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Simeon Dyankov | |
|---|---|
| Симеон Дянков | |
 Dyankov atWorld Economic Forum, Tianjin, China, September 13, 2010 | |
| Deputy Prime Minister of Bulgaria | |
| In office July 27, 2009 – March 13, 2013 Serving with Tsvetan Tsvetanov | |
| Prime Minister | Boyko Borisov |
| Preceded by | Ivaylo Kalfin Emel Etem Toshkova |
| Succeeded by | Ekaterina Zakharieva |
| Minister of Finance | |
| In office July 27, 2009 – March 13, 2013 | |
| Prime Minister | Boyko Borisov |
| Preceded by | Plamen Oresharski |
| Succeeded by | Kalin Hristov |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1970-07-13)July 13, 1970 (age 54) Lovech, Bulgaria |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan University of National and World Economy |
Simeon Dyankov (Bulgarian:Симеон Дянков, alsoDjankov; born July 13, 1970) is a Bulgarian economist. From 2009 to 2013, he was thedeputy prime minister andminister of finance of Bulgaria in the government ofBoyko Borisov.[1][2] He has been a vocal supporter ofBulgaria's entry into theEurozone.[3][4][5] Before his cabinet appointment, he was the chief economist of the finance and private sector vice-presidency of theWorld Bank.
He was an associate editor of theJournal of Comparative Economics from 2004 to 2009. Dyankov was a chairman of the board of theEuropean Bank for Reconstruction and Development. From 2013 to 2015, he was appointed rector of theNew Economic School in Moscow. Since November 2015, Dyankov has been director for policy of the Financial Markets Group at theLondon School of Economics.[6]
At the World Bank, Dyankov was director for development policy and senior director in the office of the chief economist.[7] He led projects on thepost-communist economic transition inGeorgia,Moldova andUkraine.[8] His involvement withUkraine has continued as participant in theUkraine Recovery Conference since 2022.[9] Dyankov was also involved in the publication ofWomen Business and the Law,World Development Reports andDoing Business reports.[10] The Doing Business reports were discontinued after an audit documented that Dyankov, along with then World Bank CEO Georgieva, pressured staff to make data for China and Saudi Arabia look better.[11]
Since April 2020, Dyankov has been policy director at the Financial Markets Group at theLondon School of Economics. He has also been a senior fellow at thePeterson Institute for International Economics. He has written widely on theeconomic impact of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. This invasion has resulted in significant loss of human capital,[12] destruction of agricultural trading infrastructure,[13] huge damages to productive capacity,[14] including through the loss of electricity,[15] and a reduction in private consumption of more than a third relative to pre-war levels.[16] The all-out aggression requires an all-out response by theEuropean Union to win the war.[17]Ukraine remains the main policy priority of theEuropean Union in the coming decade.[18]
Dyankov was born inLovech, Bulgaria, on July 13, 1970. He attended Ekzarh Yosif I high school inLovech (1984–1989). In 1989, he passed the entrance exam to the Karl Marx Institute of Economics (nowUniversity of National and World Economy). He holds a 1997 doctorate from theUniversity of Michigan, on the topic "Three Essays on the Economics of Transition". His main thesis advisor wasAlan Deardorff.
Dyankov has published in journals such asAmerican Economic Review, theQuarterly Journal of Economics, theJournal of Political Economy, theJournal of Finance and theJournal of Financial Economics. He co-edited the bookThe Resolution of Financial Distress withStijn Claessens and Ashoka Mody.
Dyankov was one of the creators of the Human Capital Index, first published in theWorld Development Report 2019, which he co-directed. The academic study describing the index construction was published in the leading science journalNature.[19]
After leaving the government ofBoyko Borisov, Dyankov joined theHarvard Kennedy School as visiting faculty. His teaching is focused on the politics of development. At Harvard, Dyankov edited a special issue of theJournal of Comparative Economics on the 25th anniversary from the start of transition in Eastern Europe. Jointly withAnders Aslund at theAtlantic Council, he co-wrote a book on the transformation from communism.[20] The book contains chapters byLeszek Balcerowicz on Poland,Václav Klaus on the Czech Republic,Lajos Bokros on Hungary,Ivan Mikloš on Slovakia andMart Laar on Estonia.
