List of Contributors

Gloria Afful-Mensah holds an MPhil degree in Economics from University of Ghana and is currently a PhD student at Milan University. She worked as a Research Associate at the Department of Economics, University of Ghana. Her areas of interest includes Development Finance and Private Sector Development.

Jenny C. Aker is Assistant Professor of Development Economics at the Fletcher School Department at Tufts University. She is also a Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Global Development, a member of the Advisory Board for CDA and the Boston Network for International Development (BNID). Jenny completed her PhD in agricultural economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and works on economic development in Africa, with a primary focus on the impact of information (and information technology) on development outcomes, particularly in the areas of agricultural markets, education, financial inclusion, and social protection programs.

Emmanuel Akyeampong is Professor of History and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. He is a former editor of the Journal of African History and of African Diaspora and the author or editor of several books including Drink, Power and Cultural Change: A Social History of Alcohol in Ghana (1996); Between the Sea and the Lagoon: An Eco-Social History of the Anlo of Southeastern Ghana (2001); Themes in West Africa’s History (2006); and Dictionary of African Biography (six volumes) (2013).

John C. Anyanwu is Lead Research Economist in the Development Research Department of the African Development Bank. Prior to joining the AfDB, he was full Professor of Economics, Department of Economics & Statistics, University of Benin, Nigeria, and Economic Adviser to Resident Representative, WHO, Lagos, Nigeria. John holds a PhD and MSc in Economics from the University of Ibadan and a master’s degree in Entrepreneurship and Economic Development from the University of Houston, Victoria. He is the editor of the African Development Review, a quarterly journal of the AfDB. John has authored over 100 journal articles, and a number of books and book chapters.

Ernest Aryeetey is the Vice Chancellor of University of Ghana and a Professor of Economics. He was previously the Director of the Africa Growth Initiative at Brookings Institution, Washington, DC, and also the Director of Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research at the University of Ghana. His research work has focused largely on African institutions, both formal and informal, and their role in economic development. He is currently Board Chair of the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research.

Ragui Assaad is Professor of Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs and director of graduate studies for its Master of Development Practice program. He is a Research Fellow of the Economic Research Forum in Cairo, Egypt, and serves as its thematic director for Labor and Human Resource Development. His current research focuses on labor markets in the Arab world, with a focus on youth and gender issues as they relate to education, transition from school-to-work, employment and unemployment, informality, responses to economic shocks, migration, and family formation.

Ousmane Badiane is Africa Director for the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). He oversees IFPRI’s regional offices for West and Central Africa in Senegal and Eastern and Southern Africa in Ethiopia. Dr. Badiane coordinates IFPRI’s food policy research, capacity strengthening activities, policy communications, and partnerships across Africa. Since 2004, he has been instrumental in leading IFPRI’s research and technical support to guide the implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). Dr. Badiane is a Fellow of the African Association of Agricultural Economics and recipient of an honorary doctoral degree from the University of KwaZulu, Natal, South Africa.

Mina Baliamoune-Lutz is Professor of Economics at the Coggin College of Business and Distinguished Professor (2012) at the University of North Florida, and Research Fellow at the Economic Research Forum (ERF). She has recently served as President of the African Finance and Economics Association (AFEA), and was a research fellow at the International Center for Economic Research (ICER) in Turin, Italy (2005–2012). Professor Baliamoune-Lutz’s research focuses primarily on the effects of formal and informal institutions, trade, financial flows, and financial reforms on economic transformation and human well-being in Arab and African countries. She co-edited the book Women in African Development—The Challenge of Globalization and Liberalization in the 21st Century (Africa World Press, 2005), and has published numerous journal articles and book chapters. Her empirical work on the effects of policy and institutional reforms in Africa has received significant recognition. She has been a regular contributor to research themes debated at the United Nations World Institute for Development Economics in Helsinki (UNU-WIDER), and has contributed to the United Nations Commission for Africa/African Development Bank/UNDP Annual Economic Conference on Africa, and the European Report on Development. Professor Baliamoune-Lutz holds a PhD in Economics from Northeastern University.

Alaka M. Basu is on leave from her position as professor in the Department of Developmental Sociology. For six years she was also the Director of the South Asia Program at Cornell University. She has taught at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi and at the Harvard School of Public Health. She is a social demographer with strong interests in public health. Alaka Basu has published widely in the areas of reproductive health and family planning, gender and development, child health and mortality, and the context and politics of population policy. She served on the governing boards of the Population Association of America (PAA), the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) and the Population Council in New York. She was also the chair of the IUSSP Scientific Committee on Anthropological Demography and a member of the Committees on Reproductive Health and on Population Projections of the National Research Council at the US National Academy of Sciences. She is currently on the Editorial Boards of Population and Development Review and Asian Population Studies.

