A CIRANO Associate Researcher and Fellow since 2017, Bernard Dafflon is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Political Economy at the University of Fribourg.

Holding a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Fribourg, his research interests are decentralization and federalism, territorial organization of local authorities, local public finance management, public financing of social insurance, public debt and financing of environmental services.

From 1977 to 1990, he was responsible for the department of municipalities of the Canton of Friborg and, as such, has acquired a solid experience in the practice of local public finances.

He has published in French and English several books, including collective works, and has written several articles on public finance and fiscal federalism, as well as numerous case studies and monographs on decentralization and communal management.

A CIRANO Researcher and Fellow since 2015, Main Researcher of the theme Territories, Jean-Philippe Meloche is Associate Professor at the École d'urbanisme et d'architecture de paysage of the Université de Montréal. He is also the Director of the École d'urbanisme et d'architecture de paysage of the Université de Montréal.

He is also Researcher at the Ivanhoe Cambridge Observatory of Urban and Real Estate Development, Member of the Réseau Villes Régions Mondes (VRM) and Member of the Sustainable Mobility Observatory.

Holding a Ph.D. in Geography from the Université de Montréal, he specializes in urban economics, local and regional economic development. He is particularly interested in the real estate market and urban infrastructure. His most recent research focuses on Quebec's local public finances and urban transportation.

A CIRANO Researcher and Fellow since 2004, François Vaillancourt is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Economics at the Université de Montréal.

Holder of a PhD in economics from Queen's University (1978), he published over 300 texts, particularly on intergovernmental financial relations, the complexity and impact of Canadian taxation, the cost-effectiveness of linguistic studies and attributes, and the economics of language policies.

Named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2009, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Geneva in 2021 for his work on the economics of language issues. Over his career, he has been a Fulbright Canadian Research Scholar in Kennesaw (2007) and a Shastri Lecturer in India (1993). He has been a visiting professor/researcher at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies in Atlanta (2007 and 2009), FUCaM (Mons, Belgium, 2006), École Normale Supérieure de Cachan (Paris, 2006 and 2008), the University of Toronto (1991) and the Australian National University (1991). He was also research coordinator for the MacDonald Commission (1983-1986) and associate editor of Canadian Public Policy-Analyse de Politiques (1986-1995). He has acted as a consultant for various national (including CIDA, House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance, Commission Séguin, Law Reform Commission of Canada, Conseil de la Fédération, Conseil de la langue française du Québec, CSST, Finance Canada, Forum of Federations, Federal Expert Panel on Equalization Reform, Institut Fraser, Office de la langue française, Statistics Canada and the Auditor General of Canada and Quebec) and international organizations (AFD, World Bank, IMF, OECD, UNDP). He has worked in 35 countries/entities on issues of regional and local financial resources (taxation, transfers) and provided training in this field for the African Tax Institute, the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, the World Bank, the IMF, and the Hague Academy for Local Governance.