Francesco Giavazzi is Professor of Economics at Bocconi University, and a regular visiting professor at MIT. He is a Research Fellow and a Trustee of CEPR, a member of the Strategic Committee of Agence France Trésor, and of the Group of Economic Policy Advisers to the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso. During 2004 he was the Houblon-Norman Fellow at the Bank of England. During the D´Alema government (1998-2000) he was a member of the Council of Economic Advisers to the Italian prime minister. He was Director General of the Italian Treasury responsible for debt management and privatizations from 1992 to 1994. From 1991 to 1999 he was an editor of the European Economic Review. He graduated in electrical engineering from the Politecnico of Milan in 1972 and obtained a PhD in economics from MIT in 1978.