and professor at Universidad del Pacifico, lecturing Monetary Theory and Policy, and Macroeconomics. Mr. Armas has developed his professional career at the Universidad del Pacifico, where he served as head of the Department of Financial Analysis and Planning and deputy manager of the Monetary Sector. He also has several publications on Monetary Policy and Financial Dollarization. Adrian Armas has a Master's degree in Economic Policy from the University of Boston, in the United States and completed his undergraduate studies at the Universidad del Pacifico.
Gerardo Corrochano
Gerardo Corrochano is Country Director for Colombia and Mexico since July 1st, 2014. He is responsible for leading the World Bank teams in Colombia and Mexico to offer high-impact multi-disciplinary solutions that may contribute to the attainment of the primary goals of the World Bank Group towards eradicating extreme poverty and increasing shared prosperity in both countries. His priority is to offer a select and high-quality package of products and services related to knowledge, intermediation and financing, and to promote the contribution of both countries to the solution of global problems. Mr. Corrochano, a Peruvian National, joined the Bank in 1990 and since then, he has held several positions in the regions of Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Europe and Central Asia, as well as in the Development Network of the Private and Finance Sector (FPD). One of his most recent assignments was as Sector Director for Finance and the Private Sector in Europe and Central Asia, as well as Innovation, Technology and Undertaking. He was previously Sector Manager for Finance and the Private Sector in Africa, Europe and Central Asia. He has contributed to significant reform programs in different countries. For example, he formed part of the macro-finance team assisting the transition efforts in Poland and thereafter he headed operating teams of the Bank that undertook banking and business reforms in Croatia, Ukraine and Serbia. His experience also covers the recovery efforts following the conflicts in Bosnia and Kosovo. He has a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA) by the George Washington University and a Degree in Economics by Universidad del Pacífico of Peru.
Ufuk Akcigit
Ufuk Akcigit is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago. As a macroeconomist, his research centers on economic growth, productivity, firm dynamics and economics of innovation. Before joining the University of Chicago, Akcigit was an Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition, he serves as a faculty research fellow in the National Bureau of Economic Research. Akcigit has received several awards for both research and teaching. In 2014 he was named a Kauffman Junior Faculty Fellow in recognition of his outstanding scholarship. Akcigit received his bachelor's degree in economics from Koc University in Istanbul. He then went on to earn his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2009.
Julián Messina
Julián Messina is a Lead Research Economist at the research department of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Prior to joining the IDB, he worked at the World Bank and the European Central Bank, and he has taught at the Universities of Barcelona GSE, Georgetown, Girona, Frankfurt and Mainz. His research interests include labor economics, applied macroeconomics and the economics of education. He is author of three books, including two World Bank Latin American Flagship Reports. His work has been published in academic journals including the American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Economic Journal, Journal of the European Economic Association and Labour Economics, and he is often featured in popular blogs and media outlets including The Economist. He has extensive experience advising governments in Latin America, Europe and Asia. Dr. Messina obtained his PhD. in Economics at the European University Institute in 2002.
Gustavo Yamada
Gustavo Yamada is Ph.D. in Economics at Columbia University, and Dean of Economics at Universidad del Pacífico, Peru. He is also Director at the Central Bank and National Education Council. He has been Viceminister of Labor, Senior Economist at Inter-American Development Bank, and Fiscal Economist at the International Monetary Fund.
Eduardo Morón
Eduardo Morón is currently President of the Peruvian Association of Insurance Companies (APESEG). He is also Full Professor of the Economics Program at Universidad del Pacífico and was previously Director of Economic Studies of the Latin American Reserves Fund (FLAR) from 2012 to 2014. He has been Vice Minister of Economy, Director of the Research Center and Director of the Master’s Program of Economics of Universidad del Pacífico. He has published books and research documents on pensions and fiscal, monetary and foreign exchange policy. He has a Ph.D. in Economics by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), a Master’s Degree in Economics by Universidad del CEMA, Argentina, and a Decree in Economics by Universidad del Pacífico, Peru.
