Contributor Biographies
Cinzia Alcidi is Director of Research and Head of the Economic Policy Unit and the Jobs & Skills Unit at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels. She is also Lecturer at the University of Ghent (Belgium). Her main research interests include macroeconomics, economic policies, labour markets and EU governance. Cinzia holds a PhD in International Economics from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva (Switzerland).
Claudio Baccianti is Senior Associate at Agora Energiewende in Brussels. He works primarily on green fiscal policy, sustainable finance and the EU Green Deal. Previously, he was an Economist at a global macro hedge fund in London. Claudio started working on climate policy at the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in 2011, where he specialised in developing modelling tools to assess the impacts of environmental and innovation policies. Between 2018 and 2019, he was a PhD candidate at the European Central Bank and he interned at the International Monetary Fund during the Summer of 2017. Claudio holds a PhD in Economics from Tilburg University and has a MSc in Economics and Econometrics from the University of Essex. He previously studied Economics at the University of Siena and the University of Florence.
Daniel Balsalobre-Lorente is Professor at the Department of Political Economy and Public Finance, Economics and Business Statistics and Economic Policy of the University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. His expertise is in public finances, energy economics, economic growth, environment, tourism and innovation processes. He has published numerous papers in international refereed journals including Energy Economics, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Journal of Cleaner Production, Sustainability, Environmental Science and Pollution Research, Resources Policy, Energy Policy, Energies, and Journal of Public Affairs, among others. He has been an editor and reviewer of indexed journals and handbooks.
Giovanni Barbieri is a Research Fellow at Cranec (Centro di ricerche in analisi economica e sviluppo economico internazionale) at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. He holds a PhD (2017) in Institutions and Policies. He previously worked as Adjunct Professor of History of International and Commercial Institutions at the University of Palermo (DEMS, Italy) and Project Researcher on the Kone Foundation Project “Regional Challenges to Multilateralism”, based at Tampere University, Finland. His main expertise is in international political economy (IPE), in particular the problem of uneven deveolopment and the new challenges posed by developing countries to the current global governance scheme.
Nicoletta Batini is the Lead Evaluator of the International Monetary Fund’s Independent Evaluation Office. Prior to the IMF, she was Advisor to the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, Professor of Economics at the University of Surrey, and Director of the International Economics and Policy Office of Italy’s Department of the Treasury. She holds a PhD in international finance (SSSUPS Anna) and a PhD in Monetary Economics (University of Oxford). Currently, her research focuses on the economics of energy and land and sea use transitions for climate mitigation. Her new book, The Economics of Sustainable Food: Smart Policies for People and the Planet, was published in June 2021 by Island Press and the IMF.
Andrea Brasili is a Senior Economist at the EIB (Luxembourg) where his research interests are both micro (firm level) data analysis and macroeconomic developments, in particular those related to fiscal policy. He received his PhD in Public Economics from the University of Pavia (Italy). Before joining the EIB, he worked in the private sector (in Italian banks and asset management companies) as a research economist, whilst still collaborating with academia.
Floriana Cerniglia is a Full Professor of Economics at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Milan) and Director of CRANEC (Centro di ricerche in analisi economica e sviluppo economico internazionale) She is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of EconomiaPolitica, Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics. She received her PhD from the University of Warwick (UK) and her research interests lie in public economics and macroeconomic policies. She has published in leading international journals and she has coordinated and participated in a number of peer-reviewed research projects.
Francesco Corti is an Advisor to the Belgian Minister of Social Affairs and Health of Belgium, an Associate Research Fellow at CEPS, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Milan, where he teaches economic and social governance of the EU. He is an expert in European social and employment policies, EU budget, EMU governance and social investment. Francesco is also external expert at the European Court of Auditors, Eurofound. Francesco holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Milan.
Claudio De Vincenti is Professor of Economics at the University of Rome La Sapienza and Senior Fellow at the LUISS School of European Political Economy. His main fields of research are: competition and market regulation, macroeconomic theory, economic policy and public economics. He was the Director of the PhD Programme in Economics of the University La Sapienza and is currently a Member of the Scientific Council of the LUISS School of European Political Economy and of the Scientific Council of Fondazione ASTRID. He is the author of several books on macroeconomic theory, regulation theory and practice, economic policy, and has published a number of articles in Italian and international journals. Over the years he has held institutional appointments in the Italian Government and currently he is the Chairman of the Aeroporti di Roma company.
