Paloma Lopez-Garcia

Paloma Lopez-Garcia is Director of the Institute for European Policymaking at Bocconi University. 

She is an economist with nearly 25 years of experience in central banking, spanning the Banco de España and the European Central Bank (ECB). Throughout her career, she has specialised in bridging economic research and policymaking, combining rigorous analytical work with direct policy engagement at both national and European institutions. Her work has focused on some of the key long-term challenges facing Europe, including productivity growth, innovation, competitiveness, climate change, and technological transformation.

Before joining Bocconi, she was Adviser in the Economics Directorate of the ECB, where she contributed to the analysis of long-term growth and structural policies in the euro area. She coordinated the ESCB expert group on productivity, innovation and technological change, a collaborative research network bringing together economists from 18 national central banks and the ECB, and previously coordinated the Competitiveness Research Network (CompNet), a leading European research network on productivity and competitiveness. 

Prior to the ECB, she spent ten years in the Research and Economics Department of the Banco de España. She obtained her PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics in 2003 under the supervision of Christopher Pissarides, recipient of the 2010 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Her research has been published in leading academic journals, and she has authored numerous policy reports on productivity, innovation, trade, competitiveness, labour markets, and the economic implications of climate change.