I work on economic development, innovation, and place-based policy.

I'm a Professor of Economic Geography at LSE. I also run the ‘Cities’ theme in the International Inequalities Institute, and am a fellow of CIFAR's programme on Innovation, Equity, and the Future of Prosperity. I'm an associate member at Nuffield College, University of Oxford.

I'm also an affiliate of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE), the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP), and the Centre for Responsible Banking and Finance at the University of St Andrews.

Current research

• Technological revolutions and urban growth. I'm a PI on an ESRC-funded project on changing spatial inequality across the advanced world. I'm now working on how technology shifts the geography of human activity.
• The political impact of inequality. Past, award-winning work has considered how inequality and mobility shape voting patterns. I'm now working on how spatial inequality influences voting patterns using data for over 100 countries.
• Policy for innovation and growth. Recent studies have included work on Singapore's high-tech sector, the role of Sovereign Wealth Funds and Green Development Banks in economic development, and how mobile internet access influences household incomes in the Philippines.

Policy & consultancy

I do research consultancy and strategic advice for both UK and international clients. I'm currently working with the Asian Development Bank and the OECD. More on this work →

Book

My book, Innovation for the Masses: How to Share the Benefits of the High-Tech Economy, was published in January 2024 by University of California Press.

Teaching

Come and study at LSE. I teach on the MSc Innovation Policy, MSc Local Economic Development, BSc Geography with Economics, and the Summer School course Economics of European Integration.