Wagner holds a Ph.D. in Economics from FGV (2007), with a sandwich period at the London School of Economics (LSE). He also holds a Master’s in Economics from FGV (2004) and a degree in Civil Engineering from UFRJ (1996), with a specialization in structural engineering.

He began his career in 1997 as civil engineer, designing reinforced concrete structures for industrial buildings, bridges and tunnels of hydroelectric power plants. In 2000, he joined the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) as banking examiner and later became advisor in the Research Department, contributing to macroeconomic and econometric modeling for monetary policy and official publications such as the Inflation Report.

Currently, he is deputy advisor at the BCB, and associate researcher at FGV Crescimento & Desenvolvimento. His research focuses on time series econometrics, forecasting, applied macroeconomics, empirical finance, and machine learning.

Wagner has published in top academic journals, including the Journal of Econometrics, Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Journal of Financial Stability, and Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking. His work has over 870 citations on Google Scholar and places him among the Top 6% of economists in Brazil, according to RePEc rankings.