Edgardo Buscaglia


Edgardo Buscaglia is a renowned international scholar and a practitioner within the field of law and economics.
Dr. Buscaglia is also an internationally renowned philanthropist and civil society leader engaged in supporting non-governmental organizations in their combat and prevention of organized crime, including his support for combatting wildlife trafficking at the Wildlife Justice Commission
or his philanthropic and technical support for preventing human trafficking in Mexico and Central America as Director of the International Law and Economic Development Center.
His latest field research that Dr. Buscaglia directs covering 118 countries delves into the factors explaining the vertical economic integration of organized crime within the legal economies and the mafia capture of civil societies.
As an academic, Dr. Buscaglia has published widely within the field of law and economics of development and human rights and his scientific articles have been published worldwide.
Dr. Edgardo Buscaglia has also co-founded the InterAmerican and Iberian Law and Economics Association.
The group he cofounded has an annual award named after him.
Since 1990, Dr. Buscaglia studies the impact of legal and judicial frameworks on economic development and the economic analysis of organized crime and associated corruption. He has participated in field research and provided assistance for international organizations on the economic analysis of judicial and civil society sectors in several countries within Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East
Dr. Buscaglia frequently publishes articles and accepts interviews within the general media, including New York Times, Al Jazeera, and Financial Times, among many others.

Professional career

Buscaglia received his post-doctoral training in Jurisprudence and the Social Policy Program at the University of California at Berkeley Law School. He also received a master's in law and economics and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Since 1990, he has lectured in law and economics and held visiting professorships at Georgetown University, Washington College, at the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico ; Mexican National Autonomous University, Ghent University, Hamburg University, University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Universidad Nacional del Sur, Universidad de San Andrés and National University of Buenos Aires.
He is currently a Senior Research Scholar in Law and Economics at Columbia University since 2005 and from 1991 until 2008 he was institutionally affiliated as a Fellow with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Also, he serves pro-bono as President of the Citizens' Action Institute, a civil society organization aimed at establishing international networks for rescuing and protecting victims of trans-national organized crimes.
Dr. Buscaglia co-founded this non-governmental organization in 2007.