José De Gregorio Rebeco (born August 17, 1959) is a Chilean economist, academic, researcher, consultant and politician. He has been the Governor of the Central Bank of Chile, Minister of the Economy, Mining and Energy during the administration of

Ricardo Lagos Ricardo Froilán Lagos Escobar (; born 2 March 1938) is a Chilean lawyer, economist and social-democratic politician who served as president of Chile from 2000 to 2006. During the 1980s he was a well-known opponent of the Chilean military dic ...

and is currently the Dean of the School of Economics and Business of the

Universidad de Chile The University of Chile ( es, Universidad de Chile) is a public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843.

. He is also a nonresident Senior Fellow at the

Peterson Institute for International Economics The Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), known until 2006 as the Institute for International Economics (IIE), is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It was founded by C. Fred Bergsten in 1981 and has been led by ...

Biography

He is the son of José De Gregorio Aroca, who was Secretary General of the Christian Democratic Party during the governments of

Eduardo Frei Montalva Eduardo Nicanor Frei Montalva (; 16 January 1911 – 22 January 1982) was a Chilean political leader. In his long political career, he was Minister of Public Works, president of his Christian Democratic Party, senator, President of the ...

Salvador Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (, , ; 26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 3 November 1970 until his death on 11 September 1973. He was the fir ...

, and even for some time in hiding under the regime of Augusto Pinochet, and of María Rebeco Castro, professor, who was the Headmistress of the Liceo Nº1 Javiera Carrera for girls. In 1984, he married Soledad Aninat and they have 4 children. Ben Bernanke y José De Gregorio

Studies

He completed his primary and secondary school studies at the Luis Campino Institute of Humanities in

Santiago de Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

. He then studied Industrial Engineering at the

, going on to study a Masters in Industrial Engineering from the same university, where he received the "Marcos Orrego Puelma" award for the best graduate of his promotion. He obtained his Doctorate (Ph. D.) in Economics in 1990 from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

(MIT) in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. His doctoral thesis was entitled "Essays in Economic Fluctuations, Inflation and Financial Innovation".

Ministerial and Central Bank Positions

From 1994 to 1997 De Gregorio worked in the

Ministry of Finance A ministry of finance is a part of the government in most countries that is responsible for matters related to the finance. Lists of current ministries of finance Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Finance (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Finance and Ec ...

as coordinator of Macroeconomic Policies during the management of Eduardo Aninat, replacing his predecessor Joaquín Vial. In 2000, he was appointed by the newly elected President

as Minister of the Economy and Mining, as well as Minister of the National Energy Commission (CNE), assuming as tri-minister on March 11th of that year, on the same day that Lagos took over as President of Chile. He left the ministries in June 2001 to serve as an advisor to the

Central Bank A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the currency and monetary policy of a country or monetary union, and oversees their commercial banking system. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central b ...

, after overcoming José Pablo Arellano and Ricardo Ffrench-Davis in an unofficial internal competition. In that institution he held the position left by Pablo Piñera, brother of President

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 ...

, who did not complete his term after leaving as Director of the public television channel. Therefore, De Gregrorio´s position had to be confirmed twice by the Senate: the first time for six months and the second time for ten years. In 2003, he assumed the vice president of the Central Bank.

Central Bank Governor

In December 2007, he was appointed by President

Michelle Bachelet Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria (; born 29 September 1951) is a Chilean politician who served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2018 to 2022. She previously served as President of Chile from 2006 to 2010 and 2014 to 201 ...

as Chairman of the Board of the Central Bank of Chile, replacing

Vittorio Corbo Vittorio Corbo Lioi (born 22 March 1943) is a former Governor of the Central Bank of Chile, who held the post since May 2003 until December 2007. His main challenge in assuming as president of the issuing institution was to stop the advance of inflation. The shock derived from the greater international value of food and energy meant that, in mid-2008, the established inflation goal of 2-4% per year was long exceeded, standing at 9.5% in the 12 months to July. To combat this situation, the Central Bank began to drastically raise its interest rates (called the Monetary Policy Rate), with the well-known risks of lower growth that this decision implied. This policy had to be abruptly modified in the face of the global economic crisis unleashed at the end of the third quarter of that year. De Gregorio was responsible for presiding over the Central Bank during the global financial crisis, following an aggressive monetary policy. The monetary policy rate was cut from 8.25% at the end of 2018 to 0.5% in July 2009, being the largest rate reduction in Latin America. New instruments were also designed to provide liquidity and a forward guidance policy was also carried out, once the interest rate reached its minimum. While he was president of the Central Bank, he was also the governor of Chile at the IMF and participated in the IMFC (International Monetary and Financial Committee) in 2010 and 2011.

Academic work

De Gregorio has published widely in international academic reviews and books on issues including stabilization policies, foreign exchange regimes and economic growth. He has served as a referee for several academic journals and is an associate editor with the journals ''International Tax and Public Finance'' and ''Latin American Economic Review''. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (Lacea) and was co-director of the organizing committee for the annual Lacea meeting in 1999. De Gregorio is a full professor at the

University of Chile The University of Chile ( es, Universidad de Chile) is a public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843.

