Carola Pessino
Senior Economist in the Fiscal Management Division of the IDB. She is currently in charge of coordinating knowledge in fiscal policy and management and has led and collaborated in several fiscal strengthening programs in countries in the region. She holds a Master’s degree in Economics from Universidad del CEMA and a Master’s and Ph.D in Economics from the University of Chicago. She was Secretary of Fiscal Equity (Vice-Chief of Cabinet) of the Chief of Cabinet of Ministers in Argentina and member of the Economic Council of Advisors to the Minister of Finance of Argentina between 1996 and 1999. During her tenure in the government, she designed important projects such as federal co-participation in taxes and the design, implementation and management of the first integrated information system for fiscal and social purposes (SINTyS) in Latin America, of which she was General Coordinator. She was Director of the Economics Department at Universidad del CEMA; Professor and Director of the Center for Poverty Studies at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella; Professor at Duke University and Visiting Fellow at Yale University and the Center for Global Development. She is the author of dozens of academic papers on fiscal issues both on public spending and on national and subnational taxation; on labor and social economics; and on fiscal equity especially in Latin America and is co-editor of the IDB’s flagship publication “Better Spending for Better Lives”.