Santiago Levy

Mexican politician and economist who has held various positions in the public administration of Mexico and international organizations. He recently served as Vice President of Sectors and Knowledge of the Inter-American Development Bank.

From 1994 to 2000, Levy served the Mexican government as deputy minister of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, becoming the principal architect of the well-known Progresa-Oportunidades social program that benefits the poor. Levy managed budget adjustments during the 1994-95 economic crisis and the drop in oil prices in 1998. Previously, he was president of the Federal Competition Commission of Mexico and director of the Economic Deregulation Program at the Ministry of Commercial and Industrial Promotion.

Levy holds a Ph.D. in economics and a master's degree in political economy from Boston University, plus an honorary post-doctorate from Cambridge University. He has been advisor to several governments and international organizations, in addition to holding various teaching positions at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico and at Boston University, where he was an associate professor and director of the Institute for Economic Development.

He is the author of publications covering topics as diverse as poverty reduction, competitiveness, exchange rate policies, imbalances in exports, prices, microeconomics and energy. His work "Poverty in Mexico" won the Banco de México National Prize for Research in Economics in 1992. Other honors include the 1992 Latin American Economics Award from The Economic Quarter for the article "Multiple Exchange Rates and Currency Rationing" (with Roberto Rosales); the World Bank Research Award for "Assessing the Mexico-US Free Trade Agreement", with Anthony Venables and Sweder Van Wijnbergen; and an Honorable Mention in 1986 of the Prize Bank of Mexico's National Research Institute in Economics for the article "Short-Term Responses to Currency Crises".

His recent published books are Progress Against Poverty: Sustaining Mexico's Progresa-Oportunidades Program, Brookings Institution Press, 2006; Without Inheritance of Poverty, Editorial Planeta, 2005 (with Evelyne Rodríguez); and Essays on the Economic and Social Development of Mexico, Fondo de Cultura Económica, México, 2004.