Francesco Giavazzi Becomes Mario Draghi's Economic Adviser

Economic Adviser in the Office of the President of the Council of Ministers: this is the new official position of Francesco Giavazzi, Senior Professor at Bocconi, where he is also Vice-President of the International Advisory Council. In this role Giavazzi is giving his contribution to the analysis and formulation of the PNNR, Italy’s National Plan for Recovery and Resilience. After receiving the approval of the European Commission, the PNNR will enable Italy to receive the funds of Next Generation EU and thus initiate the reforms that should warrant the development and growth of the country in the coming years.  

After graduating from the Milan Polytechnic in 1972, Giavazzi earned his PhD in Economics from MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he started his life-long friendship with Mario Draghi. They were in the same class, both were students of Franco Modigliani, Nobel Laureate for Economics.  

Professor Giavazzi’s contribution to the development of economic research is major, as the author of numerous highly regarded scholarly articles and books in collaboration with his recently deceased friend Alberto Alesina. Giavazzi played a key role in the inception of the IGIER Innocenzo Gasperini Institute for Economic Research, the research center born from the collaboration between Bocconi, CEPR and NBER in 1990. He was also Bocconi Dean for Research from 2001 to 2003.  

Parallel to his academic career as international researcher (he taught at Essex, Padua, Venice, Bologna and was MIT visiting professor from 1999 to 2008), Giavazzi was member of the Strategic Committee of the French Ministry of Economy and among the group of economic policy consultants for the two Presidents of the European Commission Romano Prodi and José Manuel Barroso. For two years, from 1992 to 1994, he was General Director of the Italian Treasury with responsibility for overseeing economic research and privatizations. He will now be economic adviser to Mario Draghi without receiving any salary or other form of compensation.