Vinod Thomas is visiting professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National
University of Singapore and distinguished fellow at the Asian Institute of Management,
Manila, the Philippines. Previously he was director general and senior vice president of the
Independent Evaluation Group at the World Bank Group (2006-2011), and director general
of Independent Evaluation at the Asian Development Bank (2011-2016).
Vinod held several positions at the World Bank. He was country director for Brazil based in
Brasilia from 2001 to 2005, during the Presidency of Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva. He was vice president of the newly established World Bank Institute,
which followed the previous Economic Development Institute.
Having joined the World Bank in 1976, he was chief economist for the East Asia and Pacific
region, chief of trade policy and principal economist for Colombia, and economist for
Bangladesh. He was director for the World Development Report 1991 on The Challenge of
Development.
Vinod has a PhD and MA in Economics from the University of Chicago and a BA from St.
Stephen’s college, Delhi. He has authored 17 books, numerous peer-reviewed journal
articles, and reports on macroeconomic, social, and environmental issues.
His books include Best Practices in Trade Policy Reform, 1990, The Quality of Growth, 2000,
From Inside Brazil, 2006, Multilateral Banks and the Development Process, (with Xubei Luo),
2012, Climate Change and Natural Disasters, 2017, Economic Evaluation of Sustainable
Development, 2019, with Namrata Chindarkar, and Risk and Resilience in the Era of Climate
Change, 2023.
He has taught at Vassar College and the University of Sao Paulo, been on several Boards,
including International Evaluation Academy, and has addressed numerous fora in all regions.
He has been advisor for evaluation at Global Climate Fund, UN agencies, and at IFAD, Centre
for Social and Economic Policy, and contributed to Results for Development and the
Emerging Market Forum. His work at the National University of Singapore has concerned
risk management, cost benefit analysis, public finance, climate change and sustainable
development, including their costly neglect by mainstream economists.