(on leave). In 1997 and 2000 he was professor and head of post-graduate programs at the Center of Applied Economics at the University of Chile, where he has taught macroeconomics and international economics since 1994. He also served on the executive of the Latin American Doctoral Program in Economics, carried out jointly by

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

’s ITAM,

Torcuato di Tella University The Torcuato Di Tella University (''Universidad Torcuato Di Tella'', commonly referred to as UTDT or La Di Tella) is a non-profit private university founded in 1991. Located Buenos Aires, Argentina, it is focused primarily on social sciences. The ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, and the

University of Chile The University of Chile ( es, Universidad de Chile) is a public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843.

. He is a non-resident senior fellow of the Peterson Institute of International Economics (PIIE). He is also a member of the Latin American Committee on Macroeconomic and Financial Issues (CLAAF). He was also a part-time professor at the Pontifical Catholic University between 2003 and 2011, and a visiting professor at the Anderson School of Management at the University of California – Los Angeles (UCLA), where he was teaching when he was appointed Minister by President Lagos. He has published more than 100 articles in international academic journals and books on the topics of monetary policy, exchange rates, international finance, and economic growth; and has served as an arbitrator and member of editorial committees of various academic journals. One of his most important articles is "How Foreign Direct Investment Affects Economic Growth", published in the Journal of International Economics in 1998, written with Eduardo Borensztein and Jong-Wha Lee. For several years now, he has been the best ranking academic in publications and citations in Latin America and in the top 5% globally in the Ideas Repec bibliographic base. ().

Other contributions

He is a founding partner and director of Espacio Público and Chairman of the Sovereign Funds Investment Committee of the Ministry of Finance. He was a member of the Committee on International Economic Policy and Reform of the Brookings Institution, and on the Steering Committee of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA). He is also part of the

MIT Sloan The MIT Sloan School of Management (MIT Sloan or Sloan) is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT Sloan offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree programs, as ...

Latin America Advisory Council. He was a member of the High Commission on Academic Hierarchy at Diego Portales University and part of the Group of Trustees of the Principles for Stable Capital Flows and Fair Debt Restructuring of the Institute of International Finance. He was an economist in the Research Department of 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 ...

(IMF) during 1990 and 1994 and a consultant to international organizations such as 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 ...

, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and 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 ...

. Between 1983 and 1986 he was a Researcher for the Corporation of Studies for Latin America (CIEPLAN) of the United Nations. 2016- 2018: Chairman of the Senior Council, CEBRA, Central Bank Research Association. 2011: President of the Consultation Council for the Americas (CCA) of the

Bank for International Settlements The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is an international financial institution owned by central banks that "fosters international monetary and financial cooperation and serves as a bank for central banks". The BIS carries out its work thr ...

. He is part of various directories and also advises companies on economic and financial matters. Thinking Although he has defined himself as liberal in the economic field, but conservative in his values system (he is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

), others consider him, above all, a pragmatic economist who has followed the line of his mentor, Rudiger Dornbusch, one of the most important economists in the area of international macroeconomics of the second half of the 20th century and mentor to various global economic authorities and leading academics. During the difficult years between 1998 and 1999, he was critical of the policies of the Central Bank, since he was in favor of a different combination of policies with a lower interest rate and a more flexible exchange rate. He was also critical of the proposed labor reform shortly before the election of

, being contrary to the idea of inter-company negotiation.

Awards and honors

* “Marcos Orrego Puelma” for the best graduate student of his Civil Engineering promotion at the

, 1984. * “Outstanding Industrial Engineer” delivered by the Industrial Civil Engineers Corporation (ICI), Universidad de Chile, 2008. * “Central Banker of the year in Latin America for 2008”,

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 ...

London. * “Central Banker of the year in Latin America for 2008”, Emerging Markets, Istanbul, 2009. * “Economists of the year” by the newspaper

El Mercurio ''El Mercurio'' (known online as ''El Mercurio On-Line'', ''EMOL'') is a Chilean newspaper with editions in Valparaíso and Santiago. Its Santiago edition is considered the country's newspaper of record and it is considered the oldest daily in ...

, 2011. * “Monetary Club Award”,

Universidad Finis Terrae Universidad Finis Terrae ( en, Finis Terrae University) (UFT) is a Chilean university. It is a private autonomous institution in Santiago de Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as w ...

2011, inaugural prize. * “To the Engineer for Distinguished Actions”, Institute of Engineers of Chile, 2012.

Books

* MF Reform: The Unfinished Agenda, co-authors: Barry Eichengreen, Takatoshi Ito, and Charles Wyplosz, Geneva Reports on the World Economy 20, CEPR Press, 2018. * How Latin American Weathered the Global Financial Crisis, Peterson Institute of International Economics, 2014. * Macroeconomía. Teoría y Políticas, Pearson Educación, Prentice-Hall, 2007. * An Independent and Accountable IMF, co-authors: Barry Eichengreen, Takatoshi Ito, and Charles Wyplosz, Geneva Reports on the World Economy 1, CEPR Press, 1999.

References

External links

* Wikimedia Commons hosts a multimedia category abou
José De Gregorio
*

*
Presentation in English as president of the Central Bank
{{DEFAULTSORT:De Gregorio, Jose Presidents of the Central Bank of Chile Chilean Ministers of Economy Christian Democratic Party (Chile) politicians 1959 births Living people MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences alumni Chilean Ministers of Mining Peterson Institute for International Economics 21st-century Chilean economists 20th-century Chilean economists