Xavier Sala-i-Martín

"An economic system that, in a matter of two hundred years, has ensured that the average family lives in conditions that the kings of the past would have qualified as luxury is certainly prodigious. Well, that is precisely what the free-market system has done."

Xavier Sala-i-Martín is recognized as one of the world's leading experts on innovation and competitiveness, and a world authority on economic development. In 2003 he created the Global Competitiveness Index (published annually by the World Economic Forum), which evaluates this capability in all countries worldwide and suggests growth strategies to governments and business leaders.

He has been a consultant to governments, international financial institutions and entrepreneurs around the planet who use the index to evaluate and design future competitiveness policies for their nations and companies.

He is currently Professor of Economics at Columbia University. Prior to this, he taught at Yale and Harvard, and was a research fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) in London. He studied Economics in Barcelona and completed his PhD at Harvard University.

Thanks to his professional experience, his advice —on the effects of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, competitiveness, innovation, employment generation, education, ethical and social implications— are highly valued by politicians and industrialists doing business in volatile markets, making him one of the most influential economists of our time.

He is the author of several books including Economic Growth (with Robert Barro), Economía en colores, and La invasión de los robots, as well as dozens of academic articles published in leading scientific journals.