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I am a research scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (www.iiasa.ac.at) in Laxenburg, Austria. My career as economist with the United Nations Secretariat began in Chile in 1978 and ended in New York in 2004, with intermediate postings to Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico and Brazil. Before that I was an economist with the Canadian Department of Finance and a consultant to the National Planning Office of the Government of Costa Rica. I have taught graduate and undergraduate courses and have published widely in academic journals.

Hobbies & Interests:
I enjoy theatre, concerts and cooking, but my passion is policy-oriented research.

My wife, Ligia, is an anthropologist employed many years by the US office of American Field Service (AFS US) to support student exchanges between the USA and other countries. She now works occasionally for AFS International as a consultant. We have two sons. Our oldest, Christopher, is senior lecturer (economics) at the University of Victoria. British Columbia. Our youngest, Andrew, is resident physician (emergency medicine) at the University of Ottawa.

• Social Security and Pensions
• Central America
• Export Processing Zones
• Intra-Industry Trade
• Transnational Corporations

• UN World Economic and Social Survey 2007: Development in an Ageing World
• UN World Public Sector Report 2005: Unlocking the Human Potential for Public Sector Performance
• New UN Report on Global Taxes (August 2004, PDF-178KB)
• Global Taxes (UN-June 2001)
• Policy Pathways to Health in the Russian Federation (IIASA)
• Pension Reforms
• Chris Willmore's blog
• Arch Ritter's Page
• Susan St John's Page
• Horst Prillinger's Guide to Vienna

• Thought du Jour Archive 2003 (TXT-472KB)
• Thought du Jour Archive 2004 (TXT-195KB)
• Thought du Jour Archive after 2004

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• A Universal Pension for Sri Lanka (slides for presentation at launch of HelpAge report in Colombo, 26 November 2008, PDF-489KB) new
• Basic Education as a Human Right Redux (for presentation to a conference in Ljubljana, 26 July 2008, PDF-204KB)
• Universal Age Pensions (slides for presentation to the ILO course "Strategies for the Extension of Social Protection", Turin, Italy, 29 November 2007, PDF-528KB)
• Universal Age Pensions: The Example of Mauritius" (slides for presentation to the ILO course "Strategies for the Extension of Social Protection", Turin, Italy, 29 November 2007, PDF-369KB)
• Universal Old Age Pensions for China (slides for a talk given at the Institute of Population Research, Peking University, 21 October 2007, PDF-377KB)
• Universal Pensions for Developing Countries (published in World Development, January 2007, PDF-804KB)
• Pensiones No-Contributivas para Eliminar Pobreza en la Vejez (slides for presentation in Spanish to the Academia de Centroamerica, 15 February 2007, PDF-322KB)
• Non-Contributory Pensions: Bolivia and Antigua in an International Context (ECLAC/CEPAL Serie Financiamiento del Desarrollo No. 167, May 2006, PDF-303KB)
• Universal Age Pensions in Developing Countries: The Example of Mauritius (forthcoming in International Social Security Review, October 2006, PDF-389KB) - available on request
• A Brief Economic History of the World, 8000 BC to 2000 AD (IIASA workshop, 24 October 2005, PDF-32KB)
• Public Sector Performance, Prestige and Promotion (October 2005, PDF-460KB)
• Citizen Participation and Pro-Poor Budgeting (United Nations, New York, 2005, PDF-890KB)
• The Comparative Performance of Foreign and Domestic Firms in Brazil, April 1986, PDF-548KB
• Basic Education as a Human Right, ECONOMIC AFFAIRS (Blackwell Publishing, Oxford), December 2004, PDF-83KB
• Population Ageing and Pay-As-You-Go Pensions, AGEING HORIZONS (Oxford Institute of Ageing), Issue 1, June 2004
• The Citizen's Pension (January 2004, PDF-7KB)
• Money Illusion and Dollarisation (April 2001, PDF-102KB)
• Has Democracy Gone Too Far? (October 2003, PDF-10KB)
• The High Cost of Public Schools (May 2002, TXT-7KB)
• Central America Intra-Industry Trade I (1972, PDF-1236KB)
• Central America Intra-Industry Trade II (1974, PDF-1534KB)
• Central America Intra-Industry Trade III (1978, PDF-872KB)
• Brazil I: Foreign Control and Concentration (1986, PDF-2352KB)
• Brazil I: Statistical Appendix (1986, XLS-94KB)
• Brazil II: Model of Structure, Conduct, Performance (1987, PDF-1081KB)
• Brazil III: Technological Imports and Technological Effort (1991, PDF-1314KB)
• Thoughts on Globalisation (TXT files)
• CV (May 2007, 3 pages)