Seyed Reza Yousefi is Economist of Global Indiators Group at the World Bank. He received PhD in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin in August 2013, and his main fields of interest cover Development, International Economics, and Industrial Organization. He has worked as visiting research scholar at the International Monetary Fund, and as guest instructor at the University of Maryland, College Park in the past. His current work includes research on the business cycles of remittances and their impact on consumption stability, and research on financial deepening and growth in the emerging markets.