Vito Tanzi, an economist of international renown, served for twenty years as Director of the Fiscal Affairs Department of the International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC with which he was affiliated for nearly three decades. Dr Tanzi is the author or editor of over 25 books, including Government Versus Markets (2011) and Public Spending in the 20th Century (2000, with Ludger Schuknecht). A former Undersecretary for Economy and Finance of the Italian Government, he was President of the International Institute of Public Finance (IIPF) from 1990 to 1994. Dr Tanzi is known for the Tanzi effect, or Olivera-Tanzi effect, which refers to the diminished real value of tax revenues in periods of high inflation due to collection lags. He has served as a consultant to the World Bank and the United Nations and previously taught at George Washington University, Washington, DC, and American University, Washington, DC.
