Thierry Verdier graduated in Civil Engineering from Ecole Polytecnique (Paris) and Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées (Paris), and received his PhD in Economics from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) (Paris). He is Professor of Economics at PSE (Paris School of Economics, Paris) and PUC-Rio (Brazil). He is Fellow of the European Economic Association, and a former member of the European Economic Association Council. He is a Research Fellow and former Co-Director of the International Trade Programme of CEPR (London). He is an elected member of the Academia Europaea. His fields of interest are international trade and globalization; social interactions and cultural transmission; political economy and development; economics of crime; and corruption.