Headshot of Ricardo Hausmann

Ricardo Hausmann

Founder and Director, Harvard’s Growth Lab

Rafik Hariri Professor of the Practice of International Political Economy, Harvard Kennedy School

Ricardo Hausmann is the founder and Director of Harvard’s Growth Lab and the Rafik Hariri Professor of the Practice of International Political Economy at Harvard Kennedy School. Under his leadership, the Growth Lab has grown into one of the most well regarded and influential hubs for research on international development.

His scholarly contributions have had a significant impact on the study and practice of development. These include the development of the Growth Diagnostics and Economic Complexity methodologies, as well as several widely used economic concepts, such as Dark Matter, Original Sin, and Self-discovery. His work has been published in some of the top journals in the world, including ScienceJournal of Development EconomicsJournal of International EconomicsProceedings of the National Academy of SciencesJournal of International Money and FinanceEconomic Policy and the Journal of Economic Growth, among many others. These publications have been cited more than 42,000 times, and their main findings have been highlighted in mass media outlets such as The New York TimesThe Financial TimesThe EconomistThe Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.

Since launching the Growth Lab in 2006, Hausmann has served as principal investigator for more than 50 research initiatives in nearly 30 countries, informing development policy, growth strategies and diversification agendas at the national and sub-national levels.

Before joining Harvard University, he served as the first Chief Economist of the Inter-American Development Bank (1994-2000), where he created the Research Department. He has served as Minister of Planning of Venezuela (1992-1993) and as a member of the Board of the Central Bank of Venezuela. He also served as Chair of the IMF-World Bank Development Committee. He was Professor of Economics at the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administracion (IESA) (1985-1991) in Caracas, where he founded the Center for Public Policy. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Cornell University.

Featured work

Book

Sparking Europe’s new industrial revolution: A policy for net zero, growth and resilience

This book assesses what must be done to implement industrial policy in a way that will achieve overarching goals while minimising distortions.

Philippe Aghion, Ketan Ahuja, Chad P. Bown, Uwe Cantner, Chiara Criscuolo, Antoine Dechezleprêtre, Mathias Dewatripont, Ricardo Hausmann, Guy Lalanne, Ben McWilliams, Dani Rodrik, Simone Tagliapietra, Alessio Terzi, Cecilia Trasi, Laura Tyson, Reinhilde Veugelers, Georg Zachmann and John Zysman