Staff Supervision Areas
The following topics/projects are provided as a guide only. Applicants are welcome to contact the named members of staff if they wish to discuss a particular topic.
I work in a variety of research areas such as international trade (firm export dynamics), education policy (behavioural interactions within the school system), cultural dynamics and international political economics (the effect of foreign interventions on conflict and democracy), with an underlying common interest in development economics.
I am happy to supervise graduate research in the fields of macroeconomic theory and growth theory. I am particularly interested in the following topics: welfare reforms and unemployment in globalised economies; the nexus between trade, wage dynamics and re-shoring, and some growth topics such as how knowledge and wage inequalities affect income distribution and economic development.
I am keen to supervise graduate research of an empirical kind, both microeconometric analysis of surveys and macro cross-country analysis (eg of growth empirics). Most of my supervisees have tended to work on developing countries, and most of my own research experience is with Sub-Saharan Africa and China. I have a particular interest in modelling behaviour at the household level, for example: intra-household allocation, household production, and fertility. I am interested in topics in public economics, for example, health, education, poverty and inequality, and in labour economics, for example, wage determination, unemployment and migration.
I am able to supervise graduate research in applied behavioural economics. I have considerable expertise in the design and execution of laboratory-type behavioural experiments conducted with non-student subjects and combined analyses of data generated by behavioural experiments and surveys. Topics of particular interest include risk-sharing, cooperation, corruption and accountability, notions of distributive justice, external validity, and the use of behavioural experiments to generate policy-relevant insights.
My research lies at the intersection of economic history, political economy, economic geography and development. In recent work with Michela Giorcelli, I investigate the drivers of civilian victimization in World War II Italy. In ongoing work, I look at the economic impact of colonial investments in transport infrastructure and agriculture, with a focus on Libya and the Horn of Africa. A third branch of my research studies the determinants of state formation in ancient Iraq and medieval Ethiopia and its long-term consequences.
I would be happy to supervise topics in any area of macroeconomics, international finance, development economics and international trade, particularly with an applied flavour.
I am keen to supervise students in working on international trade, both theoretical and empirical, and particularly on research questions that relate trade to economic history and political economy. My research agenda so far has focused on the trade determinant of imperial expansion and contraction, the legacy of colonial empires for the pattern of trade, and the relation between trade and foreign military interventions and war, but I am quite happy to supervise students on other topics within the broad category of trade/history/political economy. I also have a strong interest in the historical determinants of the location of economic activity, and its implications for development and growth.
I would like to supervise mainly theoretical research in financial economics. Topics include: financial contracting, financial intermediation, financial crises, finance and international trade, finance and development and finance and the macroeconomy.
I am able to supervise potential students in both applied and theoretical labour economics. In particular, my research typically focuses on structural estimation of models of the labour market with search and matching frictions.
I am interested in graduate research in areas of applied microeconometrics, development and labour economics.
My research is focused on labor economics and distributional analysis in Latin America and the Caribbean, on the impact evaluation of public programs, and on the economics of perceptions and reference groups.
I am able to supervise postgraduate research on individual or interactive decision making, using experimental, theoretical, and/or behavioural methods. I am particularly interested in individual decision problems that involve risk, uncertainty and/or time; and in interactive decisions that involve some kind of conflict between 'individual rationality' and 'collective' decision criteria and/or non-standard approaches to strategic reasoning. I am willing to consider proposals that draw on psychological, philosophical or methodological material, as well as on conventional economics; or which address the foundations of economic theory or policy analysis.
I am keen to supervise graduate research, both theoretical and empirical, in public economics broadly defined, including economics of education, the analysis of regulated firms, and study of taxation. In addition, I am also interested in some industrial economics topics, for example the use of complex tariffs as an anti-competitive device, or the design of procurement auctions, and some labour economics topics, such as migration and responses to work incentives.
My main research interest is in environmental and resource economics, in particular environmental regulation on a national and international level, and its links to innovation, international trade and FDI. I am also interested in the wider areas of public economics (especially public goods and externalities) and political economy, especially applied to environmental policy, but also to other areas like trade policy. Other interests include the informal sector and altruism. My expertise is in theory, but I am also interested in co-supervising empirical work.
