Tim Besley


Sir Timothy John Besley, is a British academic economist who is School Professor of Economics and Political Science and Sir W. Arthur Lewis Professor of Development Economics at the London School of Economics. He is also a two-year fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. Since 2015, he has been a commissioner on the National Infrastructure Commission.

Early life and education

Born in Lincolnshire, Besley attended Aylesbury Grammar School, and then studied at Oxford University, where he gained a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Keble College, Oxford and an M.Phil. and a D.Phil. in Economics having been elected an Examination Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford in 1984. At Oxford, he was one of the most successful students, evidenced by winning three George Webb Medley Prizes for his BA and M.Phil. exam performance.

Career

His first position was as an assistant professor in the economics department and Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University before returning to the UK in 1995 as Professor of Economics at LSE. He has served as the Director of the Suntory-Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, and a member of the Steering Group for the International Growth Centre. He served on the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee from September 2006 to August 2009.

Professional Activities

He is a research fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research and a member of the Institutions, Organizations and Growth Program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. He has served as a consultant to the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He is a past research fellow of the Institute for Fiscal Studies and was a member of the Mirrlees Review committee.

Research

Besley's research interests are focused on aspects of economic policy formation in developed and emerging market economies. He is one of the leading economists involved in restoring the study of political economy to prominence in mainstream economics.
His main books include:
"Principled Agents: The Political Economy of Good Government", Oxford University Press, 2006.
"Pillars of Prosperity: The Political Economics of Development Clusters", Princeton University Press, 2011.
Among his most important articles are:
“Incumbent Behavior: Vote Seeking, Tax Setting and Yardstick Competition”. American Economic Review, 85, 25-45, 1995.
“Property Rights and Investment Incentives: Theory and Evidence from Ghana,” Journal of Political Economy, 103, 903-937, 1995.
“An Economic Model of Representative Democracy”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 112, 85-114, 1997.
“The Political Economy of Government Responsiveness: Theory and Evidence from India,”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 117, 1415-1452, 2002.
“Competition and Incentives with Motivated Agents,”, American Economic Review, 95, 616-636, 2005.
“The Origins of State Capacity: Property Rights, Taxation and Politics,” American Economic Review, 99, 1218-44, 2009.
“The Logic of Political Violence,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 126, 1411-1446, 2011.

Honours and awards

He is a Fellow of the British Academy, a fellow of the Econometric Society and is a foreign honorary member of the American Economic Association and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a past co-editor of American Economic Review — the first person to serve in this position not based at a US university. He is the 2010 president of the European Economic Association. From 2014 to 2017, he served as president of the International Economic Association. In 2018, he will serve as President of the Econometric Society. In 2005, he won the Yrjö Jahnsson Award for European economics and he was awarded the 2010 John von Neumann Award by the Rajk László College for Advanced Studies at Corvinus University of Budapest. Besley was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2010 Birthday Honours for services to Social Science and a Knight Bachelor in the 2018 New Year Honours for services to Economics and
Public Policy.

Personal life

Besley has been married to Gillian Paull since 1993 and has two sons. He lives in the Barnes area of London.

Works