Pier Carlo Padoan

Pier Carlo Padoan (born 19 January 1950) is an Italian economist who served as Minister of Economy and Finance of Italy from 2014 to 2018.

Padoan was born in Rome on 19 January 1950.

In the 1970s, he graduated in economics at the La Sapienza University in Rome.

During his years at the University, Padoan criticised in the magazine Marxist Critic the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes, being influenced by the ideas of the Polish economist Michał Kalecki.

Padoan edited or authored 14 books and papers, from 1986 until 2010, with titles in English as follows:

From 1992 until 2001, he also was professor at the College of Europe, Bruges and Warsaw, and a visiting professor since 2001.

He was also a visiting professor at Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, University of Urbino, Italy, Universidad de la Plata, Argentina, and University of Tokyo, Japan.

He has published in the field of European economics and political economy.

From 1998 until 2001, Padoan served as economic adviser to Italian Prime Ministers Massimo D'Alema and Giuliano Amato during EU budget negotiations like Agenda 2000, and the Lisbon Agenda, at summits of the European Council and the G8.

Padoan was director of the International Monetary Fund for Italy from 2001 to 2005.

Padoan was an International Monetary Fund official from 2001 to 2005 as the Italian executive director and as board member in charge of European coordination.

He is a consultant to the World Bank, European Commission and European Central Bank, where he has called for aggressive easing.

During that period, he criticized budget cutbacks in the euro zone's weakest economies, struggling with debt, which he has called periphery countries.

On 1 June 2007, he became Deputy Secretary General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Until 2007, he was Professor of Economics at the Sapienza University of Rome.

Padoan served as deputy secretary general at the OECD in Paris between 2007 and 2014, taking on the additional role of the organisation's chief economist in 2009.

He was the OECD's G20 Finance Deputy, leading the initiatives 'Strategic Response', 'Green Growth' and 'Innovation'.

On 19 February 2014, Matteo Renzi chose Padon as Italy's new Minister of Economy and Finance.

In a letter to the Juncker Commission's Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs Pierre Moscovici in late 2014, Padoan and the finance ministers of the euro zone's other biggest economies – Michel Sapin of France and Wolfgang Schäuble of Germany – urged the European Commission to draw up EU-wide laws to curb corporate tax avoidance and prevent member states from offering lower taxes to attract investors, calling for a comprehensive anti-BEPS (Base Erosion and Profit Shifting) directive for member states to adopt by the end of 2015.

Also during his time in office, Padoan implemented the Italian government’s 2015 plan to clean up over €200 billion in non-performing loans from the balance sheets of the country’s banks.

On 12 December 2016, when Renzi resigned as prime minister after the constitutional referendum, Padoan was confirmed again as finance minister by the new Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni.

In June 2016, he was also elected chairman of the Party of European Socialists’ Finance Ministers Network.

Padoan often stated that the very tight fiscal rules which Europe currently has in place could be temporarily relaxed in order to make the necessary resources available to boost employment.

He also oversaw the 2017 bailout of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Veneto Banca, and Banca Popolare di Vicenza.

Padoan joined the Democratic Party and ran in the 2018 Italian general election in March for the constituency of Siena, where he was elected, defeating the League economic advisor Claudio Borghi.

In 2020, the Conte II Cabinet of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte nominated Padoan as Italy's candidate for the election of president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development; Padoan later pulled out of the race when Odile Renaud-Basso emerged as the front runner for the position.