Ali M. Kutan is Professor of Economics and Finance at the Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, where he has taught since 1990. In 1991, Professor Kutan served as a consultant to the World Bank involving a project on enterprise behavior in the transition economies of Eastern Europe. In 1998-99, he was a visiting scholar at the Economic Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. He is currently part of an IMF research team that works on monetary policy issues in emerging economies of Eastern Europe. Professor Kutan has published widely on the issues surrounding European monetary integration and the enlargement of the European Union, emerging financial markets and trade, and the impact of terrorism on economic activity. His research is supported through several agencies, including The National Council for Eurasian and East European Research, the U.S. Department of Education, and the William Davidson Institute of the University of Michigan Business School. He edits two journals related to emerging markets and economies: Economic Systems (Elsevier) and Emerging Markets Finance and Trade (M.E. Sharpe). He is also a Research Associate of the Emerging Market Group (Sir Cass Business School, London), Research Fellow of the William Davidson Institute of the University of Michigan Business School and Senior Fellow of the Center for European Integration Studies of the University of Bonn. He is recently invited to serve as a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Comparative Economics. He is also a member of the Editorial Board of the Comparative Economic Studies and Economic Systems.