Felipe Larraín Bascuñán is a Chilean economist, academic and former

Minister of Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

under

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Sebastián Piñera Miguel Juan Sebastián Piñera Echenique OMCh (; born 1 December 1949) is a Chilean billionaire businessman and politician who served as president of Chile from 2010 to 2014 and again from 2018 to 2022. The son of a Christian Democratic polit ...

from 2010 until 2014 and again from 2018 until 2019.

Early life

Larraín's parents are Vicente Larraín Izquierdo and Marta Bascuñán Lazcano. His first studies were carried out in San Ignacio School and Tabancura School in Santiago de Chile. Between 1976 and 1980 he went to college at the

Pontifical Catholic University of Chile The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (''PUC or UC Chile'') ( es, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile) is one of the six Catholic Universities existing in the Chilean university system and one of the two pontifical universities i ...

where he obtained a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

(Economics) in 1981. In 1981 Larraín was admitted to the Economics Ph.D Program at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

. He completed his Ph.D. dissertation in 1985, with the title “Essays on the Exchange Rate and Economic Activity in Developing Countries."

Professional life

Larraín began his professional academic career at Pontifical Catholic University of Chile by lecturing courses in Macroeconomics,

Economic History Economic history is the academic learning of economies or economic events of the past. Research is conducted using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and the application of economic theory to historical situations and i ...

and

Econometrics Econometrics is the application of statistical methods to economic data in order to give empirical content to economic relationships. M. Hashem Pesaran (1987). "Econometrics," '' The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 2, p. 8 p. 8 ...

. After a few years, he was appointed Full-Time Professor in the same institution. Between 1985 and 1986 he worked as a consultant for the Monetary and Fiscal Authorities in Bolivia and

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

. In the same period, he participated as a consultant for the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

. These activities lasted until 1988. In the 90's Larraín was part of the team of economists from the World Bank who advised the transition of

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...

Countries to a modern market economy. He also worked as an economic adviser for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...

, and as a consultant for the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

, ECLAC, IBD and the

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster glo ...

Minister of Finance

Larraín was one of the main members of the Tantauco group that won the elections in 2009 with

as presidential candidate. After their triumph, Larraín became

and Chief of the Economic Team in the Piñera Administration. His mandate started on March 11, 2010. During his administration, Larraín's work was noticeable because of the successful plan to come up with resources to carry out the reconstruction after a devastating earthquake destroyed a huge amount of infrastructure in February 2010, a few days before the start of the Pinera administration. In 2012, he proposed and successfully approved in the Congress a Tax Reform to inject additional resources to the Education Budget and to fund the Pension Reform from the previous administration. One of the most praised accomplishments during Larraín's mandate was the creation of more than one million jobs during the Piñera administration. The

Gross Domestic Product Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is oft ...

expanded at one of the highest rates in the world in years when the

European Debt Crisis The European debt crisis, often also referred to as the eurozone crisis or the European sovereign debt crisis, is a multi-year debt crisis that took place in the European Union (EU) from 2009 until the mid to late 2010s. Several eurozone membe ...

slowed the economic activity all around the globe.

Other activities

* Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2018–2019) *

Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) is an international financial institution which offers political risk insurance and credit enhancement guarantees. These guarantees help investors protect foreign direct investments against ...

(MIGA),

World Bank Group The World Bank Group (WBG) is a family of five international organizations that make leveraged loans to developing countries. It is the largest and best-known development bank in the world and an observer at the United Nations Development Gr ...

, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2018–2019) *

, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2018–2019)

Recognition

Larraín has received several awards. In 1980, he was awarded the Raul Yver Oxley Prize to the best graduating student in Economics from his class. In 2002, he was chosen as the Commercial Engineer of the Year by his peers in Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. In October 2010, Larraín was named the Finance Minister of the Year by ''

Emerging Markets An emerging market (or an emerging country or an emerging economy) is a market that has some characteristics of a developed market, but does not fully meet its standards. This includes markets that may become developed markets in the future or wer ...

''. In January 2011, he was elected the Finance Minister of the Year for America by the British newspaper ''

The Banker ''The Banker'' is an English-language monthly international financial affairs publication owned by ''The Financial Times'' Ltd. and edited in London, United Kingdom. The magazine was first published in January 1926 through founding Editor, Bren ...

''.

Selected works

* ''Chile: A developed nation'', Aguilar, forthcoming, 2007. * Sachs, Jeffrey and Larraín, Felipe. ''Macroeconomics in the Global Economy'' Prentice Hall, 1993.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Larrain Bascunan, Felipe 1958 births Living people Politicians from Santiago Chilean people of Basque descent 20th-century Chilean economists Ministers of finance of Chile Pontifical Catholic University of Chile alumni Harvard University alumni Felipe 21st-century Chilean economists