Maximo Torero biography

Maximo Torero is the  Assistant Director General of the Economic and Social Development Department at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Prior to joining the FAO, Torero was World Bank Group Executive Director for Argentina, Bolivia, Chile Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. Previous to the World Bank, Torero led the Division of the Markets, Trade, and Institutions at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). His major research work lies mostly in analyzing poverty, inequality, importance of geography and assets (private or public) in explaining poverty, and in policies oriented towards poverty alleviation based on the role played by infrastructure, institutions, and on how technological breakthroughs (or discontinuities) can improve the welfare of households and small farmers. His experience encompasses Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia.

Torero received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), held a postdoctoral fellow position at the UCLA Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR), and is a professor on leave at the Universidad del Pacífico and an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at University of Bonn, Germany. He has won the World Award for Outstanding Research on Development given by the Global Development Network (GDN) twice.

To view Torero’s publications and working papers, visit Ideas webpage.