Ignazio Visco, GR'81 |
Wharton Speaker >> Biography
Ignazio Visco, GR’81, took office as Governor of the Bank of Italy in November 2011. He is a member of the Governing Council and General Council of the European Central Bank (ECB), the General Board of the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB), the Group of Seven (G7), the Group of Twenty (G20), and the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). He is Governor for Italy on the Boards of Governors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and Alternate Governor for Italy at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). At the Bank of Italy since 1972, he was Head of the Research Department from 1990 to 1997, Central Manager for International Affairs and then for Economic Research between March 2004 and December 2006, Deputy Director General and Member of the Governing Board from January 2007 to October 2011. Between 1997 and 2002, he was Chief Economist and Head of the Economics Department of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris. Born in 1949, he graduated in Economics at the University of Rome, obtained a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and taught econometrics and economic policy at “La Sapienza” University of Rome. He is a member of the Italian Economics Society, the Italian Statistics Society, and the American Economic Association. He was granted the Leontief Award for Best Dissertation in Quantitative Economics (Eastern Economic Association, 1982), the "Best in Class" prize, "La Sapienza" University of Rome (2006) and the title of Cavaliere di Gran Croce al Merito della Repubblica Italiana (2011). He is the author of various articles and books including: Price Expectations in Rising Inflation, North Holland, 1984; Saving and the Accumulation of Wealth (edited with A. Ando and L. Guiso), Cambridge University Press, 1994; L’economia italiana (with L. F. Signorini), Il Mulino, 2002; Ageing and Pension System Reform (Report for the G10 Deputies, Chairman of the Working Group), 2005; and Investire in conoscenza, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2009.