Nicholas Barr has a BSc and MSc from the London School of Economics and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a Fulbright Scholar. He is Reader in Economics at the LSE, the author of numerous books and articles on the economics of the welfare state and the finance of higher education including "The Economics of the Welfare State" (OUP, 3rd edn, 1998) and "Labor Markets and Social Policy in Central and Eastern Europe" (OUP, 1994), and a member of the editorial board of the "International Social Security Review".