Nora Lustig

Nora Lustig

Bio

Nora Lustig is the President of the Universidad de las Americas-Puebla, Mexico. Previously Dr. Lustig was the Senior Advisor and Chief of the Poverty and Inequality Unit at the Inter-American Development Bank. She was a Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution and was Professor of Economics with the Center of Economic Studies at El Colegio de Mexico in Mexico City. She was also a Visiting Researcher Scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1982 and a Visiting Professor at the University of California, Berkeley in 1984.

Nora Lustig was co-director of the World Bank’s World Development Report 2000/2001 “Attacking Poverty”. She was also co-founder and President of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA) between 1998-99, and is currently co-director of the LACEA Network on Inequality, Poverty and Economic Mobility. She is a non-Resident Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution and a Senior Associated Fellow of the Inter-American Dialogue. Lustig is a member of the Board of the World Institute on Development Economics Research (WIDER), of the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health at the World Health Organization, and of the Group of Experts at the International Labor Office. All these affiliations are honorific in nature.

As a researcher, Nora Lustig has concentrated in the field of development economics, with particular emphasis on: the determinants of poverty and inequality; labor markets and living standards; economic crises, adjustment costs and social protection as well as public policies for poverty reduction. Lustig has also done research in the area of economic integration and the implications of NAFTA. Her work has largely focused on Latin America.

During her career, Lustig has participated in and directed a wide array of research projects. A sample of her recent publications includes: (editor) Shielding the Poor, (IDB and Brookings Institution, 2000); Mexico: The Remaking of An Economy, Second Edition (Brookings Institution, 1998); co-edited with Sebastian Edwards, Labor Markets in Latin America. Combining Social Protection with Market Protection (Brookings Institution, 1997); co-edited with Barry Bosworth and Susan Collins, Coming Together? Mexico-U.S. Relations (Brookings Institution, 1997); (editor), Coping with Austerity: Poverty and Inequality in Latin America (Brookings Institution, 1995), translated into Spanish and published as El Desafío de la austeridad: pobreza y desigualdad en América Latina, (Fondo de Cultura Económica, El Trimestre Económico No. 86, 1997). Her book entitled Mexico: The Remaking of an Economy received Choice Magazines 1994 Outstanding Book Award.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Nora Lustig has also lived in Mexico and the United States. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Academic Background

Ph.D. in Economics, University of California, Berkeley. May 1979. Thesis: "Distribution of Income, Structure of Consumption and Economic Growth: The Case of Mexico."
Master of Arts in Economics, University of California, Berkeley. December 1974
Bachelor of Arts in Economics, University of California, Berkeley. Distinction in General Scholarship.December 1972

Areas of Expertise

Development Economics: economy wide country studies (Mexico); measurement and analysis of poverty and income distribution; and, social policy analysis.
International Economics: economic integration issues (NAFTA). Region/Country of specialization: Latin America/Mexico.

Present Position (s)

President of the University of the Americas-Puebla, Mexico

Previous Position (s)

Senior Advisor and Chief, Poverty and Inequality Unit, Social Programs and Sustainable Development Department, Inter-American Development Bank, September 1, 1997 – September 30, 2001
Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, (1993-1997), Visiting Fellow, 1989-1993. Since September 1997, Non-resident Senior Fellow (ad honorem)
Professor, Center of Economic Studies, El Colegio de México, Mexico City, January 1975 -
August 1991 (on sabbatical leave: 1989; on unpaid leave of absence: 1990-1991).
Academic Coordinator of the Masters Program in Economics, El Colegio de México, Mexico City, 1975 - 1976 and 1986 - 1988
Visiting Professor, Department of Natural Resources and Agricultural Economics, Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley, January 1984 - June 1984
Visiting Scholar, Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, April 1982; and September-December 1982.

Other Activities and Memberships

Deputy Director and, subsequently, Director, World Development Report 2000/1 “Attacking Poverty”, World Bank
Prime organizer, founding member and subsequent President of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA). (1992-1999)
Prime organizer of Economia. The Journal of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association, published by The Brookings Institution
Co-organizer of a series of dialogues and forums such as the Social Equity Forum; the Washington Exchange (jointly with Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Inter-American Dialogue); the US-Mexican Forum (jointly with the Inter-American Dialogue); the LACEA/IDB/WB Research Network on Inequality and Poverty
Consultant to the World Bank. Participated in the team and co-author of the document The Mexican Crisis: Lessons for the World Bank, prepared at the request of the Quality Assurance Group, office of the President, World Bank. (February - March 1996)
Consultant to the Executive Vice-President of the Inter-American Development Bank and Coordinator of the Inter-Institutional Group (IDB/World Bank/CEPAL) of the joint project Improving the Surveys on Living Conditions in Latin America and the Caribbean." (MECOVI) (1994-1996)
Consultant for the Mexican government: Secretariat of Budget and Programming, Mexican Food System, and Secretariat of Commerce and Industrial Promotion. (1977-1988; not on a continuing basis)
Economic Commission for Latin America Mexico City, Mexico (1985)

