Andrés Velasco

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Andrés Velasco

Andrés Velasco Brañes (b. August 30, 1961) is an economist and professor, who currently serves as the Finance Minister of Chile, a position he has held since March 2006.

The son of Eugenio Velasco and Marta Brañes, Velasco was born in Santiago, where he lived until the age of 16. Following the exile of his father in 1977, the whole family moved to the US, first to Los Angeles and then to Boston. He holds a PhD in Economics from Columbia University. He took post-doctorate studies at Harvard University and at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Earlier, he obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and Philosophy at Yale University, and a Master in International Relations at the same university. He is Sumitomo-FASID professor of Development and International Finance at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Velasco during the ceremony of assumption as Finance Minister of Chile in March 2006

In February 2006, Velasco received the Award for Excellence in Research granted by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), in recognition for his contributions to economic research, the design of policies, and the creation of research institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Velasco has been director of the New York University Center for Latin-American and Caribbean Studies and assistant professor at Columbia University Department of Economics and Public Affairs. He was Chile’s Ministry of Finance Chief of Staff between 1990 and 1992, International Finance coordinator between 1992 and 1994, and NAFTA negotiator in 1995.

Between 2001 and February 2006 Velasco was an associate researcher at the Corporation for Latin-American Research (Cieplán) and president of the board of Corporación Expansiva. He has also been a consultant for the International Monetary Fund, the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, and for the governments of the Dominican Republic, Mexico and El Salvador.

Velasco is married to journalist Consuelo Saavedra and is the father of Rosa and Ema.

[edit] Books

• Trade, Development and the World Economy: Selected Essays of Carlos Díaz-Alejandro. A. Velasco, Editor. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1988. [1]
• Vox Populi (novel). Santiago: Editorial Sudamericana, 1995.
• Lugares Comunes ("Common Places" / novel). Santiago: Editorial Planeta, 2003.
• Free Trade and Beyond: Prospects for Integration in the Americas. A. Estevaordal, D. Rodrik, A. Taylor and A. Velasco (eds.). Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004.