Professor Timothy J Besley's Curriculum
Vitae
PRINCIPAL CURRENT
POSITIONS:
Professor of Economics and Political Science,
London School of Economics (ESRC Professorial Research Fellow,
2006-09).
Member (part-time), Monetary Policy Committee,
Bank of England 2006-09.
EDUCATION:
1972-79: Aylesbury Grammar School, Aylesbury,
Buckinghamshire.
1983: BA (MA, 1987) Philosophy, Politics
and Economics (1st Class), Keble College, Oxford University.
1985: MPhil, Economics, Oxford University.
1987: DPhil, Economics, Oxford University.
PAST EMPLOYMENT:
Assistant Professor of Economics and International
Affairs, Princeton University, 1989-95.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Public and International
Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, 1988-89.
Prize Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford, 1984-89.
HONOURS/AWARDS:
Yrjö Jahnsson Award (joint-winner 2005).
Fellow of the Econometric Society (2000).
Fellow of the British Academy (2001).
Fellow of the European Economics Association
(2005).
Richard Musgrave Prize (inaugural winner) for
paper "Sales Taxes and Prices: An Empirical Analysis,"
(with Harvey Rosen), 2000.
Duncan Black Prize for paper "On the Public
Choice Critique of Welfare Economics", (with Stephen Coate),
2003.
Prize Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford, 1984-91.
Cyril E Black Preceptorship in the Woodrow Wilson
School, Princeton University, 1993-96.
Alfred P Sloan Research Fellowship (1994-95).
George Webb-Medley Junior Prize, Oxford University
(1982).
George Webb-Medley Senior Prize, Oxford University
(1983).
George Webb-Medley MPhil Exam Prize, Oxford
University (1985).
OTHER PROFESSIONAL
ACTIVITIES—CURRENT:
Director, Suntory-Toyota International Centres
for Economics and Related Disciplines (STICERD) at the LSE.
President, Bureau for Research on the Economic
Analysis of Development (BREAD), 2004-07 (Board member since 2002).
Program Member, CIAR Program on Institutions,
Organizations and Growth, 2003-.
Research Fellow, Institute for Fiscal Studies,
London, 1995-.
Research Fellow, CEPR, 2002-.
Co-founder and Organizing Committee Member,
Public Economics UK.
Member of editorial team: Mirrlees Review on
"Reforming the Tax System for the 21st Century".
Associate Editor, Quarterly Journal of Economics,
2006-
Editorial Board, World Bank Economic Review,
2000-.
Associate Editor, Journal of Development
Economics 1995-.
Associate Editor, International Tax and Public
Finance 1995-.
Associate Editor, Review of Development Economics,
1997-.
Associate Editor, European Journal of Political
Economy, 2004-.
Council Member (elected), Royal Economics Society,
2000-05. (Member of the Executive 2003-07).
Council Member (elected, re-elected 2006), Econometric
Society, 2003-.
Editorial Advisor, The Journal of Developing
Areas 2001-
Editorial Advisor, Developing Economies
2003-
OTHER PROFESSIONAL
ACTIVITIES—PAST:
Co-editor, American Economic Review,
1999-2005
Program Director, CEPR, Program in Public Policy
1998-2002.
Council Member (elected), European Economics
Association, 2001-05.
Deputy Chairman, STICERD, 1997-2000.
Managing Editor, Economic Journal 1996-99.
Associate Editor, Economics and Politics
1993-99.
Editorial Board, Oxford Economic Papers
1988-98.
Editorial Board, Review of Economic Studies,
1995-2005.
Faculty Research Fellow, National Bureau of
Economic Research, Cambridge, MA, 1991-98.
Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford, 1995-2000.
Junior Research Fellow, Institute for Policy
Reform, 1994.
Econometric Society Program Committee, 1994
(Washington), 1997 (New Orleans) North American Winter Meetings,
2000 World Congress (Seattle), 2003 (Stockholm).
Professeur Associé, Université
d 'Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France, 1991-95.
PRINCIPAL INVITED
LECTURES:
Review of Economic Studies Lecture, Royal Economic
Society, 1998.
Lindahl Lectures, Uppsalla University, 2002.
Joseph Schumpeter Lecture, European Economics
Association, 2003.
Keynes Lecture, British Academy, 2004.
Walras-Bowley Lecture, Econometric Society World
Congress, 2005.
Kuznets Lectures, Yale University, 2006.
PUBLICATIONS—BOOKS:
Principled Agents? The Political Economy
of Good Government, The Lindahl Lectures, Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2006.
Development Challenges of the 1990s: Leading
Policy Makers Speak from Experience, edited with Roberto Zagha,
Oxford University Press for the World Bank, 2005.
PUBLICATIONS—ARTICLES:
"Tied-in Credit with a Monopoly Product
Market," Economics Letters, 28, March 1988, 105-108.
"Invariance and the Axiomatics of Income
Tax Progression: A Comment" (with Ian Preston). Bulletin
of Economic Research, April 1988, 159-163.
"A Simple Model for Merit Good Arguments,"
Journal of Public Economics, 35, May 1988, 371-383.
"Rationing, Income Effects and Supply Response:
A Theoretical Note," Oxford Economic Papers, 40, June
1988, 378-389.
"Food Subsidies and Poverty Alleviation,"
(with Ravi Kanbur). Economic Journal, 98, September 1988,
701-720.
"Optimal Reimbursement Health Insurance
and the Theory of Ramsey Taxation," Journal of Health
Economics, 7, December 1988, 321-336.
"Ex Ante Evaluation of Health States and
the Provision for Ill-Health," Economic Journal, March
1989, 132-146.
"Publicly Provided Disaster Insurance for
Health and the Control of Moral Hazard," Journal of Public
Economics, 39, June 1989, 141-156.
"A Definition of Luxury and Necessity for
Cardinal Utility Functions," Economic Journal, September
1989, 844-849.
"The Demand for Health Care and Health
Insurance," Oxford Review of Economic Policy 5. (Winter
1989): 21-33. (Reprinted in A McGuire, P Fenn and K Mayhew, eds,
Providing Health Care: The Economics of Alternative Systems
of Finance and Delivery, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(1991): 46-64.)
"General Equilibrium with Parallel Markets
for Goods and Foreign Exchange: Theory and Application to Ghana,"
(with Jean-Paul Azam). World Development, 17, December
1989, 1921-30.
"Commodity Taxation and Imperfect Competition:
A Note on the Effects of Entry," Journal of Public Economics,
40, December 1989, 359-367.
"Moral Hazard, Limited Liability and Taxation:
A Principal Agent Model," (with Anindya Banerjee). Oxford
Economic Papers, 42, January 1990, 46-60. (Special issue on
Public Economics edited by P Sinclair and M Slater.)
"Means Testing versus Universal Provision
in Poverty Alleviation Programs," Economica, 57, February
1990, 119-129.
"Optimal Reimbursement Health Insurance:
An Application of Profit Functions and Frischian Demands,"
Journal of Economic Theory, 51(2), August 1990, 403-422.
"Optimal Uniform Taxation and the Structure
of Consumer Preferences," (with Ian Jewitt). In G D Myles,
ed, Measurement and Modelling in Economics. North-Holland.
(1990): 131-156.
"Import Compression and Trade Policy,"
(with Paul Collier). In J Frimpong-Ansah, S M Ravi Kanbur and
P Svedberg, eds, Trade and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa,
Manchester University Press. (1990): 203-230.
"Peasant Supply Response under Rationing:
the Role of the Food Market," (with Jean-Paul Azam). European
Journal of Political Economy, 7, 1991, 331-343.
"Public Provision of Private Goods and
the Redistribution of Income," (with Stephen Coate). American
Economic Review, 81, September 1991, 979-984.
"Decentralizing Public Good Supply,"
(with Ian Jewitt), Econometrica, 59(6), November 1991,
1769-1777.
"Welfare Improving User Charges for Publicly
Provided Private Goods," Scandinavian Journal of Economics,
93(4), 1991, 495-510.
"Workfare versus Welfare: Incentive Arguments
for Work Requirements in Poverty Alleviation Programs," (with
Stephen Coate). American Economic Review, 82(1), March
1992, 249-261.
"Taxation and Welfare in an Oligopoly with
Strategic Commitment," (with Kotaro Suzumura). International
Economic Review, 33(2), May 1992, 413-431.
"Understanding Welfare Stigma: Taxpayer
Resentment and Statistical Discrimination," (with Stephen
Coate). Journal of Public Economics 48, July 1992, 165-183.
"Modelling Technology Adoption Decisions
in Developing Countries," (with Anne Case). American Economic
Review, Papers and Proceedings. (May 1993): 396-402.
"Targeting Taxes and Transfers: Administrative
Costs and Policy Design in Developing Countries," In K Hoff,
A Braverman, and J Stiglitz, eds, The Economics of Rural Organization:
Theory, Practice, and Policy. Oxford University Press for
the World Bank, 1993.
"Taxes and Bribery: The Role of Wage Incentives"
(with John McLaren). Economic Journal 103(1), January 1993,
119-141. (Reprinted in Gianluca Fiorentini and Stefano Zamagni
(eds) The Economics of Corruption and Illegal Markets,
in The International Library of Critical Writings in Economics—Series
Editor: Mark Blaug)
"The Economics of Rotating Savings and
Credit Associations" (with Stephen Coate and Glenn Loury).
American Economic Review, 83(4), September 1993, 792-810.
(Reprinted in Dilip Mookherjee and Debraj Ray (eds), Readings
in the Theory of Development Economics, Basil Blackwell, 2001.)
"The Principles of Targeting" (with
Ravi Kanbur). In V N Balasubramanyam and Sanjaya Lall, eds, Current
Issues in Development Economics, Macmillan Education Ltd.
