Valerie Cerra is an Assistant Director and Division Chief of the European and Middle Eastern Division in the IMF’s Institute for Capacity Development (ICD). Prior to ICD, she was in charge of Colombia, Panama, and Venezuela in the Western Hemisphere Department and earlier worked in the African Department, the IMF Institute, the European Department, and the Asia and Pacific Department. She obtained undergraduate degrees in finance and engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Washington. Before graduate school, she was a financial analyst at a consulting firm in the U.S. Her research publications focus on international macroeconomics, exchange rates, financial crises, and growth. 

Latest Posts: 

• The Economic Scars of Crises and Recessions