Pier Carlo Padoan
Pier Carlo Padoan is an Italian economist who served as Minister of Economy and Finances of Italy from 2014 to 2018.
Padoan was director of the International Monetary Fund for Italy from 2001 to 2005. On 1 June 2007, he became Deputy Secretary General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Early life
Pier Carlo Padoan was born in Rome on 19 January 1950. In the 1970s he graduated in economics at the La Sapienza University in Rome. During his years at the University, Padoan harshly criticised, in the magazine Marxist Critic, the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes, being influenced by the ideas of the Polish economist Michał Kalecki.Academic career
Until 2007, he was Professor of Economics at the Sapienza University of Rome. From 1992 until 2001 he also was professor at the College of Europe, Bruges and Warsaw, and a visiting professor since 2001. He was also a visiting professor at Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, University of Urbino, Italy, Universidad de la Plata, Argentina, and University of Tokyo, Japan. He has published in the field of European economics and political economy.Political career
From 1998 until 2001 he was economic adviser to Italian Prime Ministers Massimo D'Alema and Giuliano Amato during EU budget negotiations like Agenda 2000, and the Lisbon Agenda, at summits of the European Council and the G8.He was an International Monetary Fund official from 2001 to 2005 as the Italian Executive Director and as Board Member in charge of European coordination. He is a Consultant to the World Bank, European Commission and European Central Bank, where he has called for aggressive easing. He has been criticizing budget cutbacks in the euro zone's weakest economies, struggling with debt, which he has called periphery countries.
Since June 2007 he has been Deputy Secretary General at the OECD in Paris, and their chief economist since 2009. He is the OECD's G20 Finance Deputy, leads the initiatives 'Strategic Response', 'Green Growth' and 'Innovation'.
On 19 February 2014 Matteo Renzi chose him as Italy's new Minister of Economy and Finances.
On 12 December 2016, when Renzi resigned as Prime Minister after the constitutional referendum, Padoan was confirmed as finance minister by the new Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni. In June 2016, he was elected chairman of the Party of European Socialists’ Finance Ministers Network.
In 2018 Padoan joined the Democratic Party and ran in the general election in March for the constituency of Siena, where he was elected, defeating the League economic advisor Claudio Borghi.
Fiscal politics
Padoan often stated that the very tight fiscal rules which Europe currently has in place could be temporarily relaxed in order to make the necessary resources available to boost employment.In a letter to the European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs Pierre Moscovici in late 2014, Padoan and the finance ministers of the euro zone's other biggest economies – Michel Sapin of France and Wolfgang Schäuble of Germany – urged the European Commission to draw up EU-wide laws to curb corporate tax avoidance and prevent member states from offering lower taxes to attract investors, calling for a comprehensive anti-BEPS directive for member states to adopt by the end of 2015.
Lifer after politics
In 2020, the government of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte nominated Padoan as Italy’s candidate for the election of President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.Other activities
European Union organizations
- European Investment Bank, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors
- European Stability Mechanism, Member of the Board of Governors
International organizations
- African Development Bank, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors
- Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors
- European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors
- International Monetary Fund, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors
- Inter-American Investment Corporation, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors
Non-profit organizations
- Fondazione Italianieuropei, Director
Publications
- Innovation and Growth: Chasing a Moving Frontier by Vandana Chandra, Deniz Eröcal, Pier Carlo Padoan and Carlos A. Primo Braga. OECD, World Bank 2010.
- The Marshall Plan: Lessons Learned for the 21st Century, edited by Eliot Sorel and Pier Carlo Padoan. OECD 2008.
- Euro-American Trade and Financial Alliances, 2005 book, editor
- The Structural Foundations of International Finance, 2003 book, editor "advocates entrepreneurial co-ordination by productive enterprises"
- A Transatlantic Perspective on the Euro, 2000 paperback, editor euro as potential global currency
- Monetary Union, Employment and Growth: The Impact of the Euro as a Global Currency, edited by Pier Carlo Padoan. Edward Elgar Publishing 2001.
- Technology accumulation and diffusion: is there a regional dimension? by Pier Carlo Padoan, World Bank Publications. 1997
- Trade and the accumulation and diffusion of knowledge, by Pier Carlo Padoan, World Bank Publications. 1996
- Europe between East and South by Siro Lombardini and Pier Carlo Padoan. 1994
- Political Economy of European Integration: Markets and Institutions by Paolo Guerrieri and Pier Carlo Padoan. 1989
- Political Economy of International Co-Operation by Pier Carlo Padoan and Paolo Guerreri. 1988
- The Political Economy of International Financial Instability by Pier Carlo Padoan. 1986