Francisco R. Rodríguez
Senior Research Fellow
Francisco is a senior research fellow at CEPR and is the Rice Family Endowed Professor of Practice of International and Public Affairs at the University of Denver’s Korbel School of International Studies. A native of Venezuela, he is also the founder of Oil for Venezuela, a nonprofit organization focused on finding solutions to Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis. He received an MA and a PhD in economics from Harvard University and has an undergraduate degree in economics from Venezuela’s Universidad Católica Andrés Bello.
Francisco has taught economics and Latin American studies at the University of Maryland at College Park, the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración, and Wesleyan University. He has held prominent positions in the public and private sector and international organizations, including head of the economic and financial advisory of the Venezuelan National Assembly (2000–2004), head of the research team of the UN Human Development Reports (2008–11), and chief Andean economist of Bank of America (2011–16). Francisco was also a Greenleaf Visiting Professor at Tulane University’s Stone Center for Latin American Studies; a visiting fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, University of Notre Dame; and an international affairs fellow in international economics for the Council for Foreign Relations.
Francisco is a frequent contributor to publications such as Foreign Affairs, Financial Times, The New York Times, Americas Quarterly, Foreign Policy, and the Washington Post, among others. He has published more than 50 research papers in academic outlets, including the American Economic Journal, Journal of Economic Growth, Journal of Macroeconomics, Journal of Politics, and Economic Development and Cultural Change. His most recent book is The Collapse of Venezuela: Scorched Earth Politics and Economic Decline, 2012–2020, to be published by University of Notre Dame Press in 2025.