The central purpose is to borrow and on occasion adapt the various tool kits offered to improve our current understanding of the development process which we see, in Simon Kuznets' terminology, as a transition from agrarianism to modern economic growth

John C. H. Fei was formerly Chairman of the Board at the Chung Hua Institute of Economic Research in Taipei, Taiwan. Co-author of five books and more than 75 articles, Fei also served as consultant to organizations such as AID, NPA, UNDP and the National Science Council of Taiwan. A Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he taught at Cornell University and Yale University.

Gustav Ranis is the Director of The Yale Center for International and Area Studies and Professor of International Economics at Yale University. Having served as consultant to such entities as The World Bank, ADB, AID, OECD, UNIDO, FAO, UNDP, and the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, Ranis is on the advisory boards, of several third-world research institutions. He has written extensively on theoretical and policy-related issues of development.