Santiago Levy, a Nonresident Senior Fellow with the Global Economy and Development Program at Brookings, is the Vice President for Sectors and Knowledge at the Inter-American Development Bank. From 1994 to 2000, he served as the Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit of Mexico.

He has held the following positions: General Director, Mexican Social Security Institute: Dec 2000–Oct 2005; President, Federal Competition Commission: Jun 1993–Dec 1994; Director, Deregulation Office, Ministry of Industry and Trade: Feb 1992–Jun 1993; Associate Professor of Economics (tenured), Boston University: Sept 1989–May 1993; Director, Institute for Economic Development, Boston University: Sept 1989- Aug 1990; Assistant Professor of Economics, Boston University: Sept 1983–Aug 1989; Visiting Researcher, Cambridge University: Jan-Dec 1981; Economics Professor, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México: Feb 1979-Dec 1982.

At the Social Security Institute he promoted changes to the Social Security Act to reform pensions and extend social security coverage to rural workers; was responsible for the provision of health services to 45 million people, introducing systematic preventive health programs and electronic medical records; managed pensions for 2.5 million people and day-care centers for 230,000 children; managed $8 billion in reserves; and collected annually $20 billion in social security contributions. At the Ministry of Finance he was the main architect of Progresa-Oportunidades, Mexico’s incentive-based health, nutrition and education program for the poor; managed the transition from generalized to targeted subsidies; promoted legal reforms to decentralize resources to states and municipalities; participated in the change of the pay-as-you-go to the capitalized pension system; promoted a regional plan to develop Mexico’s southern region; and drafted and negotiated six budgets with the Federal Congress. At the Deregulation Office he drafted the Economic Competition Act, and worked on the energy and telecommunications sectors. He was also the first president of the Federal Competition Commission, with authority over mergers and anticompetitive business practices.

Mr. Levy has received the following awards: First Place, National Research Prize in Economics, granted by Banco Nacional de México for his article “Poverty in Mexico”; First Place, Latin American Economics Prize, granted by El Trimestre Económico for his article “Multiple Exchange Rates and Foreign Exchange Rationing”. Mr. Levy has published three books, 19 articles in academic journals and 11 book chapters on economic development, budgetary and tax policy, trade policy reform, social policy, rural and regional development, competition policy, labor markets, and policies for poverty alleviation.

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