Luis Servén
Luis Servén, is Senior Advisor in the World Bank’s Research Department, where he manages the research program on Macroeconomics and Growth. He previously managed the Bank’s regional research program on Latin America and the Caribbean. Prior to joining the Bank he worked as a senior researcher at FEDEA and taught at the Universidad Complutense of Madrid, MIT and CEMFI. His current research focuses on open economy macroeconomics, fiscal policy and growth, saving and investment determinants, and productivity and growth. He has published numerous books and articles in professional journals on these and other research topics. He holds a Bachelor in Economics from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and a Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Eduardo Engel
Eduardo Engel is Professor of Economics at the University of Chile, Visiting Professor of Economics at Yale University and Research Associate at the National Bureau for Economic Research (Cambridge, Mass) and the International Growth Centre (London, UK). He held the position of Full Professor at Yale between 2001 and 2012. Graduate students in economics at Yale voted him Teacher of the Year on multiple occasions. He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and was awarded the society’s Frisch Medal in 2002 for joint work with Ricardo Caballero on investment dynamics. He has an extensive publication record in the areas of macroeconomics, public finance and regulation. He currently serves as President of the Latin American and Caribbean Economics Association (LACEA) and as President of Espacio Público, a think tank in Chile. During March-April of 2015 he served as President of Chile’s Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission. Engel began working on public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the mid 1990s and has consulted on this topic for various governments and multilateral organizations, such as the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the European Investment Bank. He has also taught short courses on PPPs at various universities and multilateral organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund, the Inter-American Development Bank and the Toulouse School of Economics. He served as Chair of the Technical Advisory Committee at the World Bank’s Public Private Investment Advisory Facility (PPIAF) and as member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council of Infrastructure. He recently co-authored the book “The Economics of Public-Private Partnerships: A Basic Guide”, published by Cambridge University Press. Engel holds a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT, a Ph.D. in Statistics from Stanford University and an engineering degree from the University of Chile.
Norman Loayza
Norman Loayza is a Lead Economist in the Development Economics Research Group of the World Bank. Recently, he was director of the World Development Report 2014, Risk and Opportunity: Managing Risk for Development. His research has dealt with various areas of economic and social development, including macroeconomic management, economic growth, microeconomic flexibility, private and public saving, financial depth and stability, natural disasters, and crime and violence. His advisory experience at the World Bank has also ranged across different topics in various regions and countries. A few examples include analyzing and measuring illegal activity and money laundering in Colombia; business environment and economic performance in Latin America; informal and labor markets in the Middle East and Northern Africa; public infrastructure gaps in Pakistan and Egypt; savings for macroeconomic stability and growth in Sri Lanka, Georgia, and Egypt; and pro-poor growth in Indonesia and Peru. On external service from the World Bank, he was a Senior Economist at the Central Bank of Chile (1999-2000), where he advised on financial and monetary policy. Norman has edited 9 books and published about 40 papers in professional journals and edited volumes. A Peruvian national, he holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University (1994).
Waldo Mendoza Bellido
Waldo Mendoza Bellido, Ph.D. in Economics by the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru (PUCP), is a professor and researcher of the Department of Economics of the PUCP, where he works since 1989; he also teaches at the Diplomatic Academy of Peru. Mr. Mendoza currently holds the position of Academic Director for Planning and Evaluation (DAPE) at the PUCP, and is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Central Reserve Bank of Peru (BCRP). He is a consultant in macro-economic theory, policy and management, and a columnist of the newspapers El Comercio and Gestión. He recently published the books “Macroeconomía Intermedia para América Latina” (Intermediate Macro-economy for Latin America) and “Cómo investigan los economistas. Guía para elaborar y desarrollar un proyecto de investigación” (How Do Economists Conduct Research. A Guide to Prepare and Elaborate a Research Project) through the Editorial Fund of the PUCP. From 2008 to 2014, he was Head of the Department of Economics of the PUCP and has chaired the Steering Council of the Economic and Social Research Consortium (CIES) during the 2008-2012 period. From 2001 to July 2005, he headed the Division of Economic and Social Affairs, and from August 2005 to July 2006, he was Vice Minister of Economy in the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF).
