Lant Pritchett is Professor of the Practice of International Development at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, a Senior Fellow of the Center for Global Development, and a senior fellow of BREAD. He has been part of the team producing many World Bank reports, including World Development Report 1994: Infrastructure for Development, and World Development Report 2004: Making Services Work for the Poor. In addition he has authored (alone or with one of his 22 co-authors) over 50 papers published in refereed journals, chapters in books, or as articles, as least some of which are sometimes cited. In 2017, he published Building State Capability: Evidence, Analysis, Action (co-authored with Matt Andrews and Michael Woolcock) with Oxford University Press.

Kunal Sen is Professor of Development Economics in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester, and Joint Research Director of the DFID-UK funded Effective States and Inclusive Development (ESID) Research Centre. His current research is on the political economy of development. Kunal Sen's recent authored books are The Political Economy of India's Growth Episodes and Out of the Shadows? The Informal Sector in Post-Reform India. He has won the Sanjaya Lall Prize in 2006 and Dudley Seers Prize in 2003 for his publications.

Eric Werker is Associate Professor in the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University and academic lead from SFU to the Canadian International Resources and Development Institute. He researches how less developed countries can build more thriving and inclusive private sectors, particularly when they are rich in natural resources, and how international actors can play a positive role in creating successful societies. In previous roles, Eric was on the faculty of Harvard Business School, ran the International Growth Centre Liberia program, and worked as a consulting economist at Conservation International and the Millennium Challenge Corporation.