Rethinking monetary policy in a highly uncertain world – Anual conference of economic studies

Markus K. Brunnermeier is the Edwards S. Sanford Professor in the economics department at Princeton University and director of Princeton’s Bendheim Center for Finance. His research focuses on international financial markets, monetary theory, and macroeconomics with special emphasis on bubbles, liquidity, financial crises and digital money. He established the webinar series as a platform for leading thinkers. Brunnermeier was awarded his PhD by the London School of Economics (LSE) and a Doctor honoris causa from the University of Regensburg. His award winning books include “The Resilient Society” and “The Euro and the Battle of Ideas.”

Iván Werning is an argentine economist with research focuses on macroeconomics, international economics and public finance. He is the Robert M. Solow Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he has been since earning his PhD from the University of Chicago in 2002. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the Econometric Society, and a Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Francesco Bianchi is also co-editor of the American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics. He is a member of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and the National Bureau of Economic Research. Professor Bianchi received his Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University in 2009.  Before joining Johns Hopkins, he was a professor at Duke University. He has held visiting or teaching positions at UCLA, NYU, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, and Northwestern University. In 2015 he was awarded the Wim Duisenberg Research fellowship and in 2010 he received the Zellner Thesis Award in Business and Economic Statistics. He has published in the American Economic Review, the Review of Economic Studies, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and other leading academic journals. He has served as associate editor of the Journal of Monetary Economics, Quantitative Economics, the European Economic Review, and the Journal of Applied Econometrics. He has been invited to discuss his research at the 2022 Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, the 2021 G20 FWG meeting, and at numerous policy and academic institutions. Currently, Professor Bianchi’s main research interests involve the use of machine learning techniques to improve forecasts, the role of agents’ beliefs in explaining macroeconomic dynamics, the interaction between monetary and fiscal policy, and the effects of political agendas and monetary policy on asset prices.

Rodrigo Valdés is a Chilean economist and Director of the Western Hemisphere Department at the IMF since May 2023. He previously served as a Professor of Economics at the Catholic University of Chile and as Chile’s Minister of Finance from 2015 to 2017. Valdés also held leading positions at the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank, including Director of Research and Chief Economist. He has also served as a Deputy Director of the Western Hemisphere and European Departments at the IMF. He has worked in the banking sector as Board and Executive Committee President at Banco Estado, Chile’s sole state-owned bank, as Director and Chief Economist for Latin America at Barclays Capital and Chief Economist (ex-Brazil) at BTG Pactual.

Valdés holds a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Chile.

Elías Albagli I. is the Director of the Monetary Policy Division and Chief Economist of Central Bank of Chile´s.

Previously he was the Head of Modeling and Economic Analysis of the Bank. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 2010. Mr. Albagli has published several articles in leading economic journals in the fields of information theory, macroeconomics, finance, and labor markets.

He has taught courses in macroeconomics and finance in the University of Southern California, Catholic University of Chile and the University of Chile. He currently dictates the course: “Planetary Boundaries and Economic Development”.

Adrian Armas has been Chief Economist of the Central Reserve Bank of Peru (BCRP) since 2005, except 2017-2018, when he was the Executive Director for Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay at the IMF Board. He has spent most of his career (since 1986) at the BCRP, where he was previously Head of the Monetary Policy Division (1997-2005) and Chief of the Financial Programming Section (1995-1997). He contributed to the design and implementation of Peru’s inflation targeting scheme and has written articles on this subject and others on central banking for the IMF, BIS, the LACEA Journal, and several central banks. He participated in IMF technical assistance missions as MCM Advisor in 2007-2017. He has taught Econometrics, International Economics, Macroeconomics, and Monetary Theory at several Peruvian universities. He holds an M.A. degree in Political Economy from Boston University (1992).

Adriana Arreaza Coll is Director of Macroeconomic Studies at CAF, Development Bank of Latin America. She coordinates the team of country economists and contributes to CAF’s research publications. She was Acting Chief Economist and Knowledge Manager at CAF. She is also an Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics of Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Caracas. She previously worked at the Research Department of the Central Bank of Venezuela. She received her BA in Economics at Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Caracas and her Ph.D. in Economics at Brown University.

José Dorich was appointed Deputy Managing Director of the Bank’s International Economic Analysis Department (INT) in 2021. In this capacity, he is a member of the Bank’s senior management team, contributing to the strategic direction of INT and providing leadership on the analysis of global economic conditions. Before becoming Deputy Managing Director, Mr. Dorich served as Senior Policy Director in INT and Director of Model Development in the Bank’s Canadian Economic Analysis Department. Prior to joining the Bank in 2008, he was Economic Analyst at the Central Bank of Peru from 1999 to 2003. Mr. Dorich obtained a bachelor of science degree in economics at Universidad del Pacifico and a PhD in economics from Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

Juan Ospina joined Banco de la República in 2017. He currently is the Chief Officer for Monetary Policy and Economic Information, where he runs the team that produces the bank’s macroeconomic analysis and forecasts, makes the monetary policy recommendation to the Board of Governors, and writes the Monetary Policy Report. He is also in charge of a labor market research team and the production of most of the bank’s official statistics. Prior to this role, he also worked as the head of the Fiscal Analysis Unit and as a researcher at the Macroeconomic Modeling Department. Dr Ospina´s research interests include monetary policy, business cycle fluctuations, asset pricing, pension systems, and the formation of consumer’s expectations. His research work has been published in academic journals including Econometrica and the Journal of Political Economy. He has taught courses in finance, macroeconomics, and statistics at the University of Chicago, Universidad de los Andes, Universidad del Rosario, Universidad del Norte, and Universidad Externado de Colombia. He holds a PhD in economics and an MBA (with honors) from the University of Chicago and bachelor degrees (with honors) in economics and industrial engineering from Universidad de los Andes.