Memberships

Member of the World Health Organization Commission on Macroeconomics and Health since January 2000
Member of the International Labor Office’s Experts Advisory Group since January 2000
Founding member and past president of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA)
Member of the Advisory Panel for the Human Development Report 1999
Member of the Board of the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU/WIDER), since January 1998
Associated Fellow of the Inter-American Dialogue, since July 1995
Member of the External Advisory Committee/Research Centers Network Project, Inter-American Development Bank, 1995
Member of the Academia Mexicana de Economía Política. since 1995
Member of the American Economic Association, since 1995
Member of the CEO Institutes Board of Advisors, 1995
Member Academy of Scientific Research, Mexico (by invitation), since 1987
Member of the Board of Advisors of the Latin American Advisor newsletter, published by the International Advisory Council Inc., since mid 1994

Recent Publications

Books and Edited Volumes

(editor) Shielding the Poor. Social Protection in the Developing World, Brookings Institution and the Inter-American Development Bank, 2000
(co-editor with Mauricio Cárdenas) Pobreza y desigualdad en América Latina, (Poverty and Inequality in Latin America) Tercer Mundo. S.A., Santafé de Bogotá, 1999
Mexico: The Remaking of an Economy, 2nd ed. The Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., 1998
(co-editor with Sebastian Edwards) Labor Markets in Latin America. Combining Social Protection with Market Flexibility, Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C.,1997
(co-editor with Barry Bosworth and Susan Collins) Coming Together? Mexico-U.S. Relations, Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C. 1997
(editor) Coping with Austerity. Poverty and Inequality in Latin America, Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., 1995
Spanish edition: El desafío de la austeridad: pobreza y desigualdad en la América Latina, El Trimestre Económico, Mexico, DF, 1997
Mexico: The Remaking of an Economy, The Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., 1992.
Spanish edition: México: hacia la reconstrucción de una economía, El Colegio de México, México, DF, 1994
(co-editor with Barry Bosworth and Robert Lawrence) North American Free Trade: Assessing the Impact, The Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., 1992. Spanish translation: Economía Mexicana, Special Issue, CIDE, Mexico, June 1993
(co-editor with Carlos Bazdresch, Nisso Bucay, and Soledad Loaeza) México: Auge, crisis y ajuste, (Mexico: Economic Boom, Crisis, and Adjustment) Vols. I, II, III; Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico City, Mexico, 1993
(co-editor with Roberto Bouzas) Liberalización Comercial e Integración Regional: de NAFTA a MERCOSUR, (Trade Liberalization and Regional Integration: From NAFTA to MERCOSUR) Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO), GEL, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1992
(with Jaime Ros), Stabilization and Adjustment Policies and Programs. Country Study 7: Mexico, WIDER, Helsinki, Finland, March 1987
Distribución del ingreso y crecimiento en México. Un análisis de las ideas estructuralistas, (Distribution of Income and Growth in Mexico. An Analysis of Structuralist Hypotheses) El Colegio de México, 1981
(Editor), Panorama y Perspectivas de la Economía Mexicana, (Panorama and Perspectives of the Mexican Economy) El Colegio De México, México, 1980.

