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Research Interests
Interrelationship between poverty, growth, and democracy

Dr. Alejandro Toledo was democratically elected President of Peru from July 2001-July 2006.

He was born in a small and remote village in the Peruvian Andes, 12,000 feet above sea level. He is one of sixteen brothers and sisters from a family of extreme poverty. At the age of six, he worked as a street shoe shiner and simultaneously sold newspapers and lotteries to supplement the family income.

Thanks to an accidental access to education, Dr. Toledo was able to go from extreme poverty to the most prestigious academic centers of the world, later becoming one of the most prominent democratic leaders of Latin America. He is the first Peruvian president of indigenous descent to be democratically elected in five hundred years.

Dr. Toledo attributes his academic and political accomplishments as being the result of a statistical error. His most precious dream and work now is that other men and women of the large socially excluded Peruvian and Latin American population can also become presidents of their respective countries by having access to quality health care and education.

President Toledo first appeared on the international political scene in 1996 when he formed and led a broad democratic coalition in the streets of Peru to bring down the autocratic regime of Alberto Fujimori. This coalition had the support of the international democratic community.

During the five years of Dr. Toledo's presidency, the Peruvian economy grew at an average rate of 6 percent, registering as one of the fastest growing economies in Latin America. Inflation averaged 1.5 percent and fiscal deficit went as low as 0.2 percent. While markets in China and Thailand were opened, free trade agreement negotiations with the United States, Chile, Mexico and Singapore were about to conclude. These markets were generating new investments and jobs for the most poverty-stricken Peruvians.

The fight against poverty through health and educational investment was the central aim of Dr. Toledo's presidency. As a result of sustained economic growth and deliberate social policies directed to the most poor, extreme poverty was reduced by 25 percent in five years. Employment grew at an average rate of 6 percent from 2004-2006.

Past Professional and Academic Experience

Before becoming President, Dr. Toledo worked for the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, and the United Nations in New York.

During his academic years, Professor Toledo was a visiting scholar and a research associate at Harvard University and Waseda University in Tokyo. He is currently an economics professor (on leave) at the University of ESAN in Peru.

1986-1991: Director, Economic Development Institute (IDE/ESAN), Lima, Peru.

1989: Leader of the PNUD/OIT mission for the evaluation of: "Impact of Macroeconomic Policies on Growth, Employment and Salaries" in six Central American countries, PNUD/ New York.

1981- 1983: Chairman of the Economic Advisory Committee to the President of the Central Reserve Bank and the Labor Minister in Peru.

1981-1983: General Director, Institute of Economic and Labor Studies, Ministry of Labor and Social Development. Lima, Peru.

Current Activities

• Payne Distinguished Visiting Lecturer at the Freeman Spogli Institute of International Studies and Visiting Scholar at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) for the 2007-2008 academic year.
• Distinguished Fellow in residency at the Center for Advanced Studies and Behavioral Science (CASBS) at Stanford for the 2006-2008 academic years.
• Founder and President of the Global Center for Development and Democracy (GCDD), which studies the interrelationship between poverty, inequality, and the future of democratic governance.

Recent Activities

• Distinguished Consulting Professor at the Stanford University School of Education for the 2006-2007 academic year.
• Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
• Co-leader, together with Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ardito Barletta (former President of Panama), in the Presidential Election Observation Mission to Nicaragua in November 2006.

Research and Publications

Cartas Sobre la Mesa, Instituto de Investigacion para el Desarrollo, segunda edicion, 2003, Lima, Peru.

"The Challenge of Growth and Social Investment in the 90's" (Chap. 1), Co- author in Alessandro Pio, Economic Adjustment and Social Development: Complementary or Conflict, Milan, Italy, ISLA, Insituto di Economia "Ettore Bocconi", Universal L. Bocconi, E.G.E.A., SPA, 1992.

The Other Faces of Informal Society (Ed. With Alain Chanlat), Lima, IDE/ESAN and HEC ( Ecole de Hautes Etudes Commerciales), University of Montreal, Canada. September 1991.

Peru and Latin America in Crisis: How to Finance Growth (editor), Instituto de Desarrollo Economico, ESAN, Lima, Peru. (Second Edition, 1990).

Education

Ph.D., Economics of Human Resources
Stanford International Development Education Center (SIDEC)
Stanford University, 1993

Master's Degree, Economics, Economics Department, Stanford University, 1972
Master's Degree, Economics of Human Resources
Stanford International Development Education Center (SIDEC)
Stanford University, 1971

Bachelor of Arts, Economics and Business Administration
University of San Francisco, 1970