Pier Carlo Padoan

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.

Fiscal politics

"I am of the view 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. This would be self-sustaining ..."

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 (Base Erosion and Profit Shifting) directive for member states to adopt by the end of 2015.

Italian government debt

The Italy Government Debt to GDP has reached 132.6% at the end of 2015 up from the 128.8% of December the 31th 2013.

Memberships

Publications

Padoan edited or authored 14 books and papers, from 1986 until 2010, with titles in English as follows: