Xavier Debrun
Deputy Division Chief
Fiscal Policy and Surveillance
Fiscal Affairs Department
International Monetary Fund

Biographie
Xavier Debrun holds a PhD in International Relations 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 2006-07, he was a Visiting Fellow at Bruegel—Brussels’ leading think tank on European economic issues—and a Visiting 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 and books.




Robert D. Ebel
Visiting Professor of Public Finance
University of the District of Columbia

Biographie
Robert Ebel (Ph.D. in economics, Purdue University) is a senior fellow at the Urban Institute and an economist specializing in intergovernmental relations and public finance. He is also a member of the secretariat of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's Network on Federalism and Statistical Capacity Building. In his position as a lead economist for the World Bank, Dr. Ebel managed numerous fiscal programs, including those for Hungary, Pakistan, Jordan, Palestine, and Yemen. Dr. Ebel has also served in a variety of positions at the U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, including director of public finance research and scholar-in-residence. He has also served as executive director (1976-78) and chair (1998-99) of the District of Columbia Tax Revision Commission; deputy director of the Division of Public Finance and Economic Development at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (1980-83); and executive director of the Minnesota Tax Study Commission (1983-84). In 2012, he has published the Oxford Handbook of State and Local Government Finance (Oxford University Press).




Etienne Farvaque
Full Professor of Economics
Faculté des Affaires Internationales
Université du Havre
25 rue Philippe Lebon
BP 1123 76083 Cedex (France)

Biographie
Etienne Farvaque is Professor of Economics at the Université du Havre, where he manages the Economics Research Center (EDEHN – Equipe d'Economie – Le Havre Normandie). He received his PhD in Economics from Lille 1 University and has held visiting positions at Kwansei Gakuin University, Center for Research on European Integration (ZEI) in Bonn and the CIRANO. His research and teaching interests include European economics, political economy, fiscal rules and central banking.



Martial Foucault
Associate Professor of Political Economy
University of Montreal
Department of Political Science
CP 6128 succ. Centre-ville
Montréal, Qc, H3C3J7, Canada

Biographie
Martial Foucault is associate professor of political science at the University of Montreal and research fellow at CIRANO, Montreal. He is currently director of the European Union Centre of Excellence (University of Montreal/McGill University). In 2013, he will join Sciences-Po Paris as full professor in political economy. He received in 2004 his PhD degree in economics at the University of Paris Pantheon-Sorbonne and was post-doc fellow in 2005/06 at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies within the European University Institute (Italy). His research agenda covers economics and politics of fiscal policy, agenda-setting, theory of public goods, defense policy and methods. He has recently published pieces in American Journal of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, NBER Working Papers series, Public Choice, Electoral Studies, Political Studies, West European Politics, Social Science Quarterly, Journal of European Public Policy…. In 2009, he has received the IIPF (International Institute of Public Finance) Young Economist Award for a research granted by the NBER on fiscal decentralization in Benin.




Sergio Galletta
PhD student
Università della Svizzera italiana, IdEP
Via Giuseppe Buffi 13
6904 Lugano, Switzerland

Biographie
Sergio Galletta is a PhD student in economics at the University of Lugano (USI), Switzerland, since 2010. He is also affiliated with the Swiss Public Administration Network. During his doctoral studies he attended the Swiss Program for Beginning Doctoral Students in Economics at the Study Center Gerzensee. Previously, he obtained a MS in economics at the Catholic University of Milan, Italy, in 2009. His doctoral research focuses on public finance with a particular interest on of fiscal federalism issues.




Raphael Godefroy
department of Economics
University of Montreal



Biographie
Dr Raphael Godefroy obtained his PhD (2009) from Stanford University. After a post-doc position at Paris School of Economics, he joined the department of Economics at the University of Montreal in 2012. His research covers Political Economy, Health Economics, and Public Economics.




Yilin Hou
Associate Professor
Università della Svizzera italiana, IdEP
Via Giuseppe Buffi 13
6904 Lugano, Switzerland

Biographie
Dr Yilin Hou obtained his BA (1985) and first MA (1988) in China. He moved to the US in 1977, got his second MA (1998) and PhD (2002) in public administration (specialization: state and local public financial management) at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. He is currently the Stanley W. Shelton Professor of Public Finance at the Department of Public Administration and Policy, School of Public and International Affairs, University of Georgia, USA. His research is inspired by the core question of how the government sector can well play its due and necessary roles as related to issues of governance and development. His work focuses on how government can better weather revenue fluctuations due from economic cycles in order to smooth public service provision. His pursuit of scholarship is based in the public administration and policy tradition, with an interdisciplinary approach towards economics, law and politics.



