Background

I currently teach economics at the University of Birmingham.

My main expertise is in environmental economics and policy. Before coming to Birmingham in 2022 I was Full Professor and Senior Canada Research Chair (Tier 1 CRC) (2011-2022) at the University of Ottawa and concurrently a Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of Exeter Business School.

I was promoted to Professor (Full Professor) at the University of London in 1998, at the age of 30, teaching at RHUL which is one of the main five colleges that make up the University. While there I also did things like being Head of Economics, Director of Undergraduate Programmes in Economics, Deputy Dean and Interim Dean for the Faculty of History & Social Sciences.

At other times I have been a part-time Research Professor at the University of Sussex, a full-time Research Fellow at Nuffield College, University of Oxford, and held various visiting or short-term attachments (S.T. Lee Fellow at University of Wellington, Senior Research Fellow at UCL, ENCORE at the University of Amsterdam, CARR Visiting Fellow at the LSE, etc.)

Education

I attended a comprehensive high school on the Isle of Wight, before going on to a BA (1st Class) at the University of Cambridge. I graduated as the top student in economics (being awarded the Wrenbury Scholarship) and top student in any discipline at Trinity College (winning the van Heyden de Lancey Prize). My PhD is from McGill University in Montreal, which I was able to attended thanks to a McGill Major and later an Alma Mater 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 interest in research credibility, the academic publication process, and the causes of procedural and managerial bloat in UK universities and the wider public sector.

Outside Activities

At the moment I co-edit the ABDC-A* rated Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (2024-2028), which is the top journal in my field.

I 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. Before moving to Canada I was a senior consultant (on retainer) at RBB Economics, the leading markets and competition consultancy, in London. In 2018 I was Chair of the Province of Ontario’s Clean Technology Panel. I've provided advice, training, or both to many parts of the UK government (HM Treasury, Home Office, Ministry of Justice, the Cabinet Office, Department of Health, Department for Transport, Better Regulation Executive, etc.) the OECD, the European Commission, etc... On the student-facing side I have been on many selection panels for the Government Economic Service (GES) Fast-stream. 

Teaching

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

Supervision

I currently supervise 5 PhD students, and have many past completions (some of which remain coauthors). Since 2023 I have been co-director of the PhD Economics program at University of Birmingham.