Björn A. Gustafsson is Professor at the Department of Social Work, Göteborg University, Sweden. His research covers empirical studies on poverty, social assistance, the distribution of economic well-being and the welfare state, as well as the economics of immigration. He has published published widely in scholarly journals and been commissioned by many public authorities to write special reports or contribute to special reports. Professor Gustafsson coedited Changing Patterns in the Distribution of Economic Welfare, An International Perspective with Peter Gottschalk and Edward Palmer (Cambridge University Press, 1997) and Poverty and Low Income in the Nordic Countries with Peder J. Pedersen (2000).
Li Shi is Professor of Economics in the School of Economics and Business at Beijing Normal University. He is one of China's leading scholars on inequality and poverty. His past positions include Director of the Center of Economic Transition and Development Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Professor Li's publications include several edited volumes, including China's Retreat from Equality (2001, with R. Zhao and C. Riskin), and Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty in Urban China (2006, with H. Sato). He has also served as a consultant to international donor organizations and has been a key contributor to China's Human Development Report.
Terry Sicular is Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Western Ontario. She has also held posts at Stanford and Harvard Universities, and is a leading researcher on the Chinese economy. Her research has covered topics such as China's market reforms, rural labor and employment, capital flight, and inequality. She has published widely in scholarly journals, and served as a consultant to international donor organizations. Recent and forthccoming publications include The Urban-Rural Income Gap and Inequality in China, The Review of Income and Wealth (forthcoming, with X. Yue, B. Gustafsson, and S. Li), and Why Do Revolutions Succeed? The Role of Rational Choice in the Chinese Communist Revolution, Homo Oeconomicus (2004). Professor Sicular also edited Food Price Policy in Asia: A Comparative Study (1989).
