Ugo Panizza is Professor of Economics and Pictet Chair in Finance and Development at the Geneva Graduate Institute where he also serves as head of the Department of Economics. He is a Vice President and Fellow of CEPR and Fellow of the Fondazione Einaudi, Director of the International Center for Monetary and Banking Studies, Editor in Chief of Oxford Open Economics, and deputy director of the Center for Finance and Development.  Before joining the Graduate Institute, he was Chief of the Debt and Finance Analysis Unit at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and a Senior Economist at the Inter-American Development Bank. He also worked at the World Bank and taught at the American University of Beirut and the University of Torino.  He holds a PhD in Economics from the Johns Hopkins University and a Laurea in Political Sciences from the University of Torino.