Aleksandr V. Gevorkyan is Assistant Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics and Finance in the Peter J. Tobin College of Business at St. John’s University, USA, and a Vincentian Research Fellow at the Vincentian Centre for Church and Society, USA. He also serves as Economics Subject Matter Expert for the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations, and he has worked as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Central Bank of Armenia. Gevorkyan’s extensive teaching and research experience covers themes in macroeconomic policy, economic development, international financial economics, labor migration, sovereign debt, commodities markets, and post-socialist transition economics. He is the author of Innovative Fiscal Policy and Economic Development in Transition Economies (2011). Otaviano Canuto is Executive Director of the Board of the International Monetary Fund for Brazil, Cabo Verde, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guyana, Haiti, Nicaragua, Panama, Suriname, Timor Leste, and Trinidad and Tobago. He previously served as Vice President, Executive Director and Senior Adviser on BRICS economies at the World Bank, as well as Vice President at the Inter-American Development Bank. Canuto has also served the Government of Brazil, where he was State Secretary for International Affairs at the Ministry of Finance. He has an extensive academic background, having served as Professor of Economics at the University of São Paulo and University of Campinas, both in Brazil.