He was born in Catanzaro on 9 July 1960, and is married with three children. He graduated with honours in Economics and Business from the University of Naples in 1983, obtaining an MBA the following year from the ISTAO (Ancona) and an M.Sc. with distinction in Economics from the London School of Economics in 1986. He joined the Bank of Italy in 1984 and worked for one year in the Supervision Department of the Milan branch and from 1986 to 1997 in the Research Department in Rome, becoming Head of the Short Term Economic Outlook Unit and then of the Inflation and Labour Market Unit. He was Economic Adviser to the Director General of the European Commission's DG ECFIN from 1997 to 1999 and Economic Adviser to the Italian Ministry of Labour from 2000 to 2006.
He returned to the Bank of Italy in July 2006 to work in the Research and International Relations Area as Deputy Head of the Structural Economic Analysis Department. He also served as Extraordinary Commissioner and President of INVALSI from 2012 to 2013. From 2014 to 2020, he was Head of the Structural Economic Analysis Directorate. On 1 April 2020, he was appointed Deputy Director General for Accounting and Controls. On 1 May 2022, he was appointed Director General for Planning, Organization and Accounting.
At the OECD, he was Chairman of the Board of the Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies from 2008 to 2013. He also chaired its Employment and Social Affairs Committee from 2006 to 2008 and the Working Group on Employment from 2001 to 2006.
He is the author of numerous articles and papers on economics (available at this link: Paolo Sestito - IDEAS/RePEc). He has written or co-edited the following books:
- Molto rumore per nulla: la parabola dell’Italia tra riforme abortite e ristagno economico, with Roberto Torrini, Amazon, 2019.
- La scuola imperfetta, Bologna, il Mulino, 2014.
- Il capitale sociale: cos'è e cosa spiega, co-edited with Guido De Blasio, Rome, Donzelli, 2011
- I servizi pubblici locali: liberalizzazione, regolazione e sviluppo industriale, edited with Magda Bianco, Bologna, il Mulino, 2010.
- Il capitale umano, with Piero Cipollone, Bologna, il Mulino, 2010.
- Disoccupati in Italia, with Salvatore Pirrone, Bologna, il Mulino, 2006.
- Il mercato del lavoro in Italia: Com'è, come sta cambiando, Bari, Laterza, 2002.
- Pensions Systems: Beyond Mandatory Retirement, co-edited with Elsa Fornero, Cheltenham (UK); Northampton (MA): Edward Elgar, 2005.
- Taxation, Welfare and The Crisis of Unemployment in Europe, co-edited with Marco Buti and Hans Wijkander, Cheltenham (UK); Northampton (MA): Edward Elgar, 2001.
- Le vie dello sviluppo: Dall'analisi del dualismo territoriale una proposta per il Mezzogiorno, with Giorgio Bodo, Bologna, il Mulino, 1991.
- Ora o mai più. Il futuro dell'economia italiana dopo la grande paura, LUISS University Press, 2021
