Alain Pholo Bala holds a PhD in economics from the Center of Operation Research and Econometrics (CORE) at the Université Catholique de Louvain. His research interests include urban economics, regional and international economics, and applied and spatial econometrics. He has a strong academic background in spatial economics and applied econometrics, and the ability to conduct high quality quantitative research. Moreover, he has acquired some experience in performing econometric analyses with huge databases. He is currently involved in several research projects with colleagues from Europe, Canada, and South Africa. Alain Pholo Bala has published several papers in international journals including Papers in Regional Science, Journal of Housing Economics, and Macroeconomics Dynamics.