2008 Recipient
Mario Bergara
Mario Bergara has played a leading role in modernizing the institutions of Uruguay. He studied economics and public accounting at the University of Uruguay and completed his Ph.D. in economics at UC Berkeley, where he researched utilities regulation and institutions. He has published several papers and book chapters in well-known national and international reviews. He has also coordinated projects related to political institutions, policy outcomes, budget processes, and utilities markets in Uruguay for the Inter-American Development Bank, World Bank, and United Nations Development Programme.
As commissioner of Uruguay’s Communications Regulatory Agency (2001–04), Bergara was crucial to the technical and political process of opening some relevant markets, such as international calls and mobile communications, to competition.
As vice minister of economy and finance from 2005 to 2008, he played a key role in designing and implementing several structural reforms in Uruguay, including the modernization of the tax system, the budget process, the investment climate, and the financial sector. In particular, he contributed significantly to the institutional redesign of the Central Bank and the Mortgage Bank, as well as to a new legal framework for capital markets and the transparency of corporate information. He was a leading actor in the design and process that led to two relevant pieces of legislation: the new competition law and the modern insolvency and business reorganization law.
Bergara is president of the Central Bank of Uruguay and a governor of the International Monetary Fund. He has taught at public and private universities in Uruguay and abroad and is currently a professor of contract theory, regulation, and microeconomics of banking at the University of Uruguay.