Mario Di Serio is a Research Fellow at the University of Salerno. He has been a consultant for the Cohesion Policies Department of the Presidency of the Italian Council of Ministers since 2021. He worked as an economic consultant for the Italian Ministry of Economics and Finance from 2017 to 2021. In 2018 he obtained a PhD in Economics from the University of Salerno, with a thesis on the non-linear effects of fiscal policies on EA and US economies. His research focuses mainly on fiscal policy, monetary policy and macroeconometrics.
Lorenzo Ferrari is Lecturer in Microeconomics and Public Economics at the Department of Economics and Finance of LUISS Guido Carli. Moreover, he is currently the manager of the CESARE Laboratory for Experimental Economics, where he is responsible for the organisation and implementation of experiments on economic behaviour. Lorenzo was previously a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at, and still collaborates with, the School of European Political Economy of Luiss Guido Carli. The main focus of his research project was issues related to public investment in the European Union and Italy. In recent years he has taught as Adjunct Professor at LUISS, John Cabot University, and the University of Rome Tor Vergata, where he obtained his PhD in Economics, Law, and Institutions. His research interests are public policy and finance, experimental economics, and political economy.
Matteo Fragetta is an Associate Professor of Macroeconomics at the University of Salerno. Previously, he has been Visiting Scholar at the Cass Business School (with Professor Lucio Sarno) and at the University of Leicester. His research focuses on fiscal and monetary policy from an empirical point of view and on the role played by active and passive policy on labour outcome. He holds a PhD in the Economics of the Public Sector from the University of Salerno.
Zaihan Gao is Lecturer of Economics and Finance of the Built Environment at the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction at University College London. Zaihan holds a doctorate in finance from Durham University and has published several papers in top journals (including Transportation Research and Finance Research Letters) in finance, management, sustainable and transport economics. Zaihan is also the principal investigator of a collaborative research and enterprise project between Shenzhen Green-Tech Institute of Applied Environmental Technology Co. Ltd and UCL, focusing on the future-proof emission reduction credit standard.
Miguel Gil Tertre is the Chief Economist at the Directorate General for Energy of the European Commission. He leads the team responsible for modelling the impact and ensuring the economic coherence of policy proposals in the field of energy. His previous responsibilities include the negotiation of the Recovery and Resilience Plans for Poland, Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia and the coordination of the European Semester. As a member of the Cabinet of Vice President Katainen, he was responsible for the design and coordination of the investment plan for Europe (known as the ‘Juncker’ Plan). He was assistant to the Director General in charge of Economic and Financial Affairs during the euro crisis (2011–2014). Prior to joining the Commission, he worked for ten years on network industries regulation. Miguel Gil Tertre has an MBA from the Instituto de Empresa Business School and two degrees in economics from the Paris IX-Dauphine and Autonomous University of Madrid (special graduation award).
Giuseppe Francesco Gori is a researcher at IRPET (Istituto Regionale Programmazione Economica della Toscana), where he works on public economics. His most recent activities have focused on the analysis of the efficiency profiles of public spending with particular attention to the public procurement market and the impact evaluation of public investments. His recent work has focused on public spending and contract reforms, and he has authored numerous research reports and contributions to the debate, including: G. F. Gori, P. Lattarulo, and M. Mariani (2017) “Understanding the procurement performance of local governments: A duration analysis of public works”, Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space 35 (5), 809; and Giuseppe Francesco Gori, Lucio Landi, and Patrizia Lattarulo (2020) “The procurement of public works in light of recent reforms”, UPB working notes 2/2020.
Daniel Gros is Member of the Board and Distinguished Fellow at CEPS, where he has been Director from 2000 to 2020. Prior to joining CEPS, Daniel worked at the IMF and at the European Commission. His main areas of expertise are the European monetary union, macroeconomic policy, public finance, banking, and financial markets. Daniel holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago.