Liliana Rojas-Suarez has expertise on Latin America, financial regulation, digital financial inclusion, Basel II and III, and the development impact of global financial flows. She is the co-author or editor of almost a dozen books, including Growing Pains in Latin America: An Economic Growth Framework as Applied to Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and Peru. She co-chaired the CGD Task Forces on “Making Basel III Work for Emerging Markets and Developing Economies” and “Financial Regulations for Improving Financial Inclusion” and is currently working on the “Policy Decision Tree for Digital Financial Inclusion Policymaking” project.

She is also the chair of the Latin American Committee on Macroeconomic and Financial Issues (CLAAF) and Adjunct Professor at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, New York. From March 1998 to October 2000, she served as managing director and chief economist for Latin America at Deutsche Bank. Before joining Deutsche Bank, Rojas-Suarez was the principal advisor in the Office of Chief Economist at the Inter-American Development Bank. Between 1984 and 1994 she held various positions at the International Monetary Fund, most recently as deputy chief of the Capital Markets and Financial Studies Division of the Research Department. She has been a visiting fellow at the Institute for International Economics, a visiting advisor at the Bank for International Settlements and at the Central Bank of Spain. She has also served as a professor at Anahuac University in Mexico and advisor for PEMEX, Mexico’s National Petroleum Company. Rojas-Suarez has also testified before a Joint Committee of the U.S. Senate on the issue of dollarization in Latin America.

Alejandro Werner, nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute since September 2021, is founding director of the Georgetown Americas Institute. He was previously director of the Western Hemisphere Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from January 2013 to August 2021. In this capacity, he was in charge of the relationship with the 34 member countries from the Americas and the Caribbean (including the United States and Canada), managing bilateral and regional surveillance, program design and negotiations, technical assistance and regional research agenda, seminars, and conferences. Earlier in his career he served as undersecretary of finance and public credit (December 2006–August 2010), director of economic policy and chief of staff at the Finance Ministry of Mexico, director of economic studies at the Bank of Mexico and head of corporate and investment banking at BBVA-Bancomer.  He has taught at Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), Instituto de Empresa, and Yale University.

Werner was named Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2007. He received his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994 and BA from ITAM (Mexico) in 1990.

Róger Madrigal has been the President of the Central Bank of Costa Rica since May 2022. Before assuming the presidency, he served as the Director of the Economic Division (Chief Economist of the BCCR) and was responsible for advising the Central Bank authorities on monetary, exchange rate, and financial system policies from July 2008 to April 2022. He also held positions as Advisor to the President of the BCCR, Acting Director of the Department of Economic Analysis and Advisory, Researcher at the Department of Economic Research, and Head of the Monetary Department.

Beltrán de Ramón has been the General Manager of the Central Bank of Chile since July 2021. De Ramón holds a degree in Commercial Engineering with a specialization in Economics from the Catholic University, and he also completed a Diploma in Corporate Governance from the same institution.

In 2005, he joined the Central Bank as the Manager of Domestic Financial Markets. From January 2008 to June 2021, he served as the Manager of the Financial Markets Division.

Prior to joining the Central Bank, he held the position of Head of the Public Finance Division at the Budget Directorate of the Ministry of Finance. He also represented this department as a Council Member of the System of Public Enterprises (SEP) and served as a Director of the National Mining Company (ENAMI). From 1990 to 2002, he held positions as a Financial Analyst and Treasury Manager at Copec S.A.

Julio Velarde has been the President of the Board of Directors of the Central Reserve Bank of Peru since October 2006. In October 2021, he was ratified to continue presiding over the Board of the BCRP for a fourth consecutive term, until 2026.

He was the Chairman of the Intergovernmental Group of Twenty-Four on International Monetary Affairs and Development (G24) during the 2018/2019 period and the Executive President of the Latin American Reserve Fund (FLAR) from 2004 until October 2006. Additionally, he held the positions of Director of the Central Reserve Bank of Peru from 1990 to 1992 and from 2001 to 2003, as well as Dean of the Faculty of Economics at the Universidad del Pacífico in 2003.

Since January 2021, Leonardo Villar has served as the General Manager of the Banco de la República (Central Bank of Colombia). Prior to his current position, he worked for two years at the International Monetary Fund as an Executive Director representing Colombia, along with Spain, Mexico, Venezuela, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

Villar was also the Executive Director of Fedesarrollo for seven years, from 2012 to 2018. During his time there, he was part of the Expert Commission for Structural Tax Reform, which presented its recommendations in 2015, and the Commission for Studies on Public Expenditure and Investment in Colombia, which delivered its report to the National Government in April 2018. He was also a member of the Advisory Committee for the Fiscal Rule. Before leading Fedesarrollo, he was the Chief Economist and Vice President of Development Strategies and Public Policies at CAF-Development Bank of Latin America.