LECTURERS

All lecturers invited participated in the preparation of the new edition of the Guide to Cost Benefit Analysis of Investment projects of the European Commission, DG Regional Policy

Francesco Angelini is a Solid Waste and Energy Economist working for the JASPERS initiative. He has particular responsibility for cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of major investment projects financed by the Structural and Cohesion Funds in the solid waste and energy sectors in the Central and Eastern EU Member States. He previously worked at the European Commission, with the Evaluation Unit of the Directorate-General for Regional Policy, where he wrote the Commission's guidance document on CBA (working document N.4) and managed the contract for the 2008 update of the Guide to Cost-Benefit Analysis of Investment projects. He holds a degree in Economics and International Institutions Management from Università Bocconi and a Master's degree (MSc.) in Project Analysis, Finance and Investment from the University of York.

Ugo Finzi holds degrees from Politecnico, Milano (industrial engineering) and from Bocconi University (business administration). He has over thirty years of experience in international development evaluation and management. He has been associated since 1966 with the World Bank, where he has held a variety of staff and management positions, related to policy, sector and project work. He is a senior evaluator and exhibits longstanding experience in the formulation of evaluation methodology and applied evaluation to development projects and other fields. His other specialisations include coordination of development assistance, policy advice and sector work on energy, industry, municipal services, environment, assistance to development of small and medium-sized enterprises, teaching of project analysis. He has been selected as a trainer for the EC officials of the Evaluation Unit of the DG Regio for evaluation and project appraisal.

Massimo Florio is Professor of Public Economics at the Università degli Studi di Milano. He has recently been awarded an Ad personam Jean Monnet Chair in EU Industrial Policy by the European Commission. After graduating at the University of Rome, obtaining a Master in Applied Economics, and holding teaching positions in different Universities in Italy, he spent three years as a Visiting Scholar at the London School of Economics and other British universities, at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (Vienna), at the IMF and the World Bank in Washington DC. His main research interests are in welfare economics, cost-benefit analysis, industrial and regional policies, infrastructure and growth, regulation and privatisation. His publications include: “The great divestiture. Evaluating the welfare impact of British privatisation, 1979-1997” MIT Press (2004), “Cost-Benefit Analysis and Incentives in Evaluation. The Structural Funds of the European Union” Edward Elgar (2007) and the EC “Guide to Cost- Benefit Analysis of Investment Projects” (2008). He has been involved in evaluation and advisory activities for the European Commission (mainly DG Regional Policy), the OECD, the World Bank and other institutions. He was the Scientific Director of 2011 edition of the Milan Summer School.

Byron Kabarakis is a Senior administrator responsible for co-ordination of major projects in the Regional Policy Directorate-General of the European Commission (DG REGIO). He is heading a team of experts who provide guidance and support in DG REGIO for the appraisal of major projects submitted to the Commission. His work focuses on issues relating to the development of infrastructures, CBA analysis, project documentation, application of EU rules, guidance on ERDF and Cohesion Fund assistance and the development of tools and mechanisms for project monitoring and financial reporting. In 2007, he coordinated the negotiations on the Greek development strategy for the programming period 2007-13 and followed the implementation of Greece’s National Reform Programme. Before joining DG REGIO in 2005, he worked in the Internal Market Directorate-General developing new policies to foster economic growth and Internal Market integration. Born in Greece, he studied economics and holds an MBA from KUL Leuven. He joined the European Commission in 1994.

Davide Sartori holds a degree in economics and management of public administration and international institutions from Bocconi University (Milan). In 2006, he carried out a cost-effectiveness analysis of a healthcare project in Vietnam, collaborating with the World Health Organisation. In July 2007 he joined CSIL, Milan, where he is a Partner and Project Coordinator (Development and Evaluation Unit). He is a specialist in the evaluation of operational planning documents and development programmes and in the financial, economic and risk analyses of infrastructural projects. He is one of the authors of the Guide to Cost Benefit Analysis of Investment projects adopted by the European Commission in 2008 as well as an expert conducting training on cost-benefit analysis for EU civil servants at EIPA, European Institute of Public Administration of Barcelona. He had several training experiences with DG Regio officers, New Member States public officers and post graduate students in Milan. He coordinated the 2011 edition of the Milan Summer School. He advises the European Commission, DG Regio, by reviewing the application forms of Italian major projects asking for EU co-financing for the current programming period (2007-2013).

Silvia Vignetti is Director of the Evaluation Unit at CSIL. She holds a degree in Economics from Bocconi University and, after a traineeship at the UNESCO, she started her research activity at CSIL. in the economic and financial analysis of public investments projects (cost-benefit analysis). She worked, on behalf of the European Commission, DG Regio, on the preparation of the Guide to Cost-benefit Analysis of Investment Projects and she has been recently involved in the following technical assistance projects: the “Municipal Support Programme for North-Eastern Serbia” for the draft of feasibility studies of investment projects in the field of water supply; the “Development of a National Clustering Policy for Turkey” and the “Expansion of the European Turkish Business Centres Network”. She has also had teaching appointment fellowship at the University of Milan in Macroeconomics, Economics of European Integration and Cost-benefit analysis. She advises the European Commission, DG Regio, by reviewing the application forms of Italian major projects in the transport and environment sector asking for EU co-financing for the current programming period (2007-2013).

TUTORS

Gelsomina Catalano holds a degree in International Relation and a Master degree in “Planning, Assessment and Selection of Public Investments” from “Orientale” University (Naples, Italy). In 2008 she joined CSIL, where she specialised in the evaluation of cohesion policy and programmes co-financed by Structural Funds, by taking part in different evaluation studies on behalf of the European Parliament and of the European Commission (DG Regional Policy, DG Enlargement and DG Employment). She has also gained experience in the financial, economic and risk analyses of infrastructural projects. Recently, she has worked on the review of the application forms of Italian major projects in the transport and environment sector asking for EU co-financing for the current programming period (2007-2013) and on the ex post evaluation of investment projects co-financed by ERDF and CF in the period 1994-99, both commissioned by European Commission, DG Regional Policy.

Chiara Del Bo is a researcher at Università degli Studi, Milano. She earned a PhD in Economics from Università degli Studi di Milano, with the dissertation “Essays on Investment and Growth in an International Setting”. She has been a visiting researcher at the Department of Spatial Economics, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam and a visiting scholar at the Economics Department of Boston College, USA. She also holds a Master degree in Economics (MEc) at Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi and graduated in Economics at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano with a dissertation on “Research Joint Ventures in the semiconductor industry”. Her research interests are in public and applied economics, with a specific focus on regional growth and international issues. Her research has appeared, among others, in Fiscal Studies, Journal of Economics, European Planning Studies, Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Journal of Urban Technology.

Emanuela Sirtori holds a degree in Economics from Bicocca University (Milan) and attended a post-degree training course on Methods of Cooperation and Development. In 2009 she started her research activities at CSIL. As project analyst in the field of regional development and evaluation of project and programmes, she has gained relevant experience in cost-benefit analysis of infrastructural projects and econometric and counterfactual techniques for evaluating the impact of Structural Funds. She recently participated in different evaluation studies on behalf of the European Parliament and of the European Commission – DG Enterprise and Industry, DG Enlargement and DG Regional Policy. In particular, she took part in the Ex post evaluation of investment projects co-financed by ERDF and CF in the period 1994-99, involving the qualitative and quantitative assessment of the long-term effects generated by a number of infrastructural projects in the field of transport and environment.