Jamele Rigolini is a Lead Economist in the World Bank’s Latin America and the Caribbean Region. His areas of expertise include social protection, human development, labor markets, innovation and economic growth. Prior to joining the World Bank he was an Assistant Professor in Economics at the University of Warwick (UK), where he taught classes on development economics and economic growth. He also worked for the Inter-American Development Bank, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and McKinsey & Co. At the World Bank, he spent four years working in the East Asia and the Pacific’s social protection unit, where he managed cross-sectoral lending projects and advisory activities. In 2010 he moved to the Office of the Chief Economist of the Latin America and Caribbean region, where he managed the yearly thematic Flagship Reports, and maintained a close dialogue with other International Organizations, Latin American academics and Think Tanks. He is currently in charge of the World Bank’s Human Development activities in the Andean countries. Jamele Rigolini holds a Diploma in Physics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich, and a PhD in Economics from New York University. In addition to his policy work he remains active in research and has published in leading academic journals including the Journal of Public Economics, the Journal of Development Economics, Economics & Politics, Economic Letters and World Development. He is fluent in Italian, French, English, Spanish and German.

He joined IZA as a Research Fellow in November 2011.