Dr. George Mavrotas is the Chief Economist of GDN and is responsible for leading a broad range of activities within the Organization which include among others GDN’s Global Research Agenda, the Annual Global Development Conference, the GDN Global Policy Dialogues initiative, the GDN book series and the Working Paper series and he is also coordinating various research projects for GDN. George brings with him about twenty five years of experience in international development on a wide range of development issues. Current honorary appointments include a Visiting Professor at CERDI, University of Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, a Non-Resident Associate Fellow at the Centre of Regional Integration Studies of the United Nations University (UNU-CRIS) in Bruges, an Adjunct Professor of Economics in the Faculty of Economics & Business of the University of the South Pacific, Fiji, a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for International Development Study and Research (Ferdi France) and an External Research Associate at the Oxford Centre for the Analysis of the Resource Rich Economies (OxCarre) of the Department of Economics, University of Oxford. Past honorary appointments include also Visiting Research Fellow, Policy Research Department, the World Bank, Washington DC (June-September 1996).

He was formerly a Senior Fellow and Project Director at the World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER, Helsinki, Finland). While at UNU-WIDER he also taught in the Helsinki School of Economics. Prior to UNU-WIDER he was on the Economics Faculties of the Universities of Oxford and Manchester where he taught for many years, having also supervised 12 PhD theses and 38 Master’s dissertations on a broad range of topics.

Dr. Mavrotas has also served as a member in various international distinguished committees on development issues (including the Committee of Experts on Development Finance led by Sir Anthony B. Atkinson, with Nobel Laureate Sir James Mirrlees among others, as a senior advisor of the UN General Assembly and one of the lead authors of a report on new sources of development finance presented to 50 world leaders in the UN General Assembly in 2004; the senior advisory group of experts of the Helsinki Process on Globalization and Democracy; the G-20 Advisory Group; he was one of the founding members of the Development Forum of the OECD Development Centre; the Development Finance Network (DeFiNe) of the OECD and as an advisor to many international organizations - including DFID-UK, UNICEF, ILO, UNDP, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the European Commission, the OECD, and the Commonwealth Secretariat among many others). He has also extensive developing country experience and worked in a multicultural environment for many years.

Regarding services to the profession, he is on the Editorial Board in various peer-reviewed journals and he has been invited numerous times to be the Guest Editor in Special Issues in journals such as the Review of Development Economics, the Journal of International Development, the Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv) and for The World Economy. He is also the Editor of the Global Development Book Series with Edward Elgar Publishers and the Editor-in-Chief of the GDN Working Paper Series. He is also referee on a regular basis on papers submitted to peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Mavrotas is the author and co-author of more than 120 publications including numerous papers in leading peer-reviewed journals such as Economica, Review of Development Economics, Economic Modelling, Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv, Oxford Economic Papers, Journal of Financial Stability, European Journal of Finance, Manchester School, Journal of International Affairs and World Economy among others. His numerous books include Security and Development (Edward Elgar, 2011); Foreign Aid for Development: Issues, Challenges and the New Agenda (Oxford University Press, 2010); Commodities, Governance and Economic Development under Globalization (with Machiko Nissanke; Palgrave Macmillan, 2010); Development Aid: A Fresh Look (with Mark McGillivray; Palgrave Macmillan, 2009); Domestic Resource Mobilization and Financial Development (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008); Financial Development, Institutions, Growth and Poverty Reduction (with Basudeb Guha-Khasnobis; Palgrave Macmillan, 2008); Development Finance in the Global Economy: The Road Ahead (with Tony Addison; Palgrave Macmillan, 2008); Advancing Development: Core Themes in Global Economics (with Anthony Shorrocks; Palgrave Macmillan, 2007 – both in hardback and paperback - with a Foreword by Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen); Commodity Supply Management by Producing Countries (with Alfred Maizels and Robert Bacon; Oxford University Press, 1997); and Natural Resources and Development: Curse or Blessing? (Edward Elgar, forthcoming).

His main areas of expertise are development economics and development finance the latter broadly defined to include external finance (predominantly foreign aid effectiveness, foreign direct investment and the macroeconomics of international capital flows) but also domestic resource mobilization (financial sector development, savings mobilization and the overall nexus between finance, growth, poverty reduction and the globalization process). His other research interests include primary commodity markets and natural resources, human capital development (with an emphasis on the economics of education and training), international migration and urbanization issues.

George holds a PhD in Economics (D.Phil.) from Oxford, an MSc in Development Economics (with distinction) also from Oxford, an MA in Economics and Econometrics from the University of London and a BSc (Econ.) from the Athens University of Economics.