Calogero (Gero) Carletto is the Senior Manager for Strategy and Collaboratives in the office of the Director of the Development Data Group and World Bank Chief Statistician. Gero is currently leading the establishment of the Development Economics Global Institute (DEC Global), a new initiative in the office of the World Bank Chief Economist to make development knowledge more accessible and actionable. He also manages the Living Standards Measurement Unit that houses the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS), the flagship household survey program at the World Bank.
In 2015, Gero founded and directed the Center for Development Data, a Rome-based hub that fosters methodological innovation and strengthens countries’ capacity in the collection, analysis, and dissemination of socio-economic data. The Center also hosts the Partnership for Capacity Development on Welfare Analysis – a collaboration with several Italian institutions and regional training centers in Africa – as well as the 50x2030: Data Smart Agriculture program, a multi-partner initiative aimed at closing data gaps in agriculture.
Gero is currently the Chair of the Committee on Agricultural Statistics of the International Statistical Institute and the co-chair of the Inter-Secretariat Working Group on Household Surveys of the United Nations Statistical Commission. He has published extensively in top economic and development journals on various topics, including poverty, food security, agriculture, and rural development, as well as data collection methods and measurement issues.
Gero holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.