GUSTAVO ARCIA Senior economist at Analítica WILLIAM ASCHER Donald C. McKenna Professor of Government and Economics at Claremont McKenna College, USA WILLIAM T. BARNDT Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Riverside, USA SHEILA AMIN GUTIÉRREZ DE PIÑERES Professor of Economics at The University of Texas at Dallas, USA where she is also the Dean of undergraduate education and Mary McDermott Cook Distinguished Chair JENNIFER S. HOLMES Associate Professor of Political Economy and Political Science at the University of Texas at Dallas, USA PETER KINGSTONE Professor and coordinator of the Program on High Growth-Emerging Markets at King's College London, UK NATALIA MIROVITSKAYA Senior researcher and lecturing fellow at the Duke Center for International Development DEBORAH NORDEN Professor of Political Science and chair of the Political Science Department at Whittier College, USA JUDITH TEICHMAN Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto, Canada