Background

I currently teach economics at Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham.

Prior to coming to Birmingham in 2022 I was Full Professor and Tier 1 or Senior Canada Research Chair (2011-2022) at the University of Ottawa and concurrently Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of Exeter Business School.

I was appointed Full Professor at the University of London in 1998 at the age of 30, working at Royal Hollow I also did things like being Head of Economics, Deputy Dean and Acting Dean for the Faculty of History & Social Sciences.

I have at various times been a Research Professor at the University of Sussex Business School and a full-time Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford, as well as holding many sorts of visiting attachments (ENCORE at University of Amsterdam, S.T. Lee Fellow at University of Wellington, CARR Visting Fellow at LSE, Senior Research Fellow at UCL, etc.)

Education

Before all of this I went to a comprehensive high school on the Isle of Wight, progressing to a BA (1st Class) at the University of Cambridge, where I graduated top student (out of about 160) in economics (Wrenbury Prize) and top student in any discipline at Trinity College (van Heyden de Lancey Prize). My PhD is from McGill University in Montreal, which I attended on a McGill Major Fellowship. 

Research

My research and teaching interests are mainly in environmental economics, public policy as it relates to the environment, industrial organization and regulation, business and the environment and the application of behavioral economics. I have published 35+ papers in journals ranked A* and 35+ in journals ranked A by the 2025 edition of the widely-applied journal ranking of the Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) https://abdc.edu.au/abdc-journal-quality-list/. I also have an evolving research (and personal!) interest in research credibility, the academic publication process, and the causes and effects of administrative bloat in UK higher education.

Outside Activities

I currently co-edit the ABDC-A* rated Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (2024-2028), am a past coeditor of Environmental & Resource Economics (ABDC-A) and serve on the editorial boards of Journal of Environmental Economics & Management (ABDC-A*) and Journal of Regulatory Economics (ABDC-A), among others. I am a past chair of the Insight Grants Committee of SSHRC, the primary funder for social science research in Canada (equivalent of the ARC in Australia or ESRC in the UK). 

Outside academia I have consulted widely, particularly when I had a large mortgage. I was for over a decade a member of the Advisory Panels of HM Department of Environment, the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions, and later DEFRA. In 2018 was Chair of the Province of Ontario’s Clean Technology Panel. I have provided advice or training to many parts of the UK government (HM Treasury, Home Office, Ministry of Justice, the Cabinet Office, Department of Health, Department for Transport, etc.) the OECD, the European Commission, and other organizations, have frequently served on selection panels for the Government Economic Service (GES) Fast-stream Program, and before moving to Canada was a Senior Consultant at RBB Economics in London.

Teaching

I teach a first-year undergraduate class called Contemporary Economic Challenges and an MSc module Environmental Economics. If you are a current student you all available module information is at https://canvas.bham.ac.uk/.

Supervision

I currently supervise 5 PhD students, and have many past completions (some of which remain coauthors). I currently co-direct the PhD Economics program at University of Birmingham.