Marcelin Joanis
Professeur agrégé, Département d'économique
Université de Sherbrooke, Faculté d'administration
2500, boul. de l'Université
Sherbrooke, (Qc), J1K 2R1, Canada
Centres de recherche: CIRANO, GRÉDI

Biographie
Titulaire d’un doctorat (Ph. D.) en sciences économiques de l’Université de Toronto, M. Marcelin Joanis est professeur au département d’économique de l’Université de Sherbrooke. Il est également chercheur au Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en analyse des organisations (CIRANO) et au Groupe de recherche en économie et développement international (GREDI), où il est l’auteur de plusieurs documents de recherche. M. Joanis est spécialiste de l’économie publique, et ses recherches récentes portent sur le fédéralisme fiscal, l’impact de la politique partisane sur les politiques budgétaires, la démocratie locale et la dette publique.





Mario Jametti
Associate Professor
University of Lugano


Biographie
Dr Mario Jametti joined the University of Lugano as an Assistant Professor of Economics in 2008. Since 2012 he is an Associate Professor there. He obtained his PhD at the University of Lausanne in 2004, subsequent to which he spent time as a postdoctoral fellow at McMaster University and as an assistant professor at York University, Canada. His main research interests are in public finance, applied microeconomics and applied econometrics, currently focusing on tax competition, political economy, natural disaster insurance and private pensions. Mr Jametti’s work has been published, among others, in the Economic Journal, Journal of Public Economics, Geneva Papers, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics and Review of Economics and Statistics.



Sharon N. Kioko
Assistant Professor
Department of Public Administration and International Affairs
Maxwell School of Syracuse University
426 Eggers Hall
Syracuse, NY 13244-1020

Biographie
Dr. Sharon N. Kioko (PhD, Indiana University) is an Assistant Professor of Public Administration and International Affairs at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. Dr. Kioko’s interests include examining the impact of fiscal institutions on the size and structure of state and local government revenues, expenditures, and long-term debt. Her other interests focus on the fiscal health of state and local governments and the role of financial information in the municipal bond market. Her recent work has been published in Journal of Budgeting, Accounting and Financial Management, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Public Budgeting & Finance, Municipal Finance Journal and International Public Management Journal.



Nicolas Marceau
Quebec Minister of Finance and the Economy.
PhD, Université de Montréal



Biographie
Dr. Nicolas Marceau (PhD, Université de Montréal) is currently Quebec Minister of Finance and the Economy. Prior to his career in politics, Mr. Marceau was a professor and researcher in the Department of Economics at the Université du Québec à Montréal. He served in several influential roles in his field: member of the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montréal’s committee on public finance and taxation; member of the Centre interuniversitaire sur le risque, les politiques économiques et l'emploi, where he managed a team of 40 researchers; member of the Institut du Nouveau Monde’s steering committee for the Strategic meeting on the Economy, which seeks to encourage citizen involvement and new ideas in Québec. He also participated actively in the work of the Commission on Fiscal Imbalance. His experience includes several executive positions with the Société canadienne de science économique, an association that promotes the advancement and dissemination of economic research in French.




Pierre Martin
Full Professor of Political Science
University of Montreal
Department of Political Science
CP 6128 succ. Centre-ville
Montréal, Qc, H3C3J7, Canada

Biographie
Pierre Martin is Professor of Political Science at the Université de Montréal, where he holds the Chair in American Political and Economic Studies. He received his PhD in political science from Northwestern University and has held visiting positions at Harvard University and the Wilson Center in Washington. His research and teaching interests include American politics, political economy, public opinion, and statistical methods



Nicolas-Guillaume Martineau
Professeur adjoint, Département d'économique
Université de Sherbrooke, Faculté d'administration,
2500, boul. de l'Université,
Sherbrooke, (Qc), J1K 2R1, Canada

Biographie
Nicolas-Guillaume Martineau is presently an Assistant Professor at the Département d'économique, Université de Sherbrooke, in Sherbrooke (Québec). Originating from the Toronto region, he obtained his Bachelor of Arts (Specialized Honours) reading economics at York University's Glendon College in 2005, followed by a Master of Arts in economics at Queen's University (2006). His Ph.D. thesis, entitled Essays on Political Parties, their Organization, and Policy Choice, written under the supervision of Professor Robin W. Boadway at Queen's University, was successfully defended in November 2011. His current research areas, within the fields of public economics and political economy, include optimal redistribution in the presence of social norms, and the relationship between expressive political participation and electoral laws.






