Filippo Gaddo, Managing Director at Alvarez and Marsal, SPE Councillor and host of the Econ Thoughts SPE Podcast, spoke with Federico Sturzenegger, Minister of Deregulation and State Transformation of the Argentine Republic under President Javier Milei, and Professor at the University of San Andrés in Buenos Aires (UdeSA). See his bio here

In this conversation, Filippo and Federico discuss the Milei administration’s sweeping programme to shrink the state and restore market freedom. Drawing on two years of preparatory work that mapped every law in Argentina, Federico explains how his team built a “blueprint for revolution”: identifying which regulations to repeal, amend, or retain. Deregulation, he argues, is not simply administrative—it is moral and institutional, aimed at freeing citizens and firms from a bureaucracy that “imagines every risk but never counts the cost” of its own interventions. His ministry applies three tests for reform: a legal review, feedback from businesses and citizens, and price differentials as indicators of distortion. Early successes include application of “the chainsaw” - large cuts to state spending (a 5% of GDP reduction in government budget) and a 30 per cent reduction in the public workforce, combined with a drastic reduction in inflation and lifting twelve million Argentines above the poverty line.

Beyond fiscal repair, Mr Sturzenegger presents deregulation as a democratic act—challenging entrenched elites, rent-seekers, and intermediaries who long profited from Argentina’s welfare and regulatory state. He highlights reforms that have dismantled corrupt social-aid networks, channelled payments directly to citizens, and eliminated artificial barriers across sectors from energy to labour markets. Whilst Filippo probed Federico on the future of monetary policy and dollarization, what comes across is President Milei’s obsession with fiscal surplus and monetary discipline as the anchors of Argentina’s recovery. Looking ahead, he sees vast potential in the country’s energy and mining boom—if Argentina can consolidate property rights and sustain a lean, rules-based state. “Wonderful things happen when you let people be free,” he concludes, encapsulating both the philosophical and practical spirit of the country’s deregulation experiment.

Federico Sturzenegger is an economics graduate from the Universidad Nacional de La Plata (1987) and holds a PhD in Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (1991). He currently serves as Argentina's Minister of Deregulation and State Reform. He is also Full Professor at the Universidad de San Andrés (UdeSA) and Adjunct Professor at Harvard University's School of Government (both currently on leave). He was a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and at the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (UTDT). Previously, he was Chief Economist of YPF (1995-1998), Secretary of Economic Policy (2001), held the presidency of Banco Ciudad (2008- 2013), was a member of Chamber of Representatives (2013-2015) and chaired the Central Bank of Argentina (BCRA) between 2015 and 2018. He is the author of several books and articles on economics. For his 54 papers in refereed journals, he holds the 2nd highest academic impact according to the REPEC among economists residing in Argentina. The Konex Foundation has recognized him for his contributions to economic theory and the World Economic Forum (WEF) named him Young Global Leader.