Short Bio

Hi everyone!

Welcome to my webpage — I’m Marco Ortiz, a macroeconomist and Associate Professor (with Research Appointment) in the Department of Economics at Universidad del Pacífico (Lima, Peru). My research sits at the intersection of monetary policy and open-economy macroeconomics, with a focus on exchange-rate dynamics, capital flows, and foreign exchange intervention, especially in emerging markets.

My interest in macroeconomics started early. I grew up in Peru during the hyperinflation years, when everyday life was shaped by rapid price changes and a de facto dollarization of the economy. Those experiences stayed with me and later shaped my undergraduate research on currency and financial dollarization. After university, I took the Central Bank extension course, which became a turning point: it opened the door to a scholarship for graduate study and my first professional steps in policy work. Following brief experience in private finance (BCP) and development economics (World Bank), I joined the Central Reserve Bank of Peru (BCRP).

I completed my PhD in Economics at the London School of Economics, where I worked with Wouter den Haan, Albert Marcet, and Kosuke Aoki. My doctoral research focused on open-economy macroeconomics and international finance, with a particular emphasis on foreign exchange intervention. After London, I returned to the BCRP, where I held roles in macroeconomic modelling and monetary policy, eventually serving as Head of the Macro Modelling Department and Deputy Manager of Monetary Policy Design. That period gave me first-hand exposure to how policy decisions are made under uncertainty and in real time — and it reinforced my motivation to help bridge the gap between theory and practice.

In 2018, I returned to academia at Universidad del Pacífico. My current work continues to study exchange rates and FX policy using both structural macro models and empirical tools, with the broader aim of improving how we understand and design macroeconomic policy in emerging economies.