François Vaillancourt has been a professor in the department of economic sciences at the University of Montreal since 1976. He completed his Ph.D. in economics at Queen's University in 1978. Professor Vaillancourt has been a guest lecturer at the University of Toronto and Australian National University and a research scholar at the Institute for Research in Public Policy (1992-2000) and the CD Howe Institute (2000-2003). Professor Vaillancourt was also the coordinator of research for the MacDonald Commission (1983-1986). He has consulted for a number of international organizations such as the World Bank, OECD, UNDP and national agencies such as Statistics Canada, Finance Canada, and the Seguin Commission. His fields of research include linguistic policies, intergovernmental financial relations, and tax compliance costs. He has published on a wide variety of issues including equalization in federal countries, education, minority language policies, federalism, and taxation. Professor Vaillancourt is widely acknowledged as one of the pre-eminent scholars on the issue of tax compliance and administrative costs.