Councillor David Begg, convenor of Edinburgh's transport committee, chaired a meeting earlier this month of Scottish councils to discuss how to finance public-transport improvements with revenues from a road-pricing ring around Edinburgh.

ECONOMIST: Transport

Their careers reveal the modern fusion of theoretical and practical finance: both had an interest in the stockmarket since childhood, and after their early work on options-pricing both supplemented their academic incomes with Wall Street consultancies.

ECONOMIST: Business books (4)