Articles

“Life is not Easy: Mexico’s Quest for Stability and Growth,” Journal of Economic Perspectives (forthcoming)
“Crises and the Poor: Socially Responsible Macroeconomics,” LACEA’s Presidential Address, Economia, The Journal of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association, Brookings Institution (forthcoming)
Pobreza y desigualdad: un desafío que perdura Revista de la CEPAL, October 1998
(with Jaime Ros) Las reformas económicas, las políticas de estabilización y el síndrome mexicano.
Desarrollo Económico Revista de Ciencias Sociales. Vol. 37, No. 148, Enero-Marzo 1998
NAFTA: Setting the Record Straight. The World Economy Vol. 20, Issue 5, August 1997. Also, appeared in Sven Arndt and Chris Milner, eds., The World Economy, Global Trade Policy 1997. Blackwell Publishers, ltd. Oxford, UK, 1998
Mexico in Crisis, the U.S. to the Rescue: The Financial Assistance Packages of 1982 and 1995. UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs. Vol. 2, No. 1, Spring/Summer 1997. In Spanish. Los Estados Unidos al rescate: la asistencia financiera a México en 1982 y 1995.
La medición de la pobreza en México: El origen de las discrepancias. Una nota metodológica, (Measuring Poverty in Mexico: the Origin of Discrepancies. A Methodological Note) El Trimestre Económico vol. LXIII, No. 251, July-September 1996
"Prospects for Growth and the Environment In Mexico in the 1990s," with Jaime Ros, et al, in World Development Vol 24, No 2. February 1996
"México y La Crisis Del Peso: Lo Previsible y La Sorpresa," (The Mexican Peso Crisis: The Foreseeable and the Surprise) Comercio Exterior, vol 45, no. 5, May 1995
(with Ann Mitchell) Poverty in Mexico: The Effects of Adjusting Survey Data for Under-Reporting, Estudios Económicos, Vol. 10, No.1, January-June, 1995, Mexico
"El futuro de la política comercial en América Latina," (The Future of Trade Policy in Latin America) América Latina/Internacional, Vol. 1, No. 2, 1994
"Medición de la pobreza y de la desigualdad en la América Latina. El emperador no tiene ropa." (Measuring poverty and inequality in Latin America: the emperor has no clothes) El Trimestre Económico, No. 241, 1994
"La medición de la pobreza en México," (Measuring poverty in Mexico) El Trimestre Económico, No. 236, October-December 1992
The North American Free Trade Agreement: A Mexican Perspective," in SAIS Review, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 57-67 (Winter-Spring 1992)
(with Robert Devlin) "El Plan Brady, un año después," (The Brady Plan a year later) in Comercio Exterior, Vol. 40, No. 4, pp. 295-302, April 1990
“Economic Crisis, Adjustment and Living Standards in Mexico: 1982-1985,” in World Development, Vol. 18, No 10, pp 1325-1342, 1990. In Spanish, "Crisis económica y niveles de vida en México: 1982- 1985," (Economic crisis and living standards in Mexico: 1982-1985) Estudios Económicos, vol. 2, no. 2, 1987
"Seis versiones sobre las causas de la crisis mexicana de
1982: Barker y Brailovsky (1983), Bazdresch (1983), García A. y Serra P. (1984), Ize y Ortiz (1985), Ros (1986) y Taylor (1985)." (Six versions of the Mexican crisis) El Trimestre Económico, No. 224, 1989
"Fiscal Cost and Welfare Effects of the Corn Subsidy Scheme in Mexico," The Southwestern Review, vol. 4, no. 2, Summer 1985
(with Antonio Martín del Campo), "El sistema CONASUPO,"(The CONASUPO system) Investigación Económica, No. 173, July-September 1985
"Un análisis de políticas de consumo alimentario en equilibrio parcial y equilibrio general," (An analysis of food consumption policies in partial and general equilibrium frameworks) Demografía y Economía, El Colegio de México, vol. 18, no. 2, 1984
"Characteristics of Mexican Economic Growth: Empirical Testing of Some Latin American Structuralist Hypotheses," Journal of Development Economics, vol. 10, 1982. Also published in Portuguese: "Caracteristicas de crescimento económico Mexicano: Teste empirico de algunas hipoteses estructuralistas," Pesquisa e Planejamento Económico, vol. 10, no. 2, August 1980, Brazil
"Distribución del ingreso y consumo de alimentos," (Income distribution and food consumption in Mexico) Demografía y Economía, vol. 10, no. 2, 1980
"Algunos aspectos teóricos sobre la distribución del ingreso,"(Some theoretical aspects of income distributionanalysis) Demografía y Economía, vol. 10, no. 3, 1975

