Carola Pessino

Carola Pessino

Carola Pessino is Principal Technical Leader of the IDB's Fiscal and Municipal Management Division. She is also the division's knowledge coordinator and leads several fiscal strengthening programs in countries in the region, especially associated with improving efficiency and equity in spending and taxation. Carola holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago. She was Secretary of Fiscal Equity under the Chief of Cabinet of Ministers (with the rank of Minister) in Argentina and member of the Economic Council of Advisors to the Minister of Finance of Argentina from 1996 to 1999. During her tenure in government, she designed and implemented major projects, including the Social Work and Social Security System, federal co-participation in taxes, and the design, implementation, and management of the first integrated information system for tax and social purposes (SINTyS) in Latin America. She was director of the Economics Department at the Universidad del CEMA, professor at the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, professor at Duke University, and visiting professor at Yale University. She is the author of dozens of academic papers on fiscal issues, both in public spending and national and subnational taxation, labor and social economics, and tax equity, especially in Latin America, and is co-editor of the IDB's flagship publication Better Spending for Better Lives.