Santiago Levy

Santiago Levy is currently a Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution and member of the board of various development organizations. Before that, he was Vice-president at the Inter-American Development Bank, General Director of Mexico’s Social Security Institute, deputy minister at Mexico’s Ministry of Finance, and President of Mexico’s Federal Competition Commission.

In academia, he was president of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association, Associate Professor of Economics and director of the Institute for Economic Development at Boston University, Visiting Researcher at Cambridge University and Professor of Economics at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México. At the Ministry of Finance, he was the main architect of Progresa-Oportunidades. At the Social Security Institute, he promoted legal changes to reform pensions and extend coverage to rural workers.

He has published on social policy, informality, education, tax policy, trade and competition policy, and policies for poverty alleviation. He has received First Place, National Research Prize in Economics (Banco Nacional de México); First Place, Latin American Economics Prize (El Trimestre Económico); and Distinguished Alumni Award, Boston University. His current work focuses on the challenges of socially inclusive growth in Latin America.

As a UNU-WIDER Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow, he is involved in the Social protection in the Global South project.