Francisco Vidal Luna received his PhD in Economics in 1980 from the Universidade de São Paulo in São Paulo, Brazil, where he also was Professor of Economics until 1997. Author of some 50 articles and papers and 11 books on Brazilian economic history and the Brazilian economy, he has been an academic, a government administrator, and a banker.
Herbert S. Klein received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1963 and is Gouveneur Morris Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University. Author of some 25 books and 165 articles in several languages on Latin America and on comparative themes in social and economic history, he is currently a Research Fellow and Latin American Curator at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.