Articles in Books

(with Nancy Birdsall and Lesley O’Connell) “The United States and the Social Challenge in Latin America: the New Agenda Needs New Instruments” in Albert Fishlow and James Jones, eds., TheUnited States and the Americas. A Tweintieth Century View, W.W. Norton and Co., New York, 1999
(with Miguel Szekely), Tendencias Ocultas en la Desigualdad y la Pobreza en México. (Hidden Trends in Inequality and Poverty in Mexico) in Maurico Cárdenas S. and Nora Lustig , eds. Pobreza y Desigualdad en América Latina (Poverty and Inequality in Latin America) Tercer Mundo. S.A., Santafé de Bogotá, 1999
(with René Cortazar, and Richard Sabot) Economic Policy and Labor Market Dynamics. in Nancy Birdsall, Richard Sabot, Carol Graham, eds., Beyond Trade Offs: Market Reform and Equitable Growth in Latin America. Inter-American Development Bank and Brookings Institution Press, Washington, DC, 1998
(with Darryl McLeod) Minimum Wages and Poverty in Developing Countries: Some Empirical Evidence. Labor Markets in Latin America. Combining Social Protection with Market Flexibility. Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C.,1997
México, de crisis en crisis. México: Transición Económica y Comercio Exterior. Banco Nacional de Comercio Exterior, S.N.C., Mexico, D.F. 1997
Mexico, Reforma Económica y Globalización,(Mexico, Economic Reform and Globalization) in Estrategias económicas para el nuevo milenio: Globalización con justicia social. (Economic Strategies for the New Millennium: Globalization with Social Justice) Fundación Colosio, A.C., Mexico City, 1997
Failing to Take Off: Mexicos Economic Saga in Toru Yanagihara and Susumu Sambommatsu, eds. East Asian Development Experience. Economic System Approach and Its Applicability. Institute of Developing Economies, Tokyo, 1997
Mexico: Social Spending and Food Subsidies during Adjustment in the 1980s, Nora Lustig, ed. Coping with Austerity. Brookings, Brookings,Washington, DC, 1995
Crisis de la Deuda, Crecimiento y Desarrollo Social en América Latina Durante Los Años Ochenta, (The debt crisis, growth and social development in Latin America during the 1980s) in José Luis Reyna, ed. América Latina a fines de siglo. Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico, 1995
"The Future of Trade Policy in Latin America," with C.A. Primo Braga in Sidney Weintraub, ed., Integrating the Americas: Shaping Future in Trade Policy, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, 1994, pp. 17-43
"NAFTA: Potential Impact on Mexico's Economy and Beyond," in Roberto Bouzas and Jaime Ros (eds.), Economic Integration in the Western Hemisphere, University of Notre Dame Press, 1994
"The National Solidarity Program as a Poverty Reduction Strategy in Mexico," in Wayne Cornelius, Ann L. Craig, and Johnathan Fox (eds.), Transforming State-Society Relations in Mexico: The National Solidarity Strategy, Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego, 1994
"Equity and Development", in Osvaldo Sunkel (ed.), Development From Within: Toward a Neostructuralist Approach for Latin America, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder, Colorado, 1993
"Políticas de Estabilización, Nivel de Actividad, Salarios Reales y Empleo (1982-1988)", (Stabilization policies, economic activity, real wages, and employment in Latin America) in Jaime Ros (ed.) La Edad de Plomo del Desarrollo Latino Americano, Fondo de Cultura Económica, México, 1993
(with Jaime Ros) "Mexico", Lance Taylor (ed.), The Rocky Road to Reform: Adjustment, Income Distribution and Growth in the Developing World, MIT Press, 1993
"Equity and Growth in Mexico," in Simón Teitel (ed.) Towards a New Development Strategy for Latin America: Pathways from Hirschman's Thought, Inter-American Development Bank, Washington D.C., 1992. In Spanish: "Equidad y Desarrollo," in Sunkel, O., El desarrollo desde dentro: Un enfoque neoestructuralista para la América Latina, Fondo de Cultura Económica, México, 1991
Mexico's Open Economy Strategy and the North American Free Trade Agreement, Roberto Bouzas and Nora Lustig eds. Liberalización Comercial e Integración Regional: de NAFTA a MERCOSUR, Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO), GEL, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1992
"México: Un recuento del ajuste en los años ochenta," (Mexico: an account of the adjustment process in the 1980s) Fundación CEDEAL, México: Evolución Macroeconómica Financiación Externa y Cambio Político en la Década de los 80, Fundación CEDEAL, Madrid, 1992
"La desigual distribución del ingreso y la riqueza en México," (The unequal distribution of income and wealth in Mexico) in R. Cordera y C. Tello (eds.), La Desigualdad en México, Siglo XXI, México, 1984
"From Structuralism to Neostructuralism: The Search for a Heterodox Paradigm." in Meller, Patricio (ed.) The Latin American Development Debate,Westview Press. In Spanish: "Del estructuralismo al neo-estructuralismo: la búsqueda de un paradigma heterodoxo, Colección Estudios CIEPLAN, no. 23, Chile, 1988
"Distribution of Income, Food Consumption and Alternative Policy Options," in Pedro Aspe and Paul Sigmund, eds., The Political Economy of Income Distribution in Mexico, Chap. 14, Holmes and Meier, 1984
"Impactos distributivos de las políticas del sistema alimentario Mexicano en un marco de equilibrio general," (Distributive impacts of the Mexican Food Systems policies) Banco de México, Distribución del ingreso. Ensayos, Section 2, vol. 3, México: November, 1982.