Haizhen Mou
assistant professor in the Johnson-Shoyama
PhD Carleton University

Biographie
Haizhen Mou (PhD Carleton University) is an assistant professor in the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada. Her major research interests include public finance, health policy, and population aging. She is also interested in public-private mix of drug insurance and policy implication of the new measurements on happiness and well-being.




Niklas Potrafke
Professor of Economics, University of Munich
Ifo Institute
Head of Public Finance Department
Poschingerstraße 5
81679 München, Germany

Biographie
Niklas Potrafke holds a PhD in economics from the University of Humboldt University in Berlin (2008). Since 2012, he is professor of Economics at the University of Munich and Head of Department of Public Finance at the Ifo Institute (Germany). His research covers political economy, applied econometrics and public finance. Mr Potrafke’s work has been published, among others, in the European Journal of Political Economy, Public Choice, Journal of Comparative Economics, Journal of International Money and Finance, Review of International Economics, Journal of Health Economics, CESifo Economic Studies. Dr Potrafke is currently responsible of the research project titled « Public debt in Germany: Descriptive statistics, sustainability analysis, and projections ».



Grégoire Rota-Graziosi
Senoir Economist
Fiscal Affairs Department
International Monetary Fund
700 19th Street, N
Washington, DC 20431

Biographie
Dr Gregoire Rota-Graziosi is currently Senior Economist at the International Monetary Fund. He leads Technical Assistance missions in Tax Policy essentially in African countries. Before joining the Fund, he was professor of economics at the University of Clermont-Ferrand and member of the CERDI (Centre d‘Etudes et de Recherches en Developpement International). He has published articles in academic journals (e.g. American Economic Review, Games and Economic Behavior, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Development Economics…).



Daniel L. Smith
Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
New York University
295 Lafayette Street, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10012

Biographie
Dan Smith's research focuses on the implications of state fiscal institutions, especially balanced budget requirements, and the accumulation and implications of balances in state rainy day funds, unemployment trusts, and pension funds. His research appears or is forthcoming in Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Public Administration Review, Public Budgeting & Finance, and Public Choice, among others. In addition, he is co-author of Financial Management for Public, Health, and Not-for-Profit Organizations (Pearson Prentice Hall, 4th edition). Professor Smith sits on four editorial boards, and for four years he served on the Board of Directors of the New York University Federal Credit Union–an independent, federally regulated financial institution–where he was also Treasurer and Chair of the Assets and Liabilities Management Committee. He holds a Ph.D. in public administration from the School of Public and International Affairs at The University of Georgia.




Marianne Vigneault
Professor of Economics
Department of Economics, Chair
Bishop's University
2600 College Street
Sherbrooke, J1M 1Z7, Qc, Canada

Biographie
Professor Vigneault is member of the Department of Economics at the Bishop’s University since 1991. Professor Vigneault earned an M.A. (Economics) and Ph.D. (Economics) from Queen's University. She has also taught at Queen's University as a visiting professor. Her research has been in the area of public economics, with particular emphasis on fiscal federalism and tax policies towards entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and multinational corporations. Professor Vigneault has published in the Journal of Public Economics, International Tax and Public Finance, Canadian Journal of Economics, Economics Letters, and Topics in Economic Analysis and Policy. She has also acted as a research consultant for the Department of Finance, the Bank of Canada, the World Bank, the Russian Institute for the Economy in Transition, and the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research.



François Vaillancourt
Professor of Economics, Emeritus
University of Montreal
CIRANO
2020 rue University, suite 2500
Montréal, Québec H3A 2A5

Biographie
François Vaillancourt holds a PhD (1978) from Queen's University at Kingston. He is a member of the Royal Society of Canada, a Fellow CIRANO and an emeritus professor of economics at the Université de Montréal. He has published extensively in the area of public policy, particularly on fiscal federalism, compliance costs of taxation and language policy. He has acted as a consultant for various bodies, both Canadian and international ones such as the OECD; UNDP, and the World Bank. He has worked on local finance issues (taxation, transfers) in 24 countries.