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Ricardo Hausmann

Senior Fellow

Center for Inclusive Growth

Director

Harvard Center for International Development

Ricardo Hausmann is Director of the Center for International Development, Professor of the Practice of Economic Development at Harvard University and George Cowan Professor of the Santa Fe Institute.

His research includes issues of growth and structural transformation, macroeconomic stability, international finance, and the social dimensions of development. Working with different co-authors, Ricardo has introduced new approaches in several areas.

His recent work on structural transformation introduced the concept of the Product Space (2007). His work on growth introduced the method of Growth Diagnostics (2005), a different approach to growth strategies. His work on global imbalances introduced the idea of Dark Matter, the role of intangible knowledge in the financial wealth of nations (2006). In his work on the causes of financial crisis he introduced the concept of Original Sin, the inability to borrow internationally in domestic currency (1999).

Ricardo was an early contributor to the role of budget institutions and fiscal rules (1995). He is one of the co-authors of the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report. Ricardo is widely published in leading academic journals including Science, the Journal of Development Economics, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of International Money and Finance, and the Journal of Economic Growth.

He is regularly featured in media outlets such as The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and Forbes Magazine. He has advised governments in over 40 developing countries on creating effective growth strategies and development policies. Previously, Ricardo served as the first Chief Economist of the Inter-American Development Bank (1994-2000), where he created its Research Department.

He served as Minister of Planning of Venezuela (1992-1993) and as a member of the Board of the Central Bank of Venezuela. He was Professor of Economics at IESA, Venezuela’s leading graduate business school (1985-1992), where he founded the Center for Public Policy. He has also served as Chair of the IMF-World Bank Development Committee (1992-1993) and of the International Growth Advisory Panel of South Africa (2004-2007).

He has been on the boards of CANTV (2001-2007), Venezuela’s full service telecom company and ACCION International, and is on the Advisory Board of Abengoa, Spain’s leader in renewable energy. He has been a consultant to all major multilateral development agencies including the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the African Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Asian Development Bank, among others.

He holds a degree in Applied Physics and a Ph.D. in economics from Cornell University.