Chris de Neubourg studied Economics, Sociology and Philosophy at the Universities of Louvain and Antwerp and holds a PhD in Economics of the University of Groningen. After serving for 3 years as the UNICEF’s chief of Social and Economic Policy Research at the UNICEF Office of Research at Innocenti in Florence Italy, he returned to academia. Since September 2013, he is Professor of Public Policy and Management at TIAS School for Business & Society and Professor of Economics at the Economics Department of Maastricht University. He is a guest professor at Nihon University in Tokyo and the University of Mauritius. Before joining UNICEF he has been a Professor at the Universities of Groningen and Maastricht and has been being guest-lecturing and visiting scholar at the University of Colorado, Harvard University, the European University Institute and the Ecole des hautes études en Sciences Politiques et Sociales (Paris). He was the founder and first Academic Director of the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance. He has longstanding experience with projects and research oriented consultancies for the World Bank, UNDP, UNICEF, OECD and several bilateral donor agencies in Africa, Asia, Central Asia and Central- and Eastern Europe. He published many articles and books on public economics, labour economics, poverty analysis and social protection policy.