In October 2013, it was announced that the board of directors of the private Moscow-based universityNew Economic School (NES), also known as the Russian Economic School, had approved Dyankov as its rector.[21] During his tenure as rector, the New Economic School moved to a new campus in theSkolkovo Innovation Center.Sergey Guriyev was the Rector atNew Economic School (NES) until he resigned on 30 April 2013 and fled to France.[22][23] In July 2014, Dyankov himself was put on a draft list underRussian foreign agent law and shortly resigned.[24][25]
Dyankov is the policy director at the Financial Markets Group, responsible for a large research project on post-Covid recovery.[26] The project shows that the pandemic caught governments in developing economies off guard,[27] and that governments in Africa reacted in ways that pushed more people into the informal economy.[28] In advanced economies the pandemic opened a larger gender gap in employment,[29] while bankruptcies actually fell due to generous government support schemes, further expanding the inequality of opportunity between men and women.[30]
His research is also on the rising income inequality in Russia,[31] including due toautarky.[32] The Russian economy looks inward, with imports down nearly 20% in 2022. Previous periods of autarkic policies in Russian and Soviet history have resulted in economic backwardness.[33]Vladimir Putin's presidency has accelerated the rise ofRussian oligarchs:[34]
"Closeness to Putin substitutes for the rule of law that usually protects private property in mature democracies. Such protection is mercurial, however. On occasion, billionaires fall out of favor and their assets are up for grabs."
His research on contagious protests, which draws on theArab Spring events, is cited in numerous global newspapers.[35] Another line of research investigates economic sanctions.[36]
In 2008, Dyankov established the think-tank Ideas42, jointly with Antoinette Schoar (MIT Sloan),Eldar Shafir (Princeton) andSendhil Mullainathan (Harvard).[37] Dyankov joined thePeterson Institute for International Economics in 2013 and re-joined it in 2020, working primarily on former socialist economies. In a 2016 lecture at theKyiv School of Economics he argued that:[38]
"The one reform that is the most difficult to figure out how to do in Ukraine, is reducing the role of the oligarchs. Even after 25 of transition in a number of countries, including Russia and Ukraine, the oligarchs still control not just business life but also public life, which prevented major political and economic changes."
Dyankov has worked for the World Bank since 1995, initially focusing onprivatization and enterprise restructuring.[39] In 1997, he participated in a World Bank enterprise restructuring project inGeorgia. For his work in the transformation of the Georgian economy, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from theFree University of Tbilisi in June 2021.[40] Dyankov also ledWorld Bank projects onstate-owned enterprise restructuring inMoldova.[41] This work restarted after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, under the aegis of theEuropean Commission, with a state-owned enterprise strategy published in February 2023.[42] Dyankov led twoWorld Bank projects inUkraine and continues to be involved in proposals on financing the post-war recovery. These proposals involve large amounts of aid from Western donors as well as reparations by Russia. The priorities uniformly focus on rebuilding human capital and infrastructure.[43]
Dyankov participated in severalWorld Bank financial sector restructuring projects during the1997 Asian financial crisis.[44] Based on these projects, he published a series of articles on corporate governance in East Asia withStijn Claessens.[45][46]
World Development Report 2002 analyzed how to build effective institutions. The study was guided byJoseph Stiglitz, withSimeon Djankov as a principal author. Several background papers, including byNobel Prize winnersRobert Shiller,Amartya Sen andGabriel García Márquez, were published in academic journals or books.[47]
TheWorld Development Report 2019 was led by Djankov and Federica Saliola.[48] A summary of the main arguments and data is provided in theJournal of International Affairs.[49] Fears that robots will take jobs from people have dominated the discussion over the future of work, but theWorld Development Report 2019 finds that on balance this appears to be unfounded.
Dyankov is the creator of the annualDoing Business report, the top-selling publication of the World Bank Group. The report came out of joint research work with ProfessorAndrei Shleifer atHarvard University and was inspired by Dyankov's experience in overly-regulated socialist economies. In a 2016 article for theJournal of Economic Perspectives, Dyankov explains how Doing Business started and lists academic papers that serve as background research for the report.[50]
The report has its origins in a 2002 paper published in theQuarterly Journal of Economics under the title"The Regulation of Entry". The study presents data on the regulation of entry ofstart-up firms in 85 countries covering the number of procedures, official time and official cost that a start-up must bear before it can operate legally. The main findings of the paper are that: "Countries with heavier regulation of entry have highercorruption and larger unofficial economies, but no better quality of public or private goods. Countries with more democratic and limited governments have lighter regulation of entry." The paper became widely known, with over five thousand academic references, because it provides quantitative evidence that entry regulation benefits politicians andbureaucrats without adding value to the private sector or granting any additional protection.[51][52]
The reports were discontinued following the release of an independent audit of the data irregularities. The audit documented how Dyankov, along with the World Bank CEO Georgieva, pressured staff to manipulate the results, in particular making data for China and Saudi Arabia look better.[53] The board of the IMF, after a separate review, found that Georgieva had not "played an improper role". Georgieva is managing director of the IMF.[54]An improvedDoing Business analysis is proposed inFraser Institute's 2022Economic Freedom of the World report. This analysis outlines the start of a new report, to be housed at a top research institution.[55]
