Pedro Rosas Bravo
Pedro Rosas Bravo is an economist with ample experience in the public sector. He worked many years at the Central Bank of Venezuela, where he held the position of Vice-president of Macroeconomic and Monetary Studies. He is an expert in banking regulations and both national and international operations of a central bank. He has been deputy-minister of Economic Planning, and was Minister of Finance in the second government of Carlos Andres Perez (1989-1993). He was also previously economics professor in the Andres Bello Catholic University and Central University of Venezuela. He served as a formal member of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Venezuela (1991-1992).
Rosas received his Degree in Economics (cum laude) from the Andres Bello Catholic University, Venezuela, and Master of Science in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics, joint programme between the London School of Economics(LSE) and University of East Anglia, England.
Francisco Monaldi
Francisco J. Monaldi was a Visiting Professor of Public Policy and Fellow of the Geopolitics of Energy Project and the Environment and Natural Resources Program at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
He is also Non-Resident Fellow at the James Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University and Full Professor (on leave) at the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administracion (IESA) in Caracas, Venezuela. He is the Founder and Director of IESA’s Center on Energy and the Environment.
Ugo Panizza
Ugo Panizza is the Professor of Economics and Pictet Chair in Finance and Development at the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. He is also the head of the Department of International Economics and Deputy Director of the Center for Finance and Development.
Panizza has been a Visiting Professor at the Institute since 2008, a position he held in addition to being the Chief of the Debt and Finance Analysis Unit at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. He is the Director of the Center for Finance and Development, Director of the International Centre for Monetary and Banking Studies (ICMB), Vice President and Fellow of CEPR, Fellow of the Fondazione Einaudi, and Editor-in-Chief of International Development Policy.
Previously, he worked at the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank, alongside holding teaching and research posts at the American University of Beirut and the University of Turin. Professor Panizza’s research interests include international finance, sovereign debt, banking, and political economy. He has extensive work and research experience in Latin America and the Middle East and North Africa.
Pankhuri Prasad
Pankhuri joined the Growth Lab as a Research Assistant in 2021. She graduated cum laude from the University of California, San Diego in 2020 with a BA in Economics and International Studies-Political Science. Prior to the Growth Lab, Pankhuri interned at the Centre for Effective Governance of Indian States where she analyzed the infrastructure of Telangana as part of the Socio-Economic Outlook report. As an undergraduate, she explored her interest in South Asia through a project measuring the effects of social media on elections in India and an internship with the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs at the US Department of State. She is interested in further exploring research areas such as economic complexity, migration, and spatial economics.
Ekaterina Vashkinskaya
Ekaterina is a Policy Fellow at the Growth Lab Research Collaboration at LSE, where she’s working on advanced applied research and supporting the Government of South Africa in its formulation of policies to accelerate economic growth and inclusion. She joined Harvard’s Growth Lab as an Economic Analysis and Data Management Fellow in 2021 and worked on analyzing Kazakhstan’s and UAE’s macro outlook and identifying structural economic problems to inform public policy in the countries.
She graduated with a Master’s degree in Quantitative Economics and Econometrics from The University of Chicago and holds a summa cum laude Bachelors’ degree in Economics from the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE) in Moscow. At UChicago, her work focused on the public policy implications of the research on the intersection of macroeconomics and development. For her MA thesis, she studied whether policymakers in the developing world can exacerbate the undesired economic consequences of private debt booms with their monetary and fiscal interventions.
Before joining the Growth Lab, she was involved in different research projects spanning from macroeconomics to education. Ekaterina served as a Research Intern at several international laboratories at HSE, where she was carrying out economic research in the fields of Institutional Economics and Monetary Economics. She also worked as a Research Assistant at Sciences Po, where her work focused on Political Economy applications for development. Throughout her employment, she got experience evaluating and writing about international and local development and economic policies aimed at academic productivity, innovation activity, and economic stability.
Her research interests include macroeconomic and development policies aimed at growth’s promotion, together with firm dynamics and economic growth in the EMDEs.
Sophia Henn
Sophia joined the Growth Lab as a Research Assistant in 2021 and is now a Research Analyst. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2021 with a BA in Economics and Peace Studies. As an undergraduate, she conducted research on the implementation of intrastate peace agreements in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, agricultural development policies in Rwanda, and education decisions of remittance-receiving households in Mexico.
Her research interests include economic complexity, post-conflict development and governance, and machine learning applications in the social sciences.
Nidhi Rao
Nidhi Rao joined the Growth Lab as a Research Assistant in 2021. She graduated summa cum laude from Tufts University in 2020 with a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations (with a concentration in development economics) and Spanish. She received highest honors on her senior thesis where she analyzed intergenerational shifts in occupational satisfaction and career priorities for Mexican-American migrants living in the US. This research stemmed from her interest in migration and diasporas, given her transient upbringing moving from Shanghai, Baltimore, New Delhi and Mumbai.
Prior to joining the Growth Lab, she interned in various development organizations spanning India, Spain, and Washington DC, from non-profits to the World Bank Group, focusing on work related to migration, education, and public-private partnerships. Most recently, Nidhi worked in a management consulting role at Simon-Kucher & Partners, where she analyzed healthcare related data to consult for clients in the life sciences industry on market access.
She speaks English, Hindi, Kannada, and Spanish fluently and enjoys playing the piano, ukulele and flute in her free time.
Bob Bridges
Bob Bridges is the Finance and Operations Associate for Growth Lab, managing the many travel logistics and unusual financial obstacles the fellows and staff members of the Growth Lab encounter. Bob has worked at Harvard for over 20 years.
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology from Northeastern University and enjoys camping, hiking, skiing, and bad movies.
Meghana Mungikar
Meghana joined Harvard’s Growth Lab as a Research Fellow in 2021.
Meghana’s background is in economic development and impact evaluations. Prior to joining the Growth Lab, she worked as a Senior Associate at IDinsight’s New Delhi office. At IDinsight, she worked on evaluations across several sectors including agriculture, sanitation, and education with partners in the national government, local governments, and other non-profit organizations. While in grad school, she worked with the Research Institute for Compassionate Economics on public health in India. She also co-authored a graduate policy report on a solar-agriculture integration policy being implemented in Rajasthan, India.
Meghana holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics with Honours from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Delhi University and a Master’s degree in Public Affairs with a focus on international development from Princeton University.
Her research interests include growth diagnostics, political economy of energy and environmental policy, and inclusive economic development.
Sarah Bui
Sarah Bui joined the Growth Lab as a Research Assistant in 2021. She graduated from University of California, Berkeley with a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Economics and Policy and Environmental Science. Throughout her undergraduate, she conducted multiple research projects in different fields from microbiology to geographic information systems, before solidifying her interest in economics. For her senior thesis, she studied the impacts of multi-million dollars bridges constructions on air pollution in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam.