Tim Besley

Sir Timothy John Besley, CBE, FBA (born 14 September 1960) is a British academic economist who is the School Professor of Economics and Political Science and Sir W. Arthur Lewis Professor of Development Economics at the London School of Economics (LSE).

For the Australian engineer, businessman and public servant, see Tim Besley (public servant).

Sir Tim Besley CBE, FBA
Born	(1960-09-14) 14 September 1960 Kesteven, Lincolnshire, England
Nationality	British
Institution	London School of Economics, All Souls College, Oxford
Field	Political economics
Alma mater	University of Oxford
Doctoral advisor	W.M. Gorman
Doctoral students	Rohini Pande Dave Donaldson
Influences	Amartya Sen James Mirrlees James M. Buchanan
Contributions	Citizen-candidate model, Political Agency Models, Economics of State Capacity
Awards	Yrjö Jahnsson Award (2005) John von Neumann Award (2010)
Information at IDEAS / RePEc

He is also a commissioner on the National Infrastructure Commission, a Quondam Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford and the Director of the Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines (STICERD) at the LSE. In 2018, he served as President of the Econometric Society and from 2006 to 2009, he was an external member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee. He won the 2005 Yrjö Jahnsson Award.

Early life and education

Born in Lincolnshire,[1] Besley attended Aylesbury Grammar School and then studied at Oxford University where he gained a BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) with First Class Honours from Keble College, winning the George Webb Medley Prize for best exam performance in his cohort for his second and third years. He continued his graduate studies at Oxford, receiving an MPhil in economics with Distinction, also receiving the George Webb Medley Prize for the best MPhil performance in his cohort, followed by a DPhil in Economics having been elected an Examination Fellow of All Souls College in 1984.

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 (STICERD), 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 (with Torsten Persson).

Among his most important articles are:

“Incumbent Behavior: Vote Seeking, Tax Setting and Yardstick Competition” (with Anne Case). American Economic Review, 85 (1), 25-45, 1995.

“Property Rights and Investment Incentives: Theory and Evidence from Ghana,” Journal of Political Economy, 103(5), 903-937, 1995.

“An Economic Model of Representative Democracy” (with Stephen Coate), Quarterly Journal of Economics, 112(1), 85-114, 1997.

“The Political Economy of Government Responsiveness: Theory and Evidence from India,” (with Robin Burgess), Quarterly Journal of Economics, 117(4), 1415-1452, 2002.

“Competition and Incentives with Motivated Agents,” (with Maitreesh Ghatak), American Economic Review, 95(3), 616-636, 2005.

“The Origins of State Capacity: Property Rights, Taxation and Politics,” (with Torsten Persson) American Economic Review, 99(4), 1218-44, 2009.

“The Logic of Political Violence,” (with Torsten Persson) Quarterly Journal of Economics, 126 (3), 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.[2] Besley was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) 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.[3][4]

Personal life

Besley has been married to economist Gillian Paull since 1993 and has two sons. He lives in Barnes, Richmond upon Thames in London.

Works

• Principled agents?: the political economy of good government, Oxford University Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0-19-927150-4
• Delivering on the promise of pro-poor growth: insights and lessons from country experiences, Editors Timothy Besley, Louise Cord, World Bank Publications, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8213-6515-1

References

1. "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 30 December 2017.
2. Sanchari (17 February 2010). "EOPP Blog: Tim Besley receives the John von Neumann Award 2010".
3. "No. 59446". The London Gazette (Supplement). 12 June 2010. p. 7.
4. "No. 62150". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 2017. p. N2.

Academic offices
Preceded by Drew Fudenberg	President of the Econometric Society 2018–	Incumbent