The Bank of Spain took an unusual step last May with the reorganization of the Department of Economy and the creation of a new department dedicated to analyzing the situation from a broader perspective than the traditional one. The novelty lies not only in the function of the new Office of Global Trends and Institutional Analysis, as it has been named, but also in the person who will lead it and the way in which the movement has been conceived. The person in charge will be the sociologist Víctor Lapuente. Thus, for the first time, the organization deliberately renounces a strictly economic profile to entrust responsibility to specialists from other disciplines and fields. The new team, once the signature has been confirmed, now intends to give a social dimension to the reports and work of the banking supervisor.
The new office, according to sources in the organization led by José Luis Escriva, aims to analyze the main vectors of change that affect the economy and financial stability, but with a much broader perspective than the traditional one. Its areas of study include the evolution of economic and social institutions, the quality of governance, social transformations, demographic dynamics, the impact of technology, climate change and energy transition or cultural trends.
The idea is to complement classic macroeconomic approaches with tools from disciplines such as sociology, political science or economic history, capable of capturing phenomena that traditional economic models do not always reflect.
The appointment of Lapuente, an EL PAÍS columnist recognized for his work on institutions, governance and social behavior, symbolizes this change. His career combines empirical analysis with interdisciplinary approaches and public sector experience, which aligns with the Bank of Spain’s ambition to integrate external and unconventional perspectives into its analytical processes. The office, under his leadership, will seek to anticipate emerging risks and opportunities, assessing how social and institutional factors influence economic decisions, citizen confidence and consumption and savings patterns, as the supervisor explained. “Anything that contributes to analyzing economic and social institutions and the way in which they contribute to the growth and well-being of the population is essential,” say the same sources.
In September, the Bank of Spain opened the selection process, to which fifty candidates, internal and external, opted. After carrying out the various skills assessment tests, objective tests and interviews with the candidates best suited to the required multidisciplinary profile, the organization opted for Lapuente.
A graduate in political science and administration from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and a doctorate in political philosophy from the University of Oxford, Lapuente is currently director of the Government Quality Institute at the University of Gothenburg (Sweden). He has focused his scientific research in the areas of institutional quality, governance and anti-corruption policies. “He is one of the best-known Spanish experts and, in addition, we are very enthusiastic about the idea of repatriating talent to Spain,” explain the same sources.
In the short term, Lapuente’s task will be to design the different approaches, objectives and work that the office will undertake. Although it is attached to the Ministry of the Economy, specifies the supervisor, it is expected that other areas such as monetary policy, banking supervision or payment systems could benefit from all these analyses. It is also expected that the team will be expanded with new professionals from outside the current staff of the organization: “We have identified several people who currently work at the Bank of Spain and who could be part of it, but we also have the idea of incorporating multidisciplinary profiles”, continue the same sources. “We economists have learned that economics must complement itself with other disciplines to better understand everything that is happening,” they add.
In May, almost nine months after his arrival as governor of the Bank of Spain and several changes at the top, including the resignation of the Director General of Economy, Ángel Gavilán, Escriva announced an organizational restructuring in which the departments that depended on the Directorate of Economy were reduced. The objective – coinciding with the strategic plan until 2030 – was to incorporate a “matrix model” in which, in addition to traditional hierarchical dependencies, functional dependencies articulated through people and new teams were added.
The change meant that the Directorate of Economy went from four departments (Structural Analysis and Microeconomic Studies; Macrofinancial Analysis and Monetary Policy; Analysis of the Economic Situation; and International Economy and Eurozone) to just two. On the one hand, the Analysis of the Spanish Economy, whose mission is to deepen – thanks to micro and macroeconomic forecasting tools – the study of the national economy, its sectors and its agents. On the other hand, Monetary Policy and International Economics, focused on global macroeconomic analysis and Eurozone monetary policy.
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