Meriem Hamdi-Cherif is an environmental economic researcher. After sixteen years spent at CIRED in the Imaclim Energy-Economy Modeling team, she joined the ThreeME team of the Environment Division at OFCE (Observatoire Français des Conjonctures Economiques). She studies the interactions between energy, economy and the environment; the choice of climate policy instruments and the articulation between domestic policies and international agreements. Her PhD focused on analysing the costs and opportunities for China to transition to a low-carbon economy in an adverse overall economic context.
Lucía Ibáñez-Luzon is a PhD candidate in Economics at UCLM, and a regulation and energy markets specialist at EDP Comercial. She has broad expertise in energy economics and the environment, and she has been working in the energy and environment field since 2014 within the public and private sectors and at both national and international levels. Her email is lucia.iba@opendeusto.es.
Atanas Kolev is Principal Advisor at the Economics Department of the EIB. He has worked on a wide range of topics related to investment and investment financing at the firm-, sector-, and economy-wide levels. He has been an organiser and contributor to the annual economics conference of the EIB on topics like economic and social cohesion, investment in the energy sector, adaptation to climate change, public investment, and infrastructure investment. Atanas Kolev is currently a coordinator, reviewer, and economics editor for the EIB Annual Investment Report. He holds an Economics PhD from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
Patrizia Lattarulo is Head of Research Unit on Public Economy and Territorial Policies at IRPET (Regional Institute for Economic Planning of Tuscany at Villa la Quiete alle Montalve). She works on federalism and public services, decentralised taxation, investment and infrastructure.
Klaas Lenaerts is a Research Analyst at Bruegel. He holds a Master’s in Economics from KU Leuven and in European Economic Studies from the College of Europe. Additionally, he spent one semester at Uppsala University. Before joining Bruegel he worked as a trainee on EU enlargement discussions at the Belgian Permanent Representation, and at the European Securities and Markets Authority in Paris, where he contributed to the work of the Risk Analysis and Economics Department on sustainable finance.
Xi Liang is currently Professor of Sustainable Construction and Project Management at the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction at University College London. Xi is a Standing Committee Member for China’s Climate Investment and Finance Association (CIFA) and Deputy Director for China’s Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) Committee, within the Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences. He is also the core advisory member in the drafting of China’s Climate Investment and Finance Policy Document and in the development of regional pilots. Xi is also a key project member for various climate finance projects in China, including standard development, policy formulation and municipal climate finance pilots, and has delivered training on climate finance to municipal government officials. Xi has been appointed as the International Lead of the Asian Development Bank’s CCS Centre of Excellence (Guangdong) Project, PI of the World Bank Network Carbon Market (China), and PI of multiple UK Foreign and Commonwealth Government Office (FCO) Strategic Programme Fund projects.
Alessandro Liscai is an Associate Research Assistant at CEPS (Brussels) and a Research Assistant at Astrid Foundation (Rome). He holds a BSc in Economics and Management from Luiss University (Rome), an MSc in Economics from Nova School of Business and Economics (Lisbon) and an MA in European Economic Governance from Luiss School of European Political Economy (Rome).
Paul Malliet is a Senior Economist at the French Economic Observatory (OFCE), working on macroeconomic modelling of climate and energy transition policies. He is part of the team working on the development of the THREEME model (Multisector Macroeconomic Model for the Evaluation of Environmental and Energy policy) in collaboration with the French Environmental Agency (ADEME). Its latest research includes carbon accounting from a consumption-based perspective, redistributive impacts of the climate and energy policies and economic impacts and assessment of the economic impact of a low-carbon economy transition.
Adolfo Maza is Full Professor at the University of Cantabria. Professor Maza received his PhD in Economics in 2002. Later on, he completed a postdoctoral role at the University of Berkeley. His main areas of research include regional economics, economic integration and globalisation, the labour market, migration, and energy economics. He has published more than seventy papers in various international scientific journals, most of them included in the Journal Citation Report (JCR) database. He has also participated in many international congresses and meetings. He was awarded the “Young Researchers Prize” by the Spanish Regional Science Association. He is the Coordinator in Spain of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master in Economics of Globalisation and European Integration (EGEI). Finally, he has acted as a reviewer for numerous scientific journals, as well as for international funding agencies such as the National Science Foundation (USA), the Austrian Science Fund, and the Czech Science Foundation.
Valentina Meliciani is Full Professor of Applied Economics at the University LUISS Guido Carli, where she is also Director of the School of European Political Economy and Coordinator of the PhD in Management. She has a Master’s in International Economics from Sussex University, a PhD from SPRU (Sussex University) and a doctorate from the University of Rome Tor Vergata. She has held the positions of Full Professor of Economic Policy at the University of Teramo, Visiting Fellow at SPRU (Sussex University), Visiting Scholar at the University of Minnesota and Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics. She has published in international refereed journals in the fields of industrial economics, international economics, regional economics and economics of innovation. She has participated in EU-funded research projects on the social and economic changes created by the new information-based economy.
Giovanni Melina is a Senior Economist in the African Department of the IMF. Previously, he worked for several years in the IMF’s Research Department, as an Associate Professor of Macroeconomics at City University London, and as a Research Fellow at the University of Surrey. His research focuses on understanding the sources and propagation of macroeconomic shocks, on the design of monetary and fiscal stabilisation policies, and the link between macroeconomic policy and growth in developing countries. Recently, his research has also focused on green investments, the effects of climate change on the macroeconomic outcomes of disaster-prone countries and related policies. He holds a PhD in Economics from Birkbeck, University of London.
Mathieu Plane is a Deputy Director of the Analysis and Forecasting Department at OFCE, the research centre in economics at Sciences Po in Paris. He is in charge of economic forecasts for the French economy and works on economic policy issues. He has written several articles in scientific journals and has participated in several reports for public institutions. He teaches at Sciences Po, Paris and at the University of Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne. In 2013–2014, he was economic advisor to the Ministers of the Economy, Industry, and Digital Sector. He speaks and writes regularly in the media. He has recently published, in collaboration with other authors from the OFCE, Budget 2019: Purchasing Power but Deficit, Saving(s) Growth: Economic Outlook for the French Economy 2019–2021, and French Economy 2020 .
Debora Revoltella has been Director of the Economics Department of the European Investment Bank since April 2011. The department comprises thirty economists and provides economic analysis and studies to support the bank in defining its policies and strategies. Before joining the EIB, Debora worked for many years at CESEE, was head of the research department in COMIT, and later worked as Chief Economist for CESEE in UniCredit. Debora holds a PhD in Economics and has also worked as Adjunct Professor at Bocconi University. She is a member of the Steering Committees of the Vienna Initiative and CompNet, an alternate member of the Board of the Joint Vienna Institute, and a member of the boards of SUERF and the Euro 50 Group.
Frederic Reynès holds a PhD in economics (Sciences Po Paris) and is a specialist in macroeconomic modelling and quantitative analysis methods. His main expertise and research interests are in applied macroeconomics, energy and environmental issues (in particular fiscal policies and the oil market), and the labour market. He has solid experience in implementing research and studies for national and international institutions (UNDP, AFD, ADEME, COR, European Commission, Eurostat, FAO). He is currently director of the NEO (Netherlands Economic Observatory), and is also an associate researcher at OFCE (Observatoire Français des Conjonctures Economiques), where he is in charge of the Environment Unit. In the framework of a research collaboration with ADEME, he supervises the development of the ThreeME model (Multi-sector Macroeconomic Model for the Evaluation of Environmental and Energy Policy).
Katja Rietzler is Head Unit of Fiscal Policy at the Macroeconomic Policy Institute (IMK), part of the Hans-Böckler Foundation. She holds a PhD from the Freie Universität, Berlin. Among other topics, her research focuses on fiscal issues of the municipalities, the German tax system, public investment needs, and fiscal rules. In addition, she is responsible for the IMK’s macroeconometric model. As an expert she regularly participates in parliamentary hearings on issues such as tax legislation, annual budgets, or the debt brake and its implementation.