My research interests cover a fairly wide range of topics, but I'm most interested in supervising graduate research related to (i) knowledge creation and diffusion in advanced economies, (ii) agricultural productivity and structural change in less developed countries, and (iii) panel time series econometrics (joint supervision with a colleague in the Granger Centre). While my own work is almost exclusively empirical and predominantly at the macro level (countries, industrial sectors) I particularly welcome proposals which cover both empirical analysis (macro and/or firm-level data) and formal theoretical motivation (models on structural change, growth, knowledge diffusion).
I would be happy to supervise graduate research, both theoretical and empirical, in International Economics broadly defined, including international trade and international migration. I am particularly interested in the processes through which trade and migration policies are determined.
I am interested in the area of experimental and behavioural economics, in particular on topics related to social preferences and cooperation.
I will be happy to supervise students in empirical and theoretical international economics, the economics of innovation and industrial organisation.
I am interested in supervising PhD students in topics related to household finance, consumption and saving behaviour, the impacts of asset price movements (particularly housing) on household behaviour and health economics.
I am able to supervise graduate research in areas of applied and theoretical microeconometrics, empirical industrial organisation, international and industrial economics.
I work on international trade, with a focus on trade policy and the role of market structures.
I am interested in graduate research in the area of theoretical and applied time series econometrics, including tests for structural change, unit roots and explosive behaviour, and methods for estimating the timing of structural change.
Marit Hinnosaar
I would be happy to supervise topics in empirical industrial organisation, health economics, and digital economics, especially questions related to consumer behaviour, health behaviours, social media, online platforms, and digitisation.
I am a microeconomic theorist and studies mainly optimal selling mechanisms and how individuals interact in sequential settings. My work on mechanism design explores questions related to ticket pricing by airlines, refund policies by retailers, and optimal auctions under various circumstances. My research on sequential interactions includes sequential contests, Stackelberg oligopolies, and price-setting on a supply chain network.
I am happy to supervise students in the areas of Macroeconomics and International Trade. I am particularly interested in long-run Macro, a list of my research topics includes innovation and growth, the impact of technological progress on the labour market, and the analysis of innovation policy in open economy. My trade research focuses on macro models of trade with firm heterogeneity, often in a dynamic setting, with applications to issues such as trade and growth, trade and labour market outcomes, and trade under uncertainty and export dynamics. Macro models of the labour market with search frictions are also part of my current research line, both in closed and open economy.
My research is in labor, public, and migration. I work on topics such as high-skilled migration, the effects of migrations on local economies, and how tax incentives influence migration decisions.
I am a macroeconomic theorist but also work on game theory (mostly on aggregative games) and a variety of other theoretical topics. My current research interests include behavioral growth models, distributional comparative statics and functional diversity.
I am keen to supervise empirical research within the areas of international economics and productivity analysis. This might for example, include topics on the relationship between exporting and productivity using micro (firm) data, the effects of technological change on firm level productivity, or the international transfer of technology through imports.
My research interests are in applied macroeconometrics. I am particularly interested in macroeconomic modelling, the time series analysis of business cycles and the use of models in forecasting and decision-making more generally. This often involves using real time datasets and survey data. The majority of my work has explored UK or US data. But an important element of many macroeconomic modelling exercises is the inter-linkages between countries and I am happy to supervise cross-country studies involving, for example, the G7 or OECD economies.
My research interests are in theoretical and applied time series analysis. Unit roots, cointegration, structural change.
Patrick Marsh
I am keen to supervise graduate research in any area of theoretical econometrics. My current research interests concern nonparametric tests of specification and goodness-of-fit for econometric models as well as the exact and higher-order asymptotic properties of estimators and tests in time series models.
My research and teaching focus on International Trade, Urban Economics and Applied Econometrics.
Maria Montero
I am keen to supervise research on game theory, including behavioural and experimental game theory. Some topics I'm particularly interested in are bargaining, weighted voting, externalities, contests, framing effects, menu effects and social preferences.
I am happy to supervise graduate research, primarily theoretical, in macroeconomics broadly defined, including open-economy issues. More specifically, my research interests include dynamic general equilibrium models with imperfect competition and nominal rigidities, endogenous growth models, and fiscal policy questions.
