Jean-Philippe Platteau is Professor of Economics at Université de Namur, Belgium. He is also a research co-director of the Economic, Development and Institutions (EDI) research programme. He has devoted his research career to studying the role of institutions in economic development and the processes of institutional change. He is the co-author of Culture, Institutions, and Development: New Insights into an Old Debate (with Robert Peccoud, 2010), and has contributed to volume two of the Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture (2013), as well as several articles for the Journal of Development Economics. He is also a member of FEMISE advisory Board.