Curriculum Vitae

Short Biography

Elsa Fornero is Honorary Professor of Economics at the University of Turin, Scientific Coordinator of CeRP - Center for Research on Pensions and Welfare Policies, the first center devoted to research on pensions in Italy, which she started in 1999.
Her current positions include:

• Member of the Board of Directors of Cintia (Centro interuniversitario Netspar Italy);
• Honorary Fellow of Collegio Carlo Alberto;
• Research Fellow of Netspar - Network for Studies on Pensions, Aging and Retirement;
• Vice-President of the Observatoire de l'Epargne Europèenne;
• Member of the Advisory Group New Pact for Europe (Brussels).
• Member of the Research Committee of the OECD International Network on financial Education (INFE);
• Policy Fellow, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn;
  

She is the author of many publications about public and private pension systems, pension reforms, population aging, household saving, retiring choices and life insurance. She has been an op-ed writer for the Italian economic daily Il Sole-24 ore.On behalf of the World Bank, in the early 2000s, she assessed the pension systems of Russia, Latvia, Macedonia and Albania.

From September to November 2015 she was visiting fellow at the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), New School for Social Research, New York.
She served as Minister of Labor, Social Policies and Equal Opportunities in Italy's "technocratic" government (16 Nov. 2011- 28 April 2013) and in this capacity conceived and drafted the pension reform and labor market reform (approved by Parliament at the end of 2011 and mid 2012 respectively) that, by altering the medium and long term structure of Italian public finance and labor market, were fundamental to the subsequent lifting of the EU excessive deficit procedure against Italy and to a process of long term rebalancing of economic relationships between generations, from the middle aged to the younger ones.
An account of 16 months in Government
Sintesi dei lavori svolti in sedici mesi di governo

Past positions

• Member of the Steering Board of the Italian Associations of Economists (2005-7);
• Member of the Steering Committee of the Doctoral Program in Economic Sciences at the University of Turin;
• Member of the PhD Program in Social Protection Policy at the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance (University of Maastricht);
• Vice-President of Compagnia di San Paolo, one of the largest Italian foundations (2008-2010);
• Vice-President of the Supervisory Board of Intesa Sanpaolo Bank (2010-2011);
• Member of the Evaluation Unit of Welfare Expenditure, established at the Welfare Ministry (2005-11);
• Member of the board of directors of the Turin Opera House.

Research areas

Social security, Public and private pension systems, pension reforms, labour market, population aging, households saving, retiring choices and life insurance. More recently, financial literacy and financial education.

Awards

• (jointly with Ignazio Musu), Saint Vincent Price for Economics in 2001;
  
• (with Olivia Mitchell), INA International Prize for the Economics, Finance and Statistics of Private Insurance by the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in 2003;
  
• "La Mela d'Oro / Women: innovation and human capital" prize by the Marisa Bellisario Foundation, in 2011;
  
• Tarantelli prize for AspI, (the Social Insurance for Employment scheme, one of the pillars of the labour market reform), selected as best economic idea of the year by "Il Club dell'Economia" and the "Liberal Award" by the Swiss "Young Liberals", both in 2013.

July 2017

EF 2021