Markus Kitzmuller is Lead Economist with the Macroeconomics, Trade, and Investment team at the World Bank Group, currently covering West and Central Africa. In this role and recent assignments including Acting Practice Manager, Program Leader for Equitable Finance and Institutions, and Senior Country Economist he has lived in Washington DC, Dakar (Senegal), Abidjan (Ivory Coast) and Paris (France), leading country economic teams, high level economic policy dialogue, and overseeing complex Development Policy Financing operations. Throughout his Bank career, Markus has led the preparation of (macro-fiscal-growth and micro) economic analyses across regions, and, at the South Asia Chief Economist Office, conceived and spearheaded the regional South Asia Economic Focus, while supporting country engagement in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, and India. When joining the World Bank as a Young Professional in 2011, he focused on Competition Economics and Policy in Tunisia, Kenya, and Turkey. Markus holds a PhD in Economics from the European University Institute, and economics and finance degrees from the College of Europe (Bruges), the University of Innsbruck and the London School of Economics. He was a postdoctoral (Erb) fellow at U of Michigan (Ross), a Visiting Scholar at U of Chicago (Booth) and worked as an Economist in the European Commission. His research on applied micro and macroeconomic topics has been published in academic and policy journals.