Ana Revenga

The Brookings Institution, Global Economy and Development Program, Non-Resident Senior Fellow

Georgetown University, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Adjunct

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I am a labor and poverty economist, interested in all issues linked to inequality, employment, gender, globalization and trade. Currently the chair of the Board of ISEAK, a foundation for the study of social policies based in Bilbao. I also serve on the boards of BBVA Group, the BBVA Foundation and the BBVA Microfinance Foundation. I am a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution. My professional career has spanned a variety of assignments at the World Bank, including the positions of Deputy Chief Economist and Senior DIrector for Poverty. Dog and nature lover.

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World Bank

World Bank

The University of Dodoma, Tanzania

Ali Alper Alemdar

St. Francis College (NY)

Alexander Armesto Arenas

Universidad Francisco de Paula Santander

Peter Hazell

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Papers by Ana Revenga

Avoiding the Eye of the Storm : How to Deal Effectively with Job Crises

Although economic crises are difficult to predict, their recurrence is a salient feature of emerg... more Although economic crises are difficult to predict, their recurrence is a salient feature of emerging market economies. Nevertheless, many developing countries continue to lack an effective policy infrastructure that can mitigate the impacts of economic downturns on employment opportunities without affecting long-term growth prospects. This was painfully highlighted by the hasty reactions implemented by many countries in response to the global downturn of 2008-09, and by the ad hoc and reactive nature of many of the policies implemented. The weak ability of governments to systematically foresee, monitor, and offset adverse labor market impacts of economic downturn is of particular concern in developing countries where poverty incidence is high and labor is typically the only asset for the majority of the population. The main objectives of this note are: 1) to highlight the need for policies that limit earnings volatility; 2) to guide policy makers through the challenges inherent in c...

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Is it really possible for countries to simultaneously grow and reduce poverty and inequality? Going beyond global narratives

Global narratives underscore that economic growth can often coincide with reductions in poverty a... more Global narratives underscore that economic growth can often coincide with reductions in poverty and inequality. However, the experiences of several countries over recent decades confirm that inequality can widen or narrow in response to policy choices and independent of economic growth. This paper analyses five country cases, Brazil, Cambodia, Mali, Peru and Tanzania. These countries are the most successful in reducing inequality and poverty while growing robustly for at least a decade since the early 2000 s. The paper assesses how good macroeconomic management, sectoral reform, the strengthening of safety nets, responses to external shocks, and initial conditions all chip away at inequality and support broad growth. Sustained and robust economic growth with strong poverty and inequality reductions are possible across very different contexts and policy choices. The comparative analysis also identifies common building blocks toward success and warns that hard-earned achievements can ...

The Constraints that Bind (or don’t): Integrating Gender into Economic Constraints Analyses

Exporting Jobs? The Impact of Import Competition on Employment and Wages in U. S. Manufacturing

This paper investigates the effect of increased import competition on U. S. manufacturing employm... more This paper investigates the effect of increased import competition on U. S. manufacturing employment and wages, using data for a panel of manufacturing industries over the 1977–1987 period. The empirical analysis uses previously unavailable industry import price data and an instrumental variables estimation strategy. The estimates suggest that changes in import prices have a significant effect on both employment and wages. The dramatic appreciation of the dollar between 1980 and 1985 is estimated to have reduced wages by 2 percent, and employment by 4.5–7.5 percent on average in this sample of trade-impacted industries.

Dismantling the myth of the growth-inequality trade-off

Conventional economic wisdom has long maintained that there is a necessary trade-off between purs... more Conventional economic wisdom has long maintained that there is a necessary trade-off between pursuit of the efficiency of a system and any attempts to improve equity between participants within that system. Economist Robert Lucas demonstrated the implications of this common economic axiom when he wrote: “Of the tendencies that are harmful to sound economics, the most seductive, and in my opinion the most poisonous, is to focus on questions of distribution [...] the potential for improving the lives of poor people by finding different ways of distributing current production is nothing compared to the apparently limitless potential of increasing production.” (Lucas, 2004) Indeed, many economists have suggested that too little inequality or too generous a distribution of benefits may undermine the individual’s incentive to work hard and take risks. Setting aside the harsh rhetoric used by Lucas, the practical and ethical acceptability of such a trade-off is debatable. Moreover, evidenc...

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Estabilización y reforma en los países de Europa del Este y la antigua Unión Soviética: el papel de las políticas de rentas

Relación entre el crecimiento económico y la tasa de empleo

Credibility and Inflation Persistence in the European Monetary System

Pedro Martinez Mendez: TIpos de interes, impuestos e inflaci6n. 9202 Victor Garcia-Vaquero: Los f... more Pedro Martinez Mendez: TIpos de interes, impuestos e inflaci6n. 9202 Victor Garcia-Vaquero: Los foodos de inversi6n en Espana. 9203 Cesar Alooso and Samuel Bentolila: The relationship between investment and tabiD's Q in Spanish industrial firms. (The Spanish original of this publication has the same number.) 9204 Cristina Mazcin: Margenes de beneficio, eficiencia y poder de mercado en las empresas espai'ioias. 9205 Cr istina Mawn: El margen precio-coste marginal en la encuesta industrial: 1978-1988. 9206 fo'emando Restoy: Intertemporal substitution. risk aversion and short term interest rates. 9207 Femando Restoy: Optimal portrolio policies under time-dependent returns. 9208 Femando Restoy and Georg Michael Rockinger: Investment incentives in endogenously grow ing economies.

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Is Smart Economics Women Empowering

Salários, desigualdade e integração internacional

A crescente economia mundial cria oportunidades ou representa uma ameaca para os trabalhadores do... more

Credibilidad y persistencia de la inflación en el sistema monetario europeo

Rising food prices : Policy options and World Bank response

Tackling Income Inequality: What Works and Why?

Journal of Income Distribution®

This article reviews the most recent and relevant evidence on key domestic policy interventions t... more This article reviews the most recent and relevant evidence on key domestic policy interventions that are effective in reducing income inequality in developing countries, the benefits they generate, the choices that need to be made regarding their design and implementation, and the trade-offs that are associated with them. It focuses on a few policy areas in which there is a sufficient body of rigorous evidence to draw useful lessons with confidence: early childhood development, including breastfeeding; universal health care; good-quality education; conditional cash transfers; Investments in rural infrastructure; and taxation. The review concludes that there are many pathways to reducing inequality, from narrowing gaps in income generation opportunities to narrowing the potential for inequalities in human capital development before the inequalities emerge, smoothing consumption among the most deprived, and Redistribution in favor of the poor. Many interventions are simultaneously ass...

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«Consultas sagradas» en atención primaria: ¿qué suponen para el personal médico?

Atención Primaria

Grow, Invest, Insure: A Game Plan to End Extreme Poverty by 2030

Policy Research Working Papers

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

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Women's Work

Scientific American

Employment and Wage E ects of Trade Liberalization: The Case of Mexican Manufacturing

La liberación económica y la distribución de la renta: la experiencia española

Moneda Y Credito, 1991

Potenciar a la mujer es un enfoque económico inteligente: la eliminación de las disparidades de género beneficia a toda la población, no solo a las mujeres y a las niñas

Finanzas Y Desarrollo Publicacion Trimestral Del Fondo Monetario Internacional Y Del Banco Mundial, 2012

Estabilización y reforma en los países de Europa del Este y la antigua Unión Soviética: el papel de las políticas de rentas

Boletin Economico Banco De Espana, 1993

Avoiding the Eye of the Storm : How to Deal Effectively with Job Crises

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