MARTIN RAVALLION is Senior Research Manager in the Development Research Group of the World Bank. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the London School of Economics, and Political Science, UK, and has taught economics at L.S.E., Oxford University, the Australian National University, and Princeton University. His main research interests over the last twenty years have concerned poverty and policies for fighting it. He has advised numerous governments and international agencies on this topic, and he has written extensively on this and other subjects in economics, including two books and over 150 papers in scholarly journals and edited volumes. He currently serves on the Editorial Boards of ten economics journals and is a Senior Fellow of the Bureau for Research in Economic Analysis of Development. DOMINIQUE VAN DE WALLE is a Lead Economist in the Development Research Group (Human Development and Public Services Team). Her research interests are in the general area of poverty and public expenditures. She holds a Masters in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK, and a Ph. D. in economics from the Australian National University, and began her career at the Bank as a member of the core team that produced the 1990 World Development Report on Poverty. She has worked on Argentina, Hungary, Morocco, Tunisia, Zimbabwe, Yemen, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. The bulk of her recent research has been on Vietnam, covering poverty, rural development, land reform, infrastructure (rural roads and irrigation) and poverty, impact evaluation and safety nets.
