Andrés Velasco, a former presidential candidate and finance minister of Chile, is Professor of Professional Practice in International Development at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. He has taught at Harvard University and New York University, and is the author of numerous studies on international economics and development.
Recent research makes clear that many factors affecting education outcomes have nothing to do with whether schools are public or private. So it makes sense to consider how to combine the virtues of bo… read more
Chile, which since 1981 has required citizens to save for retirement in individual accounts, managed by private administrators, is supposed to be the poster child for pension reform. Yet hundreds of t… read more
Precisely because populism – whether leftist or rightist – is ugly, menacing, and destructive, its growing strength calls for nuanced explanation. A weak grasp of causes would lead to poorly conceive… read more
Last week, Colombia’s civil war – the sole remaining armed conflict in Latin America – formally came to an end. With any luck, the era of the mountain guerrilla, the irate demagogue in green fatigues,… read more
Liberal democracy is humankind’s greatest political achievement, but liberal democrats around the world are reluctant to make the case for it. No wonder they are losing the battle for citizens’ hearts… read more
A new kind of Latin American leader – moderate, intellectually humble, and prone to gradualism – has been in ascendance since the 1990s. The elder statesman of this generation of pragmatists, Patricio… read more
Brazil is facing its biggest political crisis since the restoration of democracy in 1985. Unfortunately, the political leadership needed to pull the country out of its deep malaise is nowhere in sight… read more
In a largely dollarized world economy, the only certain tool for avoiding liquidity crises is a lender of last resort in dollars, and that lender is the US Federal Reserve. The sooner the US and the r… read more
The resemblance between Puerto Rico's debt problems and the situation in Europe is uncanny. The island and its leaders can learn three important lessons from the Greek crisis – first and foremost that… read more
