Carmelo Ferlito

Dr Carmelo Ferlito (Verona, Italy, 1978) is an Italian economist and scholar who has been based in Malaysia since 2011.

He is the Chief Executive Officer of the Center for Market Education (CME) in Kuala Lumpur and a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS), Malaysia. He also serves as a Research Advisor to Provalindo Nusa in Jakarta, Indonesia, and as a Senior Fellow at the Property Rights Alliance in Washington, DC. In academia, he is an Adjunct Professor at Taylor’s University (Malaysia) and a faculty member at Universitas Prasetiya Mulya (Indonesia), where he teaches and conducts research in economics and public policy. He has also held fellowship appointments associated with the London School of Economics and King’s College London.

Dr Ferlito earned his Master’s degree in Economics in 2003 and his Ph.D. in Economic History in 2007 from the University of Verona, Italy. Between 2004 and 2009, he worked as a researcher with several Italian universities, including the University of Verona, the University of Salento, and the University of Macerata. In 2017, he was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Bergamo. From 2013 to 2019, he taught Microeconomic Theory and Policy as well as History of Economic Thought at INTI International College Subang and Universiti Kuala Lumpur–MFI. He is a recognised international speaker and has delivered guest lectures at leading institutions across Malaysia, Italy, Pakistan, Singapore, and Indonesia.

His research focuses on business cycle analysis, capital theory, and entrepreneurship, with particular attention to Austrian and Schumpeterian perspectives. He is the author of several books and academic publications (including book chapters published by Oxford University Press, Palgrave Macmillan and De Gruyter).

Through his leadership at the Center for Market Education, Dr Ferlito has collaborated in various capacities with prestigious international and regional institutions, including the European Union, the Asian Development Bank, and Bank Negara Malaysia, contributing to policy dialogue, research initiatives, and public engagement activities.

Dr Ferlito has also applied his theoretical work to public policy, especially in relation to Malaysia’s property market and housing policies, financial literacy, cost-of-living dynamics, and agricultural development. His views and analyses have been featured in major Malaysian and international media outlets, including The Financial Times, The Edge, The Star, The Malaysian Reserve, Free Malaysia Today, BFM 89.9, The Jakarta Post, and The Business Recorder.