Working Papers and Reports

(with Cesar Bouillon and Arianna Legovini) “Rising Inequality in Mexico: Returns to Household Characteristics and the ‘Chiapas’ Effect,” Inter-American Development Bank (forthcoming)
(with Miguel Szekely) Economic Trends, Poverty and Inequality in Mexico, Inter American Development Bank publication no. POV-103. (with Ruthanne Duetsch) The Inter-American Development Bank and Poverty Reduction: An Overview, (El Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo y la reducción de la pobreza: Visión general) Inter-American Development Bank publication no. POV-101-R, May 1998
(with Darryl McLeod) Minimum Wages and Poverty in Developing Countries: Some Empirical Evidence, Brookings Discussion Papers in International Economics no. 125. June 1996
Mexico in Crisis; the U.S. to the Rescue. Did History Repeat Itself Brookings Discussion Paper, June 1996
The Mexican Peso Crisis: The Foreseeable and the Surprise, Brookings Discussion Papers in International Economics no. 114. June 1995
Towards a balanced approach to adjustment, Social Reform and Poverty: Towards a Comprehensive Agenda for Development, Proceedings of the forum on Social Reform and Poverty, Inter-American Development Bank and United Nations Development Programme, 1993
NAFTA and its Impact to Intra- and Extra- Countries, IIES Seminar Series 9303, March 1993
"Poverty in Mexico: An Empirical Analysis," Kellogg Institute for International Studies, Working Paper 188, January 1993
(with Roberto Bouzas) "Apertura Económica, Integración Subregional y la Iniciativa Para Las Américas," FLASCO Serie de Documentos e Informes de Investigación, July 1992
"Poverty indices and poverty orderings: An application to Mexico," Brookings Discussion Papers in International Economics, No. 85, The Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., January 1991
"The Mexican Economy in the Eighties: An Overview," Problems of Developing Countries in the 1990's, Vol, II, World Bank Discussion Paper No. 98, pp. 71-95 (1990)
(with Lance Taylor, "Mexican Food Consumption Policies in a Structuralist CGE Model." Chapter 2 in Lance Taylor ed., Socially Relevant Policy Analysis - Structuralist Computable General Equilibrium Models for the Developing World, Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT Press, 1990
"The Impact of Economic Crisis on Living Standards in Mexico: 1982-85," Brookings Discussion Papers in International Economics, No. 75, The Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., July 1989
"Stabilization and Adjustment in Post-1982 Mexico: Are There Signs of Export-Led Growth?" Centro de Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Working Paper No. 11-1988, 1988
Estudio comparativo del contexto macroeconómico y de las políticas sectoriales y sus efectos para el desarrollo industrial: Brasil, Corea, España y Turquía," (A comparative study of the macroeconomic context and sectoral policies, and their impact on industrial developmet: Brazil, Korea, Spain, and Turkey) El Colegio de México/UNIDO-SECOFI, unpublished report, November 1988
"Política económica, comportamiento del comercio exterior y restructuración industrial en México," (Economic policy, evolution of foreign trade, and industrial restructuring in Mexico) El Colegio de México/UNIDO-SECOFI, unpublished report, September 1988
"Mexico: Size and Impact of Nontransfer Expenditures," Centro de Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Working Paper No. 9-87, 1987
"Food Subsidy Programs in Mexico," Working Papers on Food Subsidies, No. 3, IFPRI, Washington, D.C., No. 3, January 1986
"Direct and Indirect Measures to Ensure Access to Food Supplies," World Food Security: Selected Themes and Issues, FAO, no. 53, Rome, 1985

Current Research Projects

“The Microeconomics of Income Distribution Dynamics: East Asia and Latin America,” joint with Francois Bourguignon, DELTA and World Bank, and Francisco Ferreira, Pontificia Universidade Catolica, Rio, Brazil

Current Research Projects

“The Microeconomics of Income Distribution Dynamics: East Asia and Latin America,” joint with Francois Bourguignon, DELTA and World Bank, and Francisco Ferreira, Pontificia Universidade Catolica, Rio, Brazil

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