Ivan Pastine earned his Ph.D. in Economics from Georgetown University in Washington DC. Prior to joining the School of Economics in UCD, he worked at the Division of International Finance at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in USA and at Bilkent University in Turkey. He also lectured at the University of British Columbia in Canada as a Visiting Associate Professor. Ivan served as a Research Affiliate in International Macroeconomics in CEPR, a London-based think tank. He contributes as a programme committee member to numerous conferences of professional associations such as the European Economic Association, and the Association of Southern European Economic Theorists. He served as a Local Organization Committee Member for the European Meeting of the Econometric Society Annual Conference and for the European Economic Association Meeting. Dr. Pastine has wide research interests contributing in the fields of game theory, public economics, industrial organization, economics of education and international economics. His recent research focuses on public policy and political elections. He publishes in leading international journals such as the Journal of Public Economics, International Economic Review, Public Choice, Economics Letters, Economics of Education Review and International Journal of Industrial Organization. His work on theoretic explanations of financial crises have been published in international journals such as Journal of International Economics and Economic Theory and are used as required reading in the Ph.D. programs at Harvard and the LSE. Ivan has been a handyman, a Boatswains Mate in the US Navy before staring his career in economics.