Xavier Giné is a Scientific Advisor for IPA's Financial Inclusion Program. He is a Lead Economist in the Finance and Private Sector Development team of the Development Research Group at the World Bank. Since joining the Bank as a Young Economist in 2002, his research has focused on access to financial services and rural financial markets. In recent papers he investigated the macroeconomic effects of credit liberalization; the relationship between formal and informal sources of credit in rural credit markets; indigenous interlinked credit contracts in the fishing industry and the impact of weather insurance. Prior to joining the Bank, he was a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer at the Economic Growth Center at Yale University. He holds an MA and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago.