Chandana Karunaratne is currently a Research Assistant at the IPS. He studied economics at the University of Virginia and subsequently completed a Master of Economics specializing in Econometrics at the University of Sydney and a Master of Applied Finance at the University of Western Sydney. During his time in Australia, he worked as a research analyst. He is most interested in poverty alleviation and development policies, econometric analysis, and regional and global financial crises and their effects on development.