Francesco Saraceno is Deputy Department Director at OFCE, the research centre in economics at Sciences Po in Paris. He holds PhDs in Economics from Columbia University and the Sapienza University of Rome. His research focuses on the relationship between inequality, macroeconomic performance, and European macroeconomic policies. From 2000–2002 he was a member of the Council of Economic Advisors for the Italian Prime Minister’s Office. He teaches international and European macroeconomics at Sciences Po, where he manages the Economics concentration of the Master’s in European Affairs, and in Rome (Luiss). He is Academic Director of the Sciences Po-Northwestern European Affairs Program. He is a member of the Scientific Board for the LUISS School of European Political Economy and formerly of the Confindustria’s Scientific Committee. He advises the International Labour Organization (ILO) on macroeconomic policies for employment and participates in IMF training programmes on fiscal policy.
Bert Saveyn is the Team Leader of the Modelling team in the Chief Economist unit of DG ENER. Before joining DG ENER, he worked for the Impact Assessment and Better Regulation unit of the Secretariat General of the European Commission; and was Team Leader in the Economics of Energy, Climate Change and Transport unit of the Joint Research Centre in Sevilla. He holds a PhD in economics and a Master in environmental engineering from the KU Leuven.
Jochen Schanz is Senior Economist at the European Investment Bank. After a PhD in game theory at the European University Institute, he worked at Lehman Brothers, the Bank of England, and the Bank for International Settlements on monetary and financial stability. At the European Investment Bank, he focuses on public investment and human capital.
Simone Tagliapietra is a Researcher at the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan. He is also a Senior Fellow at Bruegel and an Adjunct Professor of Global Energy and Climate Policy at the Johns Hopkins University—SAIS Europe in Bologna. He has published in leading scientific and policy journals such as Nature, Science and Foreign Affairs, and he is the author of Global Energy Fundamentals (Cambridge University Press, 2020). His columns and policy work are published and cited in leading international media, such as BBC, CNN, The New York Times, The Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal. He is Member of the Board of Directors of the Clean Air Task Force in Boston. He holds a PhD in Institutions and Policies from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan.
Alexandre Tourbah is an economist who graduated from Sciences Po and École des Ponts, specialising in the economic impact assessment of resource uses. After his first role at the French Water Circle (Centre Français de l’Eau), Alexandre has now joined the OFCE to work specifically on the assessment of infrastructure requirements in the context of a low-carbon transition.
José Villaverde is Full Professor of Economics (University of Cantabria). He received his PhD in Economics from the University of País Vasco. He has been Visiting Professor at many universities in Denmark, England, Taiwan, China, United States, Belgium, Chile, Poland, Czech Republic, Ecuador and Argentina. The scope of his current research interests encompasses international and regional economics, economic integration, and globalisation and the labour market. He has authored several books and published more than 150 papers in refereed journals. He has also participated in many international congresses and meetings. He has acted as a consultant for the World Bank and the European Commission. He has also served as a reviewer for numerous scientific journals in the field of Economics.
Anthony Waldron is a specialist in biodiversity finance and economics, based at the Cambridge Conservation Initiative in Cambridge University. He was lead author on the global economic analysis for the CBD 30x30 target and is Director of the biodiversity economics consultancy WACC. He led on the creation of the global database of conservation spending and published the first analysis of the effectiveness of that spending worldwide, in the journal Nature. Before Cambridge, he also worked at Oxford University, the National University of Singapore, UESC Brazil, and as Conservation Director of Fundacion Maquipucuna in South America.
Andrew Watt is Head Unit of European Economic Policy at the Macroeconomic Policy Institute (IMK), part of the Hans-Böckler Foundation. He holds a PhD from the University of Hamburg. His main research areas are European economic and employment policy and comparative political economy, with a particular interest in the interaction between wage-setting and macroeconomic policy. Recent work has focused on reform of the economic governance of the euro area, emphasising the need to coordinate monetary, fiscal, and wage policy in order to achieve balanced growth and favourable employment outcomes. He has served as advisor to numerous European and national institutions, including the European Commission, the European Economic and Social Committee, and Eurofound.
Guntram Wolff is a political economist working on the European economy and governance, climate change and geoeconomics. He is the director and CEO of the German Council on Foreign Relations. From 2013–2022, he was the director of Bruegel. He is also a part time professor at the Free University Brussels. His work has been published in academic journals such as Nature, Science, Nature Communications, Energy Policy, and the European Journal of Political Economy and policy outlets such as Foreign Affairs and The Financial Times.