Bio
Andrew Powell is the principal advisor in the research department of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). He holds B.A., M.Phil. and D.Phil. degrees from the University of Oxford. He won the Deloitte Prize for the best economic papers in the B.A. and was Prize Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. He was then lecturer (associate professor) at the University of London and subsequently at Warwick University.
On moving to Buenos Aires, he became head of research (March 1995–June 1996) and then chief economist (June 1996–April 2001) of the Central Bank of Argentina, and represented Argentina in G20 meetings and many other international events. He was subsequently professor at the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires, until September 2005 and then joined the research department of the IDB. He moved to be the regional economic advisor for the Caribbean region at the IDB and then returned to the research department in November 2010 to take up his current position.
He has published numerous academic papers in leading economic journals on commodity markets, risk management, the role of multilaterals, regulation, banking and international finance. He was the coordinator of the Latin American and Caribbean Macroeconomic Report published by the IDB in March 2012 and March 2013, and contributed chapters to recent flagship reports such as More than Revenues (on taxation in Latin America and the Caribbean) and Beyond Facts (on quality of life issues). Current areas of interest include capital flows, credit ratings, the pros and cons of financial innovation, monetary and prudential policies, debt restructuring and the taxation of commodity industries. Most recent papers have focused on the dangers of capital inflow surges, sudden stops, inflation targeting and the long-run behaviour of commodity prices.