Xavier X. Sala i Martín[2] (also Sala-i-Martin in English) is a Spanish economist and professor of economics at Columbia University.

Born in Cabrera de Mar, Catalonia, Sala i Martin earned a degree in economics from the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 1985.

Firstly, the United Nations and the World Bank used to believe that although poverty rates were falling, the total number of poor people was increasing.

In 2014 he had a public confrontation with José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, reproaching him the lack of support towards a democratic resolution of the conflict between Spain and Catalonia.

[22][23] He supports Catalan independence and gives conferences around Catalonia with limited success, in name of the pro-independence association that he and other university teachers created for that purpose, (Col·lectiu Wilson).