Shantayanan Devarajan

Prof. Shantayanan (“Shanta”) Devarajan is Professor of the Practice of International Development and Chair of International Development Concentration at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. He was previously the Senior Director for Development Economics and former Acting Chief Economist of the World Bank Group. Previously, Prof. Devarajan was the Chief Economist of the World Bank’s Middle East and North Africa Region. Since joining the World Bank in 1991, he has been a Principal Economist and Research Manager for Public Economics in the Development Research Group, and the Chief Economist of the Human Development Network, the South Asia Region and Africa Region.

He was a director of the World Development Report 2004, Making Services Work for Poor People. Before 1991, he was on the faculty of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Prof. Devarajan has authored or co‐authored of over 100 publications and his research covers public economics, trade policy, natural resources and the environment, and general equilibrium modelling of developing countries. Born in Sri Lanka, Prof. Devarajan received his A.B. in Mathematics from Princeton University and his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.