Kaushik Basu is Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank and C. Marks Professor at Cornell University. He was previously Chief Economic Adviser to the Indian Government. He did his undergraduate studies at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, and PhD at the London School of Economics. Professor Basu has published in development economics, industrial organization, and game theory. He is the author of Beyond the Invisible Hand (Princeton University Press) and Analytical Development Economics (MIT Press). Professor Basu has received honorary doctorates from Fordham University, New York, and the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. In 2008 he was conferred one of India’s highest civilian awards, the Padma Bhushan by the President of India.

Andrew Berg is Assistant Director and chief of the Development Macroeconomics Division in the IMF’s Research Department. Previously, he was in the Fund’s African Department and mission chief to Malawi. He has also worked at the US Treasury and as an associate of Jeffrey Sachs. He has a PhD in Economics from MIT and an undergraduate degree from Harvard. He has published articles on sustained growth accelerations, the macroeconomics of aid, and prediction of currency crises. His current research agenda includes inequality and growth, debt sustainability, the management of natural resource wealth, and monetary policy in low-income countries.

Jean-Claude Berthélemy is Professor and Dean of the School of Economics at Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne University. He is also a corresponding member of the French Academy of Social Science (Académie des sciences morales et politiques). He has been earlier in his carrier Director of research division at the OECD Development Centre, Director of the CEPII (Centre d’études prospectives et d’informations internationales), and Vice President of EUDN (European Development research Network). He has published extensively on development economics and has been a consultant for various international organizations, including the African Development Bank, World Bank, UNDP, UNIDO, UN-WIDER, European Commission.

Sophie Bessis is Franco-Tunisian. She graduated in history (agrégée d’histoire) from Paris-Sorbonne University. She has worked for years in the fields of economic policies of development, north–south relationships, the condition of women in the sub-Saharan Africa and the Arabic world. Currently, she is associate researcher at IRIS (Institut des relations internationales et stratégiques, Paris). She has published many books. The latest ones being Western Supremacy, The Triumph of an Idea? (Zed Books,2002); Les Arabes, les femmes, la liberté (Albin Michel, 2007); La Double Impasse, l'universel à l'épreuve des fondamentalismes religieux et marchand (La Découverte, 2014).

Haroon Bhorat is Professor of Economics and Director of the Development Policy Research Unit at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He has co-authored two books and published over 150 academic journal articles, book chapters, and working papers, covering labor economics, poverty, and income distribution. He is a Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labour. Professor Bhorat holds a highly prestigious National Research Chair, is a Director on the Western Cape Tourism, Trade and Investment Promotion Agency Board, and has served as economic advisor to former Ministers of Finance.

Joshua E. Blumenstock is Assistant Professor at the Information School and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington. His research develops methods and theory for the analysis of large-scale behavioral datasets, with a focus on how such data can be used to understand processes of human and economic development in poor and marginalized regions of the world. Joshua has a PhD in Information Management and an MA in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and Bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science and Physics from Wesleyan University.

Julia Cagé received her Economics PhD from Harvard University in 2014. She joined Sciences Po, Paris, as an Assistant Professor in Economics in July 2014. She is a former student of the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Paris) and received her MA in Economics from the Paris School of Economics in 2008. She specializes in Political Economy, Economic History, and International Economics. She is particularly interested in the media, especially the question of how media competition affects the provision of information and political attitudes. She is also working on international trade, studying the impact of trade liberalization on developing countries.

Stephen O’Connell is Chief Economist of USAID and Gil and Frank Mustin Professor of Economics at Swarthmore College. His research focuses on macroeconomic policy in sub-Saharan Africa, and most recently on monetary policy and monetary union in East Africa. He spent 2013 as a Visiting Scholar at the IMF, where he worked on monetary policy frameworks in low-income economies. He is a former member of the Programme Committee of the African Economic Research Consortium, and co-edited the AERC's two-volume Political Economic of Economic Growth in Africa, 1960–2000.

Xavier Debrun is Deputy Division Chief in the IMF Fiscal Affairs Department. After obtaining a PhD in International Economics from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, he joined the IMF in 2000, working mainly in the Fiscal Affairs and Research Departments. In 2006–2007, he was a Visiting Fellow at Bruegel—Brussels’ leading think tank on European economic issues—and a Visiting Associate Professor at the Graduate Institute in Geneva. His research interests include monetary integration, political economics and macro-fiscal issues. He published widely on these issues in professional journals, IMF series, and books.

Asli Demirgüç-Kunt is the Director of Research in the World Bank. After joining the Bank in 1989 as a Young Economist, she has held different positions, including Director of Development Policy, Chief Economist of Financial and Private Sector Development Network, and Senior Research Manager, doing research and advising on financial sector and private sector development issues. She is the lead author of World Bank Policy Research Report 2007, Finance for All? Policies and Pitfalls in Expanding Access. She has also created the World Bank’s Global Financial Development Report and directed the issues on Rethinking the Role of the State in Finance (2013), and Financial Inclusion (2014). The author of over 100 publications, she has published widely in academic journals. Her research has focused on the links between financial development and firm performance and economic development. Banking crises, financial regulation, access to financial services including SME finance are among her areas of research. Prior to coming to the Bank, she was an Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. She holds a PhD and an MA in economics from the Ohio State University.

Jean-Jacques Dethier is Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University, where he teaches graduate courses on development, and a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Development Research, University of Bonn. He worked at the World Bank from 1985 to 2014, as Research Manager, Country Economist, and other positions. He also worked for ILO and was a consultant for USAID, FAO, IFAD, the Arab Monetary Fund, and IOC. He has worked on all continents and has published extensively on development policy, macroeconomics and public finance. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley (1984), an ABD PhD from the Free University in Berlin, Germany (1976), and a Law Degree from the University of Liège, Belgium (1975).

Hamed El-Said (PhD) is Chair and Professor of International Business and Political Economy at the Manchester Metropolitan University Business School (UK). He acted as an advisor to the United Nations al-Qaeda and Taliban Monitoring Team (2008–2013). From 1990 to 1992, he served as a member of the Centre for Strategic Studies, then the research arm of HRH Prince Hassan ben Talal (Crown Prince of Jordan between 1965 and 1999). In 2008, he headed the research team of the United Nations Counter Implementation Task Force’s Working Group on Addressing Radicalisation and Extremism that Lead to Terrorism. He has published extensively on the Arab World. His latest publications include New Approaches in Fighting Terrorism: Designing and Evaluating Counter Radicalisation and Deradicalisation Programs.

Ibrahim Ahmed Elbadawi is currently Director of Economic Policy & Research Center at the Dubai Economic Council, and before that was a Lead Economist at the Research Department of the World Bank. He has published widely on macroeconomic and development policy, democratic transitions and the economics of civil wars and post-conflict transitions. He is a Research Fellow at the Center for Global Development; Associate Editor of the Middle East Development Journal; Thematic Research Leader for “Natural Resource Management and Economic Diversification” at the Economic Research Forum for the Middle East and member of the Advisory Board of the Arab Planning Institute.

Chris Elbers studied econometrics and mathematical economics at the University of Amsterdam and now is the Desmond Tutu Chair Holder of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration at the VU University Amsterdam. He is a fellow of the European Union Development Research Network (EUDN), the Tinbergen Institute and the Amsterdam Institute for International Development (AIID). His main research activities are in the fields of poverty measurement and impact evaluation.

Bichaka Fayissa is Professor of Economics, Jones College of Business at Middle Tennessee State University. His research focuses on the Economic Growth and Development Policies of African Economies.

Augustin Kwasi Fosu is Professor, Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), University of Ghana. He is also Extraordinary Professor, Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, University of Pretoria; and Research Associate, CSAE, University of Oxford. Previously he was Deputy Director, UNU-WIDER; Senior Policy Advisor (Chief Economist), UN Economic Commission for Africa; and Director of Research, African Economic Research Consortium (AERC). He holds a PhD in economics from Northwestern University, USA. Among his many editorial responsibilities are co-editor of the Journal of African Economies (Oxford) and member of the editorial boards of such journals as the Journal of Development Studies, Oxford Development Studies, World Bank Economic Review, and World Development.

Marcelo M. Giugale is the Senior Director of the World Bank Group’s Global Practice on Macroeconomics and Fiscal Management, the professional home of the Group’s 300-plus macroeconomists. An international development leader, his 25 years of experience span the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Latin-America, and Africa, where he led senior-level policy dialogue and over 30 billion dollars in lending operations across the development spectrum. A Fellow of the US National Academy of Public Administration, he has published on macroeconomic policy, finance, subnational fiscal rules, development economics, and applied econometrics. He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics.

Wafik Grais has long experience in international development and finance, notably as former Director at the World Bank and Founder and Chairman of a Cairo-based Financial Advisors company. Wafik Grais brings global financial experience on the topics of financial systems assessments, corporate governance, Islamic finance, and public policy. He is currently an independent international advisor with expertise in Islamic finance, private equity, corporate governance, and real estate. Wafik Grais holds a PhD in economics from the University of Geneva and a BSc in economics and another in Political science from the same university. He is fluent in Arabic, French, and English.

Jan Willem Gunning is Emeritus Professor of Development Economics at the VU University Amsterdam. He is a former staff member of the World Bank, has been a professor in Oxford, where he directed the Centre for the Study of African Economies and is the General Secretary of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. With Chris Elbers he has worked on the effects of risk on growth in Africa and on the limitations of randomized controlled trials in impact evaluation.

Kenneth Harttgen is an economist who works at the center for development and cooperation (Nadel) at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. He holds a PhD in economics from Göttingen University. Since 2007, he has worked for several international organizations as a consultant, including FAO, UNDP, UNIFEM, UNESCO, and the World Bank. His main research interest is in empirical microeconomics, poverty, inequality, and population dynamics in developing countries.

Calestous Juma is an internationally recognized authority on the role of science, technology, engineering, and innovation in sustainable development. He is Professor of the Practice of International Development at Harvard Kennedy School. In 2014–2015, he was MLK Visiting Professor in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is Director of HKS Science, Technology, and Globalization Project and Agricultural Innovation in Africa Project. He is Faculty Chair of the HKS Edward S. Mason Fellows Program and Faculty Chair of the Innovation for Economic Development Executive Program and the Mason Fellows Program. He has been elected to several scientific and engineering academies.

Ioannis N. Kessides’s areas of specialization are energy policy, competition, regulatory, and privatization policies in network utilities, market structure and firm conduct, determinants of entry and exit, and contestability analysis. Until July 2013, he was Lead Economist, Development Research Group at the World Bank. Prior to joining the World Bank in 1990, he taught industrial organization and microeconomics at the University of Maryland. More recently, he taught a course on public policy towards business at the Woodrow Wilson School (Princeton University). He received a BSc degree (with honors) in physics from Caltech, an MA in plasma physics (nuclear fusion), and a PhD in economics from Princeton University.

Michael Kevane is Associate Professor of the Economics Department at Santa Clara University. He is past President of the Sudan Studies Association, and co-director of Friends of African Village Libraries. Recent research focuses on how libraries promote reading, with articles published in Libri, World Libraries, and Bulletin des Bibliothèques de France. He is co-editor of Kordofan Invaded: Peripheral Incorporation and Social Transformation in Islamic Africa (Brill, 1998) and author of Women and Development in Africa: How Gender Works (Lynne Rienner, 2014, 2nd edition).

Leora Klapper is a Lead Economist in the Finance and Private Sector Research Team of the Development Research Group at the World Bank. Her publications focus on corporate and consumer finance, entrepreneurship, corporate governance, and risk management. She is a founder of the Global Financial Inclusion (Findex) database, which measures how adults around the world save, borrow, make payments, and manage risk. Prior to coming to the Bank she worked at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Bank of Israel, and Salomon Smith Barney. She holds a PhD in Financial Economics from New York University Stern School of Business.

Odongo Kodongo is Senior Lecturer of Finance and Director of PhD Programs at Wits Business School. He researches on asset pricing, foreign exchange rates, and cross-border capital flows and financial markets, with publications in top international journals.

Caroline Krafft received her master’s degree in public policy from the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs and is now a PhD Candidate in the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota. Her research examines issues in development economics, primarily labor, education, health, and inequality in the Middle East and North Africa. Current projects include work on early childhood development, labor market dynamics, life course transitions, human capital accumulation, and fertility.

Frannie A. Léautier is Founding Partner and CEO of Mkoba Private Equity Fund. She was Vice President and Chief of Staff at the World Bank; Executive Secretary of the African Capacity Building Foundation; Founder and Managing Partner of the Fezembat Group. She is also a Director of the PTA Bank; Director at Large AERC; founding Board Member of the Nelson Mandela Institute for Science & Technology; founding member of the Journal of Infrastructure Systems; member of the editorial board of the Journal of African Trade (JAT); Board Member UONGOZI Institute; and Visiting Committees at MIT Corporation. She holds a master’s and PhD from MIT, was distinguished professor at Sciences Po.

Keun Lee is Professor of Economics at the Seoul National University, and the director of the Center for Economic Catch-up. He has been awarded the 2014 Schumpeter Prize for his monograph on Schumpeterian Analysis of Economic Catch-up: Knowledge, Path-creation and the Middle Income Trap (2013, Cambridge University Press) by the International Schumpeter Society. He is also the President-Elect of this Society. He is a member of the Committee for Development Policy of UN, a co-editor of Research Policy, and a member of the governing board of Globelics. He obtained a PhD degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and has worked at the World Bank, the University of Aberdeen, and the East West Center.

Willi Leibfritz has a PhD in Economics and worked until 2001 with the IFO economic research institute in Munich as Head of Department for Macroeconomic Analysis and until 2007 with the OECD in Paris as Head of Division in the Economics Department. Since then he has worked as a consultant for the OECD, the World Bank and the African Development Bank. In recent years he has worked as Co-ordinator of the African Economic Outlook (AEO). The AEO is an annual product of collaborative work by three international partners: the African Development Bank, the OECD Development Centre and the United Nations Development Programme.

Justin Yifu Lin is Professor and Honorary Dean, National School of Development at Peking University. He was the Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank, 2008–2012. Prior to this, Mr. Lin served for 15 years as Founding Director of the China Centre for Economic Research at Peking University. He is the author of 23 books including Against the Consensus: Reflections on the Great Recession, the Quest for Prosperity: How Developing Economies Can Take Off, Demystifying the Chinese Economy, and New Structural Economics: A Framework for Rethinking Development and Policy. He is a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy and a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences for Developing World.

Tsitsi Makombe is Senior Program Manager at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Tsitsi manages research activities of IFPRI’s Africa regional offices for West and Central Africa and East and Southern Africa. She also provides programmatic support to various projects and notably the Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS), an initiative in support of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).

Joseph Leina Masawe is currently the Director of Economic Research and Policy at the Bank of Tanzania, a position he has held since 2007. Prior to this Dr. Masawe was a senior advisor to the executive director for Africa group one constituency at the International Monetary Fund. He has published widely on monetary policy and general economic policy.

Paul R. Masson, until his retirement in 2011, taught international economics at the University of Toronto. Starting at the Bank of Canada after a PhD in 1973 from the London School of Economics, he then worked at the OECD and the IMF, from which he retired in 2002. In 2007–2008, he was Special Adviser to the Governor of the Bank of Canada. He has published several books, including The Monetary Geography of Africa, with Catherine Pattillo, which examines the history of the use of currencies in Africa and prospects for further monetary integration. He has also published a number of articles on policy credibility, financial crises, contagion, and exchange rate regimes.

Margaret McMillan is Professor of Economics at Tufts University and a Research Associate in the NBER’s program on International Trade and Investment. In 2009, she was appointed the Director of the Development Strategies and Governance Division of the International Food Policy Research Institute. McMillan holds a PhD in economics (with distinction) from Columbia University an MPA from Princeton University and a BA in mathematics and economics (summa cum laude) from Boston University. Before coming to academia, she taught math in the Republic of Mali, managed a project for the World Bank in the United Republic of Tanzania and worked as a financial analyst at Lehman Brothers. McMillan’s research interests lie in the areas of international trade, investment, and development. She is the recipient of numerous awards for her research. In 2005, she was named the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She is also a recipient of research grants from the National Science Foundation, the Center for Aids Research and the NBER Africa Project. She is currently the principal investigator on a multi-million dollar project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council of the UK designed to enhance the understanding of economic growth and structural change in sub-Saharan Africa. Her work has been featured in The New York Times and the NBER Digest and has been published in a wide range of leading economics journals.

John Mathews is Professor of Strategy at Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Macquarie University, Sydney. He has taught at MGSM for the past 15 years, and was from 2009 to 2012 concurrently the Eni Chair of Competitive Dynamics and Global Strategy at LUISS Gardi Carli University in Rome. He has specialized in the catch-up strategies of firms and countries in East Asia, publishing widely in this field. In 2014 his new book, Greening of Capitalism: How Asia is Driving the Next Great Transformation, was published by Stanford University Press.

Jaime de Melo is Emeritus Professor at the University of Geneva, is Scientific director at FERDI an invited professor at the Johns Hopkins University Bologna Center. He is a CEPR fellow, a member of EU-GDN, and a non-resident scholar at Brookings. He worked at USAID from 1972 to 1976, taught at Georgetown University from 1976 to 1980, and at the University of Geneva from 1993 to 2012. From 1980 to 1993, he held various positions in the research Department at the World Bank. He serves on several editorial boards and was editor-in-chief of the World Bank Economic Review, 2005–2010.

Nadir Abdellatif Mohammed is the Country Director for the Gulf Countries, Middle East and North African region, of the World Bank. He obtained MPhil, PhD (Cantab) and post-doctoral qualifications in economics from the University of Cambridge. He also worked as researcher/lecturer in Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, and Addis Ababa. He publishes widely on issues of defense economics, economic development, and fiscal policy. He worked in the African Development Bank and the Islamic Development Bank before joining the World Bank Group in 1998.

Célestin Monga is Managing Director at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). He previously worked as Senior Advisor and Director at the World Bank and has held various board and senior positions in academia and financial services. A graduate of MIT, Harvard, and the universities of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Bordeaux, and Pau, Dr. Monga was the Economics editor for the five-volume New Encyclopedia of Africa (Charles Scribner’s, 2007). His published works have been translated into multiple languages.

Germano Mwabu is Professor of Economics at the University of Nairobi and a resource person at the African Economic Research Consortium. His primary research interests are in the fields of health economics and poverty analysis.

