Public Debt and Investment Analysis

Giovanni Melina is currently serving as Deputy Division Chief of the Structural and Climate Policy division at the IMF's Research Department, advancing from his previous roles as Senior Economist in the African Department and Economist in the Research Department. His career spans both academia and international finance, including positions as Associate Professor at City University London and Research Fellow at the University of Surrey. With a PhD in Economics from Birkbeck, University of London, Melina has established himself as a leading voice in macroeconomic policy research, particularly focusing on fiscal and monetary policies, climate economics, and structural issues. His research portfolio includes significant contributions to understanding disaster-prone economies, green investments, and macroeconomic stabilization policies. His work has been widely published in prestigious journals, with notable papers on building resilience to natural disasters, fiscal policy effectiveness, and climate change adaptation. Melina's expertise extends to developing the IMF's analytical frameworks, including the DIGNAR model for debt sustainability analysis, and he has provided technical assistance to numerous countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. As a CESifo Research Network Fellow and multilingual expert fluent in English, Italian, and Spanish, he continues to shape global economic policy discussions, particularly at the intersection of climate change and macroeconomic development.

Luis-Felipe Zanna serves as Deputy Division Chief in the Institute for Capacity Development at the International Monetary Fund, where he has established himself as a leading expert in macroeconomic policy and development economics. After earning his PhD in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and degrees from Universidad de Los Andes, he built an impressive career spanning research and policy roles at the IMF and U.S. Federal Reserve Board since 2006. His research impact is evidenced through over 1,600 citations of his work on topics including public investment, debt sustainability, monetary policy rules, and aid management. As co-developer of the IMF's framework for analyzing aid surges in developing countries, he has significantly influenced how the institution approaches macroeconomic assessments of resource flows. Through his current role and research on automation, structural transformation, and fiscal policy rules, he continues to shape understanding of development economics while maintaining active engagement in capacity development through initiatives like the IMF's online course on Public Debt, Investment, and Growth.