In Search of Sustainability
"I'm not cynical, I don't look at the past thinking 'I wonder if...'" Silvia Merler has built her career step by step looking towards the future, "choosing to do what I was most interested in doing at that time." She is now Head of ESG and Policy Research at Algebris, after graduating from Bocconi with a degree in Economic and Social Sciences in 2011. Her first job was at the Bruegel Think Tank in Brussels with Jean Pisani-Ferry, the Director at the time ("I wrote several papers on European economic policy with him"). Then she started her PhD at the John Hopkins School of International Studies, in the US, where she remained until 2018 working on the same issues she was dealing with in Brussels (and then publishing her thesis with Egea). After that, she returned to Italy to work at Algebris, "because I liked the idea of doing research on these issues, but from the perspective of finance. Focusing on policymaking work from the inside, I realized how fundamental the involvement of the private sector was to produce the desired changes in the real economy."
From her position as a scholar of global macroeconomic trends related to sustainability, Silvia identifies the main challenges of her work today, in a historical moment in which – with the election of Trump – the new geopolitical situation seems to call everything into question. "It is clear that we will experience a great divergence," she explains. "It will be a matter of understanding what the consequences will be and how Europe can maintain its basic sustainability principles in this new geopolitical context."
What does she like most about her work in research? "Finding ways to provide simple answers to complex questions, which is very useful for developing policy solutions. Often the way is to unpack the problems."
Silvia Merler has very clear ideas on not only the issues she studies, but also female empowerment and the importance of role models: "My parents were not able to go to college but they decided to invest in my education, so for me the value of empowerment could not be clearer," she says. "True equality is when we all have access to the same opportunities, regardless of social context. Unfortunately, we are not there yet."
All this is also reflected in the advice that Silvia wants to give to young women who want to enter finance: "I see that biases are still at play – especially the ones that we women create for ourselves. I have been lucky to find mentors who have always allowed me to express myself. The lesson I learned is that you should never think that you are not capable of doing something before you have really tried."
