Carole-Juliette Maignan FEEM   Castello 5252 Venice, Venice 30122 Italy   carole.maignan@feem.it   http://www.feem.it   Biographical Sketch: Biography Dr. Maignan holds a degree in International Economics and Finance from the University of Bordeaux (France), an MSc in Money, Banking and Finance and a PhD in Economics (Macroeconomics of an ageing population) from the University of Birmingham (UK). At FEEM she is a researcher, working on European projects and is currently involved in two funded under the Fifth Research Framework Programme: • Digital Europe: e-commerce and sustainable development (DEESD) • Economic growth and innovation in multicultural environments (ENGIME). Until September 2000, she was working in an economic consultancy in London where she participated in conducting a cost-benefit analysis of new policy for a main financial regulatory body and was involved in a World Bank project to advise on optimal risk allocation schemes. She also worked in the University of Venice as a researcher analysing the relationship between individuals holdings of risky assets and their characteristics.   Primary Research Focus: Macroeconomics, Geographic economy, Applied econometrics, Economic growth and the economics of pensions and retirement.   JEL Areas: A1 : General Economics: General. E0 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics: General