Philip McCann holds Endowed Chair of Economic Geography at University of Groningen, The Netherlands. He was formerly Professor of Urban and Regional Economics in the Department of Economics at University of Reading, UK. Professor McCann has been appointed as one of two Special Advisers to the European Commissioner for Regional Policy, providing expert counsel on matters related to the reform and future development of European Cohesion Policy.

Les Oxley is Professor of Economics at University of Waikato, New Zealand, Adjunct Professor at Curtin University of Technology, Australia, and an affiliate of Motu Economic and Public Policy Research. His research interests include modelling and testing theories of economic growth, financial econometrics, energy economics and cliometrics. He is a founding editor of the Journal of Economic Surveys and sits on the editorial boards of several international journals.