Olivier de Bandt holds a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago. He is currently Director of Business Conditions and Macroeconomic Forecasting at the Bank of France. He is also associate professor of economics at the University of Paris Ouest and co-editor with Heinz Herrmann and Giuseppe Parigi of "Convergence or Divergence in Europe?" published by Springer Verlag. Thomas Knetsch holds a PhD in economics from the Freie Universität Berlin.He currently heads the structural issues unit of the Macroeconomic Analysis and Projections Division in the Economics Department of the Deutsche Bundesbank. He has published a number of research papers in empirical macroeconomics, applied time-series analysis and economic forecasting. Juan Peñalosa has developed his career as an economist in the Economics, Statistics and Research Directorate General of the Bank of Spain, having been member of different European Committees both in Brussels and in Frankfurt linked to monetary, financial and macroeconomic issues. At present he is head of the Forecasting and Conjunctural Analysis Division in the Bank of Spain. Francesco Zollino received a PhD in economics from the University of Southampton (UK) and was visiting fellow at Princeton University (USA). He is currently Deputy Head of the Economic Outlook Division in the Research and International Relations Area of the Bank of Italy.