Ernesto Stein
Ernesto Stein is Principal Economist at the IDB’s Research Department, which he joined for the first time in 1994. He has also been the Regional Economic Advisor in the Country Department of Belize, Central America, Mexico, Panama and the Dominican Republic at the Inter-American Development Bank. In 2006-07, he was a Growth Fellow at Harvard University’s Center for International Development. He has published seven books and more than 40 articles in edited volumes and specialized journals, including, the Journal of International Economics, the Journal of Development Economics, Economic Policy, Economics and Politics, and the American Economic Review (papers and proceedings). His areas of expertise include international trade and integration, foreign direct investment, industrial policies, institutional economics and political economy. In these last two areas, he has coordinated a research team in the production of the IDB’s Flagship Report on “The Politics of Policies.” On the topics of trade and industrial policies, he has recently coordinated the IDB’s flagship report “Rethinking Productive Development”. A native of Argentina, he holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.
Daniel Lederman
Daniel Lederman became Lead Economist and Deputy Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean of the World Bank in May 2013. Previously, he served as Lead Trade Economist in the World Bank's International Trade Department (PRMTR), Senior Economist in the Development Research Group (DECRG), and Senior Economist and Economist in the Office of the Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean. Before joining the World Bank in 1995, he worked for the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. An economist and political scientist by training, Mr. Lederman has published numerous books and articles on a broad set of issues related to economic development, including financial crises, crime, political economy of economic reforms, economic growth, innovation, international trade and labor markets. His research has been published in the American Economic Review, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Journal of International Economics, Journal of Law and Economics, Journal of Development Economics, Economics and Politics, Journal of International Business Studies, among others. Book titles authored, coauthored or edited by Daniel Lederman include The Political Economy of Protection, Lessons from NAFTA (also published in Spanish as Lecciones del TLCAN), From Natural Resources to the Knowledge Economy (also published in Spanish as De los recursos naturales a la economía del conocimiento), Natural Resources: Neither Curse nor Destiny, and Does What You Export Matter?, Latin American Entrepreneurs: Many Firms but Little Innovation (with J. Messina, S. Pienknagura, and J. Rigolini) was published by the World Bank in the Fall of 2013, and Latin America and the Rising South (with A. de la Torre, T. Didier, A. Ize, and S. Schmukler) in the Spring of 2015. Daniel Lederman holds a B.A. in Political Science from Yale University and M.A. and PhD degrees from the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He was born in Santiago, Chile, on February 17, 1968.
Piero Ghezzi Solís
Piero Ghezzi Solís is an economist with broad experience in the financial and academic sector. From 2007 to 2013, he worked as Head of Emerging Markets Research in the financial services company Barclays Capital, London. In 2008, he became Head of Global Economy in the same entity. At the Deustsche Bank of New York, he held the positions of Head of Research for Latin America, Executive Director of Foreign Debt Strategy for Emerging Markets and Senior Economist for the Andean Region from 1999 to 2007. In Peru, he was recently a member of the Committee for the Preparation of Fiscal Rules Methodology under the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and a macro-economic consultant. He also worked as consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in Washington. He is co-author, with economist José Gallardo Ku, of the book “Qué se puede hacer con el Peru: Ideas para sostener el crecimiento económico en el largo plazo” (What to Do with Peru: Ideas to Sustain Economic Growth in the Long Term), co-published by Universidad del Pacífico (UP) and the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru (PUCP), and one of the most relevant publications on Peru’s economic situation today. Furthermore, he has a series of articles in academic and financial journals. His career as faculty member includes positions as Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics of the Johns Hopkins University of the United States, and Universidad del Pacífico of Peru. Piero Ghezzi Solís studied Economics at Universidad del Pacífico and has a Ph.D. in Economics by the University of California, Berkeley. He also followed advanced studies in International Economic Policy at the Kiel Institute of World Economics, in Kiel, Germany. He is currently the Minister of Production.
Michael Reid
Michael Reid writes the Bello column on Latin America for The Economist and is the newspaper’s writer-at-large for the region. He has worked for The Economist since 1990 and was Americas Editor between 1999 and 2013. His books include "Forgotten Continent: The Battle for Latin America's Soul" (2007) and “Brazil: The Troubled Rise of a Global Power” (April 2014), both published by Yale University Press and in Portuguese by Editora Elsevier.