Karmen Naidoo obtained both an honors degree and a master’s degree in Economics from the University of Cape Town. She also holds a Master’s Degree in Development Economics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Karmen has previously worked in the areas of financial system development and financial inclusion in a variety of African economies. Since joining the DPRU, Karmen has worked extensively on assessing skills gaps and the impact of the training of firm employees in South Africa. Furthermore, she has been involved in profiling, through the use of micro-datasets, poverty, inequality, and labor markets in selected African economies.

Malokele Nanivazo is a visiting scholar at the University of Kansas in the Department of Economics. In this capacity, she conducts research on various topics related to gender economics such as family planning, education, entrepreneurship and poverty. Her expertise in gender economics enhances her research in economic development and international economics. Specifically, her economic development research centers on poverty, growth, rural transformation, trade, and foreign aid. Malokele Nanivazo also has teaching experience in graduate and undergraduate classes in macroeconomics, development economics, and international economics. Prior to joining the University of Kansas, she worked as a research fellow at the United Nations University–World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER). As a research fellow at UNU-WIDER, she was involved in the Research and Communication on Foreign Aid Project (ReCom) as the focal point for the “Gender and Foreign Aid” theme. In addition, she was the lead author for the Democratic Republic of Congo case study in UNU-WIDER’s Reconciling Africa’s Growth, Poverty and Inequality Trends: Growth and Poverty Project (GAPP). Malokele Nanivazo holds a PhD in Economics from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 2011, which concentrated on economic development and international trade. She is a member of the African Finance and Economics Association, American Economic Association and the International Association for Feminist Economics.

Léonce Ndikumana is Professor of Economics, Department of Economics and Director of the African Development Policy Program at the Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His research is on capital flight, domestic investment and financial intermediation, macroeconomic frameworks for growth and employment, and the politics and economics of conflict in Africa. He is a Honorary Professor of Economics at the University of Stellenbosch and a member of the United Nations Committee for Development Policy. He holds a doctorate in economics from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and is a graduate of the University of Burundi.

Benno Ndulu is Governor of the Bank of Tanzania. Having served as Professor of Economics at the University of Dar-es-Salaam, he joined the founder team of the highly acclaimed research network the African Economic Research Consortium and served as its Executive Director. He later joined the World Bank and served in various managerial capacities including as Research Manager. He has published widely on growth, governance and financial sector development in Africa.

Mwanza Nkusu is Senior Economist at the International Monetary Fund where she has worked since 1998. She received her BSc in Applied Economics (Distinction) from the University of Kinshasa, MSc in Policy Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC), and PhD in Economics from the UIUC. Dr. Nkusu’s research interests include monetary and exchange rate policies, international economics, and economic development.

Akbar Noman is at Columbia University where he combines being a Senior Fellow at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD) with teaching as an adjunct at the School of International and Public Affairs. Professor Noman’s numerous publications include Strategies for African Development (jointly with Joseph Stiglitz) in Akbar Noman et al. (eds) Good Growth and Governance in Africa: Rethinking Development Strategies. He has wide-ranging experience of policy analysis and formulation in a variety of developing and transition economies, having worked extensively for the World Bank as well as other international organizations and at senior levels of government. His other academic appointments have been at the University of Oxford (where he was also a student) and the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex.

Christian Nsiah is Associate Professor of Economics and Finance at Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, Ohio. His research interest include international finance, international trade, economic growth, technical change, and development (especially in the developing world). His current research projects focus on the determinants and impact for foreign capital inflows (e.g. remittance, foreign, tourism receipts) on economic growth and development, spatial issues in relation to trade and development, and financial efficiency of publicly traded companies and the impact of the financial crisis.

Yaw Nyarko is Professor of Economics at New York University and the Director of the Center for Technology and Economic Development. He is also the Co-Director of the Development Research Institute, winner of the 2009 BBVA Frontiers in Knowledge Award on Economic Development Cooperation, and Founding Director of NYU Africa House. A theoretical economist, his current work focuses on models where the economic actors engage in active learning about their environments and human capital models of economic growth and development. He is the author of many published research papers and the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including many from the National Science Foundation. He has been a consultant to many organizations including the World Bank, the United Nations, and the Social Science Research Council.

Eric Kehinde Ogunleye is currently affiliated with the African Development Bank Nigeria Country Office as Country Macroeconomist. Until very recently, he was a Special Adviser to the Chief Economic Adviser to the President of Nigeria, responsible for policy research and advisory assignments on diverse socioeconomic issues. He also served as Special Assistant to the President of Nigeria, focusing on international trade and finance. Earlier, he worked with the African Center for Economic Transformation where he engaged in providing policy research and advisory services for African governments, especially on economic transformation issues. Other previous experiences spanned UNU-WIDER, UNCTAD and WTO in addition to teaching and research experience as a Lecturer in the University of Calabar, Nigeria.

