He has been a Full Professor of Economics at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile since 1996 and is currently the Director of the Latin American Center for Economic and Social Policies at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (CLAPES UC). He is President of the Network of Think Tanks of the Americas (CEPAS) and a member of the United Nations Sustainable Development Leaders Council.

He served as Chile’s Minister of Finance from 2010 to 2014 and again from 2018 to 2019.

He has been recognized as the Best Finance Minister in Latin America (2010) and Best Finance Minister of the Americas (2010, 2018) by prestigious international publications (The Banker, Latin Finance, América Economía). In 2015, he was also named one of the 100 most influential global leaders by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

In 2019, he led the issuance of the first sovereign green bond in the Americas, which was recognized by multiple publications and organizations as the best of its kind that year. In 2018, he founded and led the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action, which today includes over 100 member countries. He also served as Vice President of the OECD Annual Ministerial Meeting in Paris in 2012.

He was a Visiting Full Professor at the Robert F. Kennedy Chair in Latin American Studies at Harvard University (1997–1999). He has served as an economic advisor to 15 governments and has extensive experience as a consultant to multiple international organizations (IDB, World Bank, CAF, IMF, UN).

He is the editor and author of 23 books and more than 140 academic publications, including his most recent works Macroeconomics (MIT Press, 2020) and The Economics of Contemporary Latin America (co-author, MIT Press, 2018). His book Macroeconomics in the Global Economy (Pearson, 1993, 2002, and 2013), co-written with Professor Jeffrey Sachs, has been translated into 10 languages, including German, Chinese, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Russian.

In his academic work, he has supervised over 100 under graduated and graduated theses. He has also served on the boards of various companies and nonprofit institutions (foundations, sports clubs) in Chile, Latin America, the United States, and Europe.

He holds a Master’s and PhD in Economics from Harvard University and a Commercial Engineering degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.