Francisco de Castro Fernández Ph. D in Economics by the Complutense University of Madrid. Thesis tittle: A macroeconometric appraisal of fiscal policy in Spain. Professional career: Research assistant and Economist at the Department of Economics, Analysis and Statistics at Banco de España from 1992 till 2016. Associate Professor of Microeconomics, Macroeconomics and Advanced Microeconomics at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of the Complutense University of Madrid. Seconded National Expert at the European Commission from 2002 to 2005 and from 2011 to 2016. In these periods, he has been involved in multilateral fiscal surveillance within the framework of the Stability and Growth Pact, the production of the economic forecasts for the Spanish economy, the monitoring of Spanish economic developments and the assessment of the fulfilment of the fiscal targets in the context of the Stability and Growth Pact. In June 2016 joined the European Commission as civil servant and he is currently in charge of the monitoring and surveillance of fiscal policies in France. He has published a number of papers in academic journals, mainly on the macroeconomic impact of fiscal policy in Spain and in the EU. He has participated in workshops and conferences, as well as guest speaker in a number of events. He has also contributed referee reports for various academic journals.
Diego Rodríguez Palenzuela is PhD Economics MIT in 1993, after graduating in Economics at Universidad Complutense in Madrid. Since 2014 is Head of Division at the European Central Bank, in charge of analysing and assessing macroeconomic developments and long-term growth determinants in the euro area and the larger euro area countries. Previously he was Mission Chief for the ECB in the EU-IMF Macroeconomic Adjustment Programme for Ireland and Senior Adviser for monetary policy stance at the ECB. He has held visiting professor and visiting scholar appointments at MIT, Stanford University, Université de Toulouse and Universitat Pompeu Fabra and was senior researcher in FEDEA, Madrid.
