Ugo Panizza
Professor, International Economics
Deputy-Director, Centre on Development and Finance, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, CH
Main Topics:
- Currencies and foreign exchange
- Emerging countries
- Finance
- Financial markets
- International investment
Professor Panizza’s research interests include international finance, sovereign debt, banking, and political economy. His research is wide-ranging and has covered areas such as income inequality, public sectorlabor market, and the relationship between religion and the education gender gap.
Professional Profile:
Ugo Panizza is Professor of Economics and Pictet Chair in Finance and Development at the Graduate Institute in Geneva. He is also the Deputy-Director of the Institute’s Centre on Finance and Development. Prior to joining the Institute, Professor Panizza was the Chief of the Debt and Finance Analysis Unit at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. He also worked at the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank and was an assistant professor of economics at the American University of Beirut and the University of Turin.
He has extensive work and research experience in Latin America and the Middle East and North Africa. He is a member of the executive committee of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA) and an editor of the Association’s journal Economia. He is also an associate editor of The World Bank Economic Review, the Journal of Economic Systems, and the Review of Economics and Institutions.
Professor Panizza’s recent work includes a series of important articles on the costs of sovereign defaults, on the links between public debt and economic growth (see below), and research with Professor Arcand and Enrico Berkes, of the IMF, on the threshold above which financial development no longer has a positive effect on economic growth. Together with Barry Eichengreen of the University of California, Berkeley and Ricardo Hausmann of Harvard’s Kennedy School, he did work on the causes and consequences of “original sin” in international finance. He has also worked with Eichengreen on capital account liberalisation and bond market development.
Education:
- Laurea, University of Turin
- Ph.D. in Economics, The Johns Hopkins University
Selected Works:
Books
- Bond Markets in Latin America (editor, with Eduardo Borensztein, Kevin Cowan, and Barry Eichengreen). MIT Press, 2008
- Living with Debt. How to Limit the Risks of Sovereign Finance (editor, with Eduardo Borensztein and Eduardo Levy Yeyati). Harvard University Press for the Inter-American Development Bank, 2006
Comments, op eds, and short notes
- Public debt and economic growth, one more time VOX EU April 2013
- Incentives for avoiding delayed defaults VOX EU March 2013
- Sovereign default and the rules of engineering VOX EU March 2013 (in Italian)
- Is high public debt harmful for economic growth? New evidence (with A. Presbitero) VOX EU April 2012
- The unexplained part of public debt (with C. Campos and D. Jaimovich) VOX EU, January 2012
- When Financial Sectors Become “Too Large” EconoMonitor, 1 September, 2011
- Democracy, Quality of Government and the Average Voter (with P. Fortunato) VOX EU, June 2011
- Too Much Finance? (with JL Arcand and E. Berkes) VOX EU, April 2011
What will happen if Greece defaults? Insights from theory and reality (with E. Borensztein) VOX EU, May 2010 (in Italian) - Bankers’ conflicts of interest in the interwar years: New lessons for today (with M. Flandreau e N. Gaillard) VOX EU, April 2010
- Redemption or abstinence? (with R. Hausmann) VOX EU, February 2010
- Notes for Doha: Towards a new Consensus on the External Debt Leading Action of the Financing for Development Process G24 Policy Brief No. 33, 2008
- Discussion to “Capital Market Development: Wither Latin America,” by A. De la Torre, J.C. Gozzi and S. Schmukler, in S. Edwards e M. Garcia (eds.) Financial Markets Volatility and Performance in Emerging Markets, University of Chicago Press (2008)
- IMF Blues, a Radical Proposal EconoMonitor, 13 December, 2007
- You want to reduce corruption? Give awards to foreign journalists EconoMonitor, 12 November, 2007
- There is something about domestic debt… DMFAS Newsletter No. 18, 2007
- Comment to “Judicial Reform in Developing Economies: Opportunities and Constraints,” by M. Stephenson, and “Transforming Judicial Systems in Europe and Central Asia,” by J. Andersen and C. Gray. Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics, Europe. The World Bank, January 2007
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