I teach economic growth and development strategies at Harvard Kennedy School and I am the director of Harvard’s Growth Lab, which wants to do for economic growth policy what teaching and research hospitals do for medicine: better treat "patients", we train future “doctors”, we do basic research, and we develop tools that allow others to apply our frameworks. Since establishing the Growth Lab in 2006, our team has undertaken over 50 research initiatives in over 30 countries. We have also developed theories, tools and frameworks that are used more broadly by the growth policy community. Our work has informed development policies, growth strategies, and diversification agendas at both national and sub-national levels.

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​I have had the privilege of publishing my work in some of the world's leading journals, including Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of International Economics and Journal of Development Economics. These publications have garnered over 50,000 citations and key findings from my research have been featured in prominent media outlets such as The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.

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Prior to joining Harvard University, I served as the first Chief Economist of the Inter-American Development Bank from 1994 to 2000, where I also established the Research Department. I was the Minister of Planning in Venezuela from 1992 to 1993 and a member of the Board of the Central Bank of Venezuela. Additionally, I held the position of Chair of the IMF-World Bank Development Committee. My academic journey includes serving as a Professor of Economics at the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administracion (IESA) in Caracas from 1985 to 1991, where I founded the Center for Public Policy. I hold a Ph.D. in economics from Cornell University.