In October 2023,The Economist summarized the impact of the project, tracing its origins back to Austrian economistFriedrich Hayek. Both Hayek and the Doing Business authors over-promised on the effects of regulatory reform.[56]
The World Bank's annual study,Women Business and the Law, was inspired by the bookWomen and the Law. The study is based on methodology described in Djankov,Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg and Marie Hyland inGendered Laws and Women in the Workforce.[57] The study extends to country reform cases, for example inBurundi,[58]Rwanda,[59]Zambia[60] andZimbabwe,[61] all countries where customary law prevails.[62]
TheHuman Capital Index is an annual measurement prepared by the World Bank.[63] The applications to measuring human capital are developed by Noam Angrist, Simeon Djankov, Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg and Harry Patrinos in the scientific journalNature.[64] These findings are extended in a 2021 article.[65] The index is used in country studies of employment and wages, for example in Ukraine after Russia's invasion.[66]
Dyankov has been both deputy prime minister and minister of finance of Bulgaria.[67]
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In February 2025 he was nominated to chair the Fiscal Council, responsible for the stability of public finances in Bulgaria.[68]
On July 27, 2009, Dyankov became minister of finance of Bulgaria. He reduced budget spending and managed to cut the budget deficit for 2009 to 4.4%. In 2010, Bulgaria met the Maastricht criteria – 3%, falling to 2% in 2011 and 0.45% in 2012.[69] On December 1, 2009,Standard and Poors upgraded Bulgaria's investment outlook from "negative" to "stable", the only country in theEuropean Union to receive an upgrade that year.[70]
On numerous occasions as minister, Dyankov stated that two successive terms were needed to complete the reforms that would lead Bulgaria from poorest to middle-income country by Central European standards.[71] Soon after, Parliament adopted the so-called "Golden Rules" in the organic budget law: the government cannot surpass a deficit of 2% of GDP and adebt-to-GDP ratio of 40% in any given year. Dyankov was a member of the GERB cabinet, but not a party member.[72]
At the second GERB party congress, Dyankov urged delegates to lead such policies that the party would win a second term with full majority in parliament. This was needed, he said, to complete the reforms that would lead Bulgaria from poorest to middle-income country by Central European standards.[71] Soon after, Parliament adopted the so-called Golden Rules in the organic budget law: the government cannot surpass a deficit of 2% of GDP and a debt-to-GDP ratio of 40% in any given year. Dyankov believes in his role as an expert rather than a politician and even though he is a member of the GERB cabinet, he is not a member of the GERB party.[72]
In February 2013, Dyankov resigned in protest of the decision by the prime minister,Boyko Borisov, to advance subsidies to farmers.[73] On February 20, 2013, Borisov announced the resignation of the government due to increasing levels of violence in the protests about high electricity prices.[74] Dyankov continued as finance minister until a caretaker government was formed a month later.[75]
Dyankov was a proponent of theflat tax, introduced in Bulgaria in 2009 and expanded todividend tax in 2010–2011 during his term in office.[76] Bulgaria is the only country with a ten percent rate on personal, corporate and dividend taxes.[77] In 2022–2023, Dyankov assisted parliamentarians inUkraine in developing a flat-tax proposal.[78]
On two occasions duringSimeon Djankov's term in office, in 2010 and 2013, Bulgaria attempted to enter theEuropean Exchange Rate Mechanism, the precursor to theEurozone.[79] In both cases theEuropean debt crisis prevented such entry, first due to the crisis inGreece and later inPortugal.[80] The attempts at joining theEurozone elicited strikes in early 2013 and demands for Djankov's dismissal.[81] This experience is analyzed in a 2016 book, co-authored withAnders Aslund.[82]
Bulgaria's entry into theEuropean Exchange Rate Mechanism finally took place in 2020, while entry into theEurozone has been postponed till 2025 at the earliest.[83] Dyankov has proposed policies for inflation-abatement in order to meet theEuro convergence criteria,[84] including ways to abateinflation[85] and reduce thebudget deficit.[86][87]
Dyankov is a strident critic of the use of Russian nuclear technology inBulgaria and while in government in 2012, along with Minister of EnergyDelyan Dobrev, adopted a ban on such technology, including the termination of theBelene Nuclear Power Plant.[88] Prime MinisterBoyko Borisov listed this ban among the main successes of his first government.[89] In July 2023, his partyGERB initiated a sale of the unused Russian nuclear equipment to Ukraine, through a resolution in parliament.[90]
While in government, Dyankov held negotiations withRussia's nuclear technology producerRosatom and memorably said:[91]
"We have shown that we are not afraid of either Russia or Russian energy giants. If it need be, we will spank them."
As finance minister, Dyankov started a program for financing archeological work around theBlack Sea, along the ancient RomanVia Pontica.[92] The program came out of an archeological discovery inSozopol of what is believed to be therelics ofJohn the Baptist. Dyankov was among the first to see the relics.[93] These archeological finds were developed to attract tourists.[94]
Dyankov's great-great-grandfather was one of the founders of Bulgaria's parliament after the liberation from theOttoman empire.[95] He was a close associate ofVasil Levski in organizing theApril Uprising of 1876.[96] He served in the first four parliaments from 1879 to 1886, representingSevlievo region.[97]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)I have not done anything wrong and do not want to live in fear
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