Kalu Ojah is Professor of Finance and Director of the Master in Finance & Investment at Wits Business School, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He is an active researcher with over fifty refereed articles and is co-editor of the African Finance Journal.

Keijiro Otsuka is Professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo. He received his PhD in Economics at the University of Chicago in 1979, was formerly chairman of board of trustees of International Rice Research Institute (2004–2007) and President of International Association of Agricultural Economists (2009–2012). He received the Purple Ribbon Medal from the Japanese government in 2010 and is the Fellow of International, American, and African Associations of Agricultural Economists. He is co-author or co-editor of 21 books. Currently he is an editorial board member of Economic Development and Cultural Change and Agricultural Economics

Peter van Oudheusden is an economist and works at the Finance and Private Sector Development Research Group at the World Bank. He has a PhD and MSc from Tilburg University.

Ruth Uwaifo Oyelere is currently Visiting Faculty in the Department of Economics at Emory University. She is also currently a Research Fellow for the Institute for the Study of Labor, Bonn Germany and a Research Affiliate for the Households in Conflict Network. Uwaifo Oyelere’s research interests are in development economics, the economics of education, labor and demographic economics, and health economics. She has published widely in general and specialty academic journals, including the American Economic Review, Economics of Education Review, Journal of Development Economics, and Journal of African Economies. She is also a recipient of a university teaching award.

John Page is Senior Fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution and a Non-resident Senior Fellow of the World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER). He is visiting professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo, Japan and a Research Associate of the Centre for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University and the Oxford Centre for the Study of Resource Rich Economies. From 1980 to 2008 Dr. Page was at the World Bank, where his senior positions included Director, Poverty Reduction, Director, Economic Policy, and Chief Economist, Africa.

Catherine Pattillo is Chief of the Low-Income Countries Strategy Unit in the Strategy, Policy and Review Department at the International Monetary Fund. Prior to that, she was a mission chief in the Western Hemisphere Department, and worked in the African and Research Departments. She earned a BA from Harvard University and a PhD in economics from Yale University. Before joining the IMF, she was a fellow at Oxford University, Centre for the Study of African Economies, and St. Antony’s College. Her research interests and published articles are in the areas of growth, investment, debt, monetary and exchange rate policies, aid, currency crises, macroeconomic policies and firm performance in Africa, and monetary unions in Africa.

Frank Place is Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute, working in the Policies, Institutions and Markets CGIAR Research Program. Previously he worked for nearly 20 years at the World Agroforestry Centre in Nairobi and before that at the Land Tenure Center, University of Wisconsin and the World Bank. He has a PhD in Economics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Rafael Portillo is Senior Economist in the Research department of the International Monetary Fund. Mr. Portillo holds a PhD from the University of Michigan. His research interests are in the area of monetary and fiscal policy in developing countries, with a focus on the development of macroeconomic models. He joined the IMF in 2005.

Peter Quartey holds a PhD in Development Economics from the University of Manchester (UK), MSc in Quantitative Development Economics (University of Warwick, UK), BA and MPhil Economics (Ghana). He is an Associate Professor in Development Economics and currently the Head, Department of Economics, University of Ghana and Director EPM Programme. He is also an Economist with the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research, University of Ghana. He was formerly the Deputy Director, Centre for Migration Studies (University of Ghana). His areas of specialization includes development finance, private sector development, poverty analysis and impact evaluation.

Jeffrey D. Sachs is a world-renowned economics professor and leader in sustainable development. He serves as the Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University. He is Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the Millennium Development Goals. Professor Sachs is Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, as well as co-founder and director of the Millennium Villages Project. He has authored three New York Times bestsellers in the past 7 years: The End of Poverty, Common Wealth, and The Price of Civilization. His most recent book is To Move the World: JFK’s Quest for Peace.

Stephanie Seguino is Professor of Economics at the University of Vermont, USA; Professorial Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. Prior to obtaining a PhD from the American University, she served as an economist in Haiti in the pre- and post-Baby Doc era. Her current research explores the relationship between inequality, growth, and development. A major focus of that work explores the effect of gender equality on macroeconomic outcomes. She is an instructor in the African Program for Rethinking Development Economics (APORDE) and Associate Editor of Feminist Economics and Journal of Human Development and Capabilities.

Saurabh Singhal is a Research Fellow at the World Institute for Development Economics Research. His research interests include the political economy of development, applied econometrics, and experimental economics. Some of his current projects analyze issues related to health, education, and conflict. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Southern California and an MA in economics from the Delhi School of Economics.

