Interview with Antonio Spilimbergo, the Research Department's New Deputy Director

• Pages: 13-15

IMF RESEARCH perspectives | IMF.org/researchbulletin 13

Interview with

ANTONIO

SPILIMBERGO

The Research Department’s

New Deputy Director

A passionate researc her  and

linguist — Antonio tells us in t his

interview with Christina Kolerus

how he manages to balance

academic rigor and challenging

eld experien ce. He has published

in leading academic journals,

including the American Economic

Review and the Revie w of Economic

Studies, on topics r anging from

macroeconomics and development

economics to international trade and

political economy.

After nine exc iting years as mission

chief of Slovenia, It aly, Russia, Turkey

and Brazil, Anton io is returning to

the Research Department.

CHRISTINA: Antonio, you have had

a very interes ting career at the Fund

with incredibl y broad research and

publications, f rom the economics of

education to po pulism and, of course,

trade. Before hear ing more on this, let

me ask you, have you always wan ted

to be an economist ?

ANTONIO: Actu ally, since high

school, I have been ver y interested in

linguistic s. In my free time I often read

books on linguis tics, most recently on

the theory of s yntax — an abstruse but

fascinating s ubject. A few linguist s

in academia are kind en ough to help

me when I have a doubt. The y call

me “a linguist in disguise.”