Alonso Segura Vasi
Alonso Segura Vasi is Minister of Economy and Finance of Peru. Prior to taking up the position as Minister, he worked as Head of the Group of Advisors of the Ministry of Economy and Finance; President of the special Committee for Public Investment Projects of the Agency for Private Investment Promotion (ProInversión) and Director of the Financial Corporation for Development (COFIDE). He was also Head of the Specialized Team for Investment Follow-up, a team in charge of identifying and lifting investment barriers. Previous assignments include Manager of Economic Studies and Investment Strategy at Banco de Crédito del Peru; Advisor to the Executive Director of the Southern Cone and Official of the Public Finance Department of the International Monetary Fund. Mr. Segura has performed research activities with the Group for the Analysis of Development (GRADE) and has been a Professor in the Master’s program of Finance at Universidad del Pacífico and Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru; he has also taught specialization courses for the Central Reserve Bank and the Superintendence of Banking, Insurance and Pension Fund Administration Companies of Peru. Mr. Segura graduated from the Economics Program of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru and has a Master’s Degree and Ph.D. studies in Economics by the University of Pennsylvania, United States.
Jaime Saavedra Chanduví
Jaime Saavedra Chanduví is the current Minister of Education of Peru. He has a Ph.D. in Economics by Columbia University, New York, and holds a degree in Economics by Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru. During the past ten years, he has held different management positions in the World Bank. He has been ad interim Vice President of Economic Management and Poverty Reduction and Director of the Global Department for Poverty Reduction and Equality. He has also worked as President of the Steering Committee for Poverty Reduction at the WB. He has implemented and supervised projects and programs for the design of policies and technical assistance in the fields of poverty, equality of opportunities, well-being measurement, employment and education economics, areas on which he has extensively published. He is co-author of the book “¿Está el piso parejo? Desigualdad de Oportunidades entre los niños en el Peru" (Is the Ground Leveled? Unequal Opportunities Among Children in Peru). Previously, he worked as Executive Director and Senior Researcher in the Group for Analysis of Economic Development (GRADE) independent research center, where he worked in the areas of employment, income inequality and education economics. He has been a member of the Board of the Economic Association for Latin America and the Caribbean (LACEA); member of the National Labor Council in Peru and member of the Board of Directors of the Nutrition Research Institute in Lima. Mr. Saavedra has also been Technical Advisor in the Ministry of Labor and Employment Promotion and member of its Consulting Committee. As an academic, he has been a Professor of Economics in the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru and in Universidad del Pacífico, and visiting professor at the Toronto University. Furthermore, he has been President of the Executive Committee of the IADB-World Bank-LACEA Poverty and Inequality Network, and member of the Board of Directors of the Economic and Social Research Consortium. He has also been a Consultant and Researcher for the World Bank, IADB, ECLAC/CEPAL, UN, ILO and the Ministries of Education, Industry and Labor in Peru.
Luis Felipe Céspedes
Luis Felipe Céspedes has a Ph.D. in Economics by New York University and a Degree in Economics by Universidad Católica de Chile. He is married and is father of three children. In the public sector, he has been coordinator of economic policies and chief economic advisor in the Ministry of Economy. He also worked as Manager of Economic Research at the Central Bank of Chile. From 2012 to February 2014, he formed part of the Technical Investment Council, a division that safeguards the investment regime of pension and retirement funds. While appointed to this position, he also worked as Professor in the Business School of Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez. He has also been a faculty member at Universidad de Chile and Universidad Católica. During his professional career, he performed research activities for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), and Rutgers University. He has published several research papers in his specialty fields in highly reputed international economy journals, as well as analyses on economic matters in the local press. He has been editor of two books and of the academic journal Economía Chilena.
Marcelo Neri
Marcelo Neri was Minister of Strategic Affairs in Brazil (2013-15); holds a PhD in Economics, Princeton University. Areas of research are well-being, social policies and microeconometrics. Founder of the Center for Social Policies at Getulio Vargas Foundation (CPS/FGV); teaches at Graduate and Undergraduate courses in Economics at EPGE/FGV that is both the top ranking Think Tank and school in the country. Edited books on Microcredit; Social Security; Diversity; Rural Poverty; Bolsa Família; Perceptions about Public Policies; Planning Policies; Consumption; and Middle Class. He writes regularly in scientific journals and in general magazines. He was indicated twice as one of the 100 most influential Brazilians. He was also the secretary-general of the Council of Economic and Social Development (CDES) and president of the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea). He evaluated policies in more than a dozen countries and designed and implemented policies at three government levels in Brazil.