Joseph Stiglitz is University Professor at Columbia University, the winner of the 2001 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics, and a lead author of the 1995 IPCC report, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. He was chairman of the US Council of Economic Advisors under President Clinton and chief economist and senior vice president of the World Bank for 1997–2000. Stiglitz received the John Bates Clark Medal, awarded annually to the American economist under 40 who has made the most significant contribution to the subject. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a corresponding Fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Society.

Finn Tarp is Professor of Development Economics at the University of Copenhagen; and since 2009 Director of the UNU World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER). He has more than 35 years of experience in academic and applied development economics, including 20 years of work in some 35 developing countries. Finn Tarp is a leading international expert on issues of development strategy and foreign aid; and he was appointed to the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP) advising the Chief Economist of the World Bank in 2013. For further information (including a detailed CV with publications) see www.econ.ku.dk/ftarp.

Jean-Claude Tchatchouang is Senior Advisor to the World Bank Executive Director for 24 African countries. He previously served as economist at the International Monetary Fund and at the Banque des Etats de l’Afrique central, the central bank that serves six the countries which form the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa.

Mark R. Thomas is a manager at the World Bank, where he leads that institution’s global engagements on debt relief, debt sustainability, and public debt management. In over 20 years of working in development he has worked on Africa, Latin America, and Asia, including periods living in Brazil and Turkey. He has served as adjunct faculty at the Woodrow Wilson School (Princeton University), Georgetown Public Policy Institute, and McGill University. He is a Freeman of Llantrisant, Wales.

Josselin Thuilliez is a tenured CNRS researcher (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) at the Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne. He received his doctorate in economics from Paris 1 University and has worked with the Malaria Research and Training Center, Bamako, Mali on several studies since 2007. His research currently focuses on development and health economics in Africa and Europe, understanding the impact that health policies have on economic outcomes such as income, education, and productivity. He also has expertise in conducting longitudinal studies in Africa, comparative evaluations using experimental or quasi-experimental designs, and analysis of large-scale microeconomic census data such as Demographic and Health Surveys in Africa.

Yvonne Tsikata is the World Bank President’s Chief of Staff. Prior to this, Ms. Tsikata was the Sector Director for the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Department of the Europe and Central Asia Region. Ms. Tsikata joined the World Bank in 1991 as a Young Professional. Since then she has held various positions, including being the World Bank’s Country Director for the Caribbean Region (2007–2011). Prior to that, she was Sector Manager for the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Unit in the Africa Region. She also held positions in the World Bank’s International Trade Department and Independent Evaluation Group. Between 1998 and 2001, while on leave from the World Bank, she served as a senior research fellow at the Economic and Social Research Foundation in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, as a consultant to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris and to the United Nations University’s World Institute for Development Economics Research in Helsinki. Before joining the World Bank, Ms. Tsikata taught monetary theory and macroeconomic policy at New York University, where she earned her graduate degrees. Her research interests have focused on international trade and aid effectiveness.

Filiz Unsal is an economist at the Strategy, Policy and Review (SPR) Department of the International Monetary Fund. Before joining the SPR Department, she worked in the Research Department and Asia and Pacific Department. She received her PhD in Economics in 2009, and MSc in Economics and Finance in 2006 from University of York. Her research interests include monetary and macro-prudential policies for developing countries. She has published in several academic journals, including the International Journal of Central Banking, the IMF Economic Review, Journal of Asian Economics, among others, and has written several policy papers

Yan Wang is Visiting Professor at School of Business, George Washington University and Senior Fellow, National School of Development, Peking University. Previously she worked as Senior Economist and Team Leader in the World Bank for 20 years. She also served as Coordinator of the OECD-DAC and China Study Group for two years (2009–2011). She has authored and coauthors several books and journal publications and received twice the SUN Yefang Award in Economics. She received her PhD from Cornell University, and taught economics before joining the World Bank.

Maureen Were is Research Manager at the Research Centre, Kenya School of Monetary Studies, Central Bank of Kenya. She has written and published a number of research papers on various topics including monetary policy in Kenya, trade, macroeconomic issues and gender. In 2013, she won the Mo Ibrahim Leadership Fellowship award aimed at preparing upcoming African leaders and was attached at the World Trade Organization in Geneva for a period of one year, during which most of the contribution to the book chapter was undertaken. She holds a PhD in Economics.

Liang Xu is a PhD candidate in African history at Harvard University. He holds a PhD in International Relations from Peking University (2010). His current research examines Asian investment and South Africa’s industrial policies in black homelands under apartheid and the long-term impact on small towns in South Africa.

Derek Yu is Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of the Western Cape and part time researcher at the Development Research Unit of the University of Cape Town. His main research areas are labor economics and development economics.