My primary interest in PhD supervision is research analysing micro data sets (household, individual, firm or farm), especially for sub-Saharan African countries, to address issues such as agricultural productivity, returns to education, health and welfare, household income and transitions out of poverty. I also have research interests in the fiscal effects of aid and political economy of tax reform in sub-Saharan Africa.
My broad research areas are international finance and macroeconomics, with a focus on: the macroeconomics of M&As; MNCs and international capital flows; management and innovation within firms; uncertainty shocks in macro models; and aggregate work hours.
I am able to supervise graduate research in applied development and labour economics. I am particularly interested in the economics of NGOs, the link between poverty and disability, and gender issues within the labour market.
I would be happy to supervise research students interested in microeconomic analysis of economic and social interactions, using tools of game theory, experimental economics, computational methods, or evolutionary approaches. The analysis can focus on developing general principles of behaviour in interactive choice situations or involve such applications from microeconomics, industrial and labour economics as contracts, organisation and mechanism design, auctions and contests, bargaining, and search and matching.
My research interests are in the area of experimental and behavioural economics. More specifically, I'm interested in the design of efficient organisations, the role of social norms and my previous work includes field applications, like corruption, microfinance schemes, and leadership. I’m also interested in questions related to experimental methodology. I'm willing to supervise PhD students who want to do experimental research on topics related to my interests, but I’m also open to exploring new areas.
My research is focused on understanding labor markets, public policy, and political institutions.
My research fields are International Trade, Development Economics, Macroeconomics and my research interests gains from trade; economic growth; multinational production and technology diffusion; industrial policy.
I am able to supervise students in macro and monetary economics. In particular, I am interested in Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) models, both calibrated and estimated. Within this framework, there are many topics that can be studied such as optimal monetary policy, the interaction between fiscal and monetary policy, monetary union issues, financial frictions, housing and the macroeconomy or macroprudential policies.
I investigate the deep-rooted determinants of spatial inequalities, focusing on health and gender inequalities. I devoted significant attention to the role of culture in shaping persistent inequalities. My work aims at understanding the deep-rooted determinants of economic and political inequalities. I am particularly interested in the role of culture on economic and political outcomes. For instance, my previous work has studied the role of religion on development. My current research agenda focuses on women's empowerment.
I work on public economics, political economy, and public finance.
I am keen to supervise graduate research in game theory and behavioural economics. I am particularly interested in the use of experimental economics to study behaviour in contests and social dilemmas.
The areas I can supervise PhDs in are economic theory; game theory; political economy; law and economics.
The areas I can supervise PhDs in are applied economic theory and applied game theory.
I am keen to supervise graduate research in experimental and behavioural economics. The bulk of my research in these areas has focussed on individual decision making (especially in relation to risk) but I have also worked on selected topics related to strategic decision making and social preferences. In addition, I am also interested in the methodology of economics and, in particular, issues related to the role of experimental methods in economics.
I am willing to supervise graduate research, both theoretical and empirical, in the field of political economy. My research interests within this area focus on comparative institutions, special interest politics, corruption, distributive politics and minorities' representation.
I have broad research interests in the macroeconomics of demographic and structural change, firm-level data, monetary policy transmission and labour markets.
I am a labor economist interested in gender gaps and labor market institutions. My first area of research studies the causes of the motherhood penalty in the labor market. In my second strand of research, I investigate how labor market institutions, such as employment protection legislation and collective bargaining, alter firms’ incentives and technological choices and affect inequality in the labor market.
Richard Upward
I am keen to supervise graduate research in topics relating to labour economics and applied micro-econometrics. In particular, I am interested in supervising topics on search and matching, globalisation and labour markets, job and worker turnover, linked employer-employee panel data, duration modelling and treatment evaluation.
My research spans across various areas of microeconomic theory, including information design, mechanism design, auctions , social learning and repeated games.
In my research I develop cutting-edge theoretical frameworks disciplined by micro and aggregate data to study Macroeconomic issues. My main areas of interest are growth, development, structural change, and human capital.
Zhihong Yu
I am keen to supervise graduate research, both theoretical and empirical, in international economics broadly defined, including international trade and foreign direct investment, and more specifically the role of firms in globalisation. I am also interested in studies related to China's economic growth and trade using micro level data.
I am interested in supervising topics in financial econometrics and time series econometrics. In particular on volatility models, high-frequency data and time-varying variance in regression and time series models.