(1991): 69-90. (Reprinted in Michael Lipton and Jacques van der
Gaag, eds, Including the Poor, Washington, DC: The World
Bank. (1993): 67-90 and in Nicholas Barr (ed) Readings on the
Welfare State, Edward Elgar Publications).
"How Do Market Failures Justify Interventions
in Rural Credit Markets?" World Bank Research Observer,
9(1), January 1994, 27-47. (Reprinted in Carl K Eicher and John
M Staatz (eds) International Agricultural Development,
3rd Edition, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.)
"Thy Neighbor's Keeper: The Design of a
Credit Cooperative with Theory and a Test" (with Abhijit
Banerjee and Timothy Guinnane). Quarterly Journal of Economics,
May 1994, 491-515. (Reprinted in International Journal of Development
Banking, 14(2), July 1996, 29-44, and in Pranab Bardhan and
Christopher Udry, Readings in Development Economics, MIT
Press (2000))
"Alternative Systems of Health Care Provision,"
(with Miguel Gouveia). Economic Policy, 19, October 1994,
200-258.
"Three Approaches to Public Economics,"
International Tax and Public Finance, 1, October 1994,
197-204.
"Rotating Savings and Credit Associations,
Credit Markets and Efficiency," (with Stephen Coate and Glenn
Loury). Review of Economic Studies, 61(4), October 1994,
701-719.
"Savings, Credit and Insurance," Chapter
36 in Jere Behrman and T N Srinivasan, eds, Handbook of Development
Economics, Vol IIIa. Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1995.
"Uniform Taxation and Consumer Preferences"
(with Ian Jewitt), Journal of Public Economics, 58, 1995,
73-84.
"Group Lending, Repayment Incentives and
Social Collateral" (with Stephen Coate), Journal of Development
Economics, 46 (1), February 1995, 1-18.
"Incumbent Behavior: Vote Seeking, Tax
Setting and Yardstick Competition" (with Anne Case). American
Economic Review, 85 (1), March 1995, 25-45.
"The Design of Income Maintenance Programs"
(with Stephen Coate), Review of Economic Studies 62 (2),
April 1995, 187-221.
"Non-Market Institutions for Credit and
Risk-Sharing in Low-Income Countries" Journal of Economic
Perspectives, Symposium on Consumption Smoothing in the Third
World, (Summer 1995).
"Does Electoral Accountability Affect Economic
Policy Choices? Evidence from Gubernatorial Term Limits"
(with Anne Case). Quarterly Journal of Economics, 110 (3),
August 1995, 769-798. (Reprinted in The Economics of Budget
Deficits in The International Library of Critical Writings
in Economics, Series Editor Mark Blaug, Edward Elgar Publishing
2002.)
"Property Rights and Investment Incentives:
Theory and Evidence from Ghana," Journal of Political
Economy, 103(5), October 1995, 903-937. (Reprinted in Pranab
Bardhan and Christopher Udry, Readings in Development Economics,
MIT Press (2000)).
"The Role of Informal Finance in Household
Capital Accumulation: Evidence from Taiwan" (with Alec Levenson).
Economic Journal, 106(1), January 1996, 39-59.
"The Anatomy of an Informal Financial Market:
Roscas in Taiwan," (with Alec Levenson), Journal of Development
Economics, 51(1), October 1996, 45-68.
"The Political Economy of Targeting: Theory
and Experience" in Michael Bruno and Boris Pleskovic (eds),
Proceedings of the Annual World Bank Conference on Development
1996, The World Bank, 1997.
"James Mirrlees' Contributions to the Theory
of Information and Incentives" (with Avinash Dixit), Scandinavian
Journal of Economics, 99(2), 1997, 207-235.
"An Economic Model of Representative Democracy"
(with Stephen Coate), Quarterly Journal of Economics, 112(1),
February 1997, 85-114. (Reprinted in Kaushik Basu (ed), Readings
in Political Economy, Basil Blackwell (2002)).
"Monopsony and Time-Consistency: Sustainable
Pricing Policy for Perennial Crops." Review of Development
Economics, 1(1), 1997, 57-70.
"Fiscal Anarchy in the UK: Modelling Poll
Tax Non-compliance" (with Ian Preston and Michael Ridge),
Journal of Public Economics, 64, 1997, 137-152.
"Private and Public Health Insurance in
the UK" (with John Hall and Ian Preston) European Economic
Review, 42, 1998, 491-497.
"Sources of Inefficiency in a Representative
Democracy: A Dynamic Analysis" (with Stephen Coate), American
Economic Review, 88(1), 139-156, 1998.
"Vertical Externalities in Tax Setting:
Evidence from Gasoline and Cigarettes," (with Harvey Rosen),
Journal of Public Economics, 70, 383-398, 1998.
"The Effects and Policy Implications of
State Aids to Industry" (with Paul Seabright). Economic
Policy, 28, April 1999.
"The Demand for Private Health Insurance:
Do Waiting Lists Matter?" (with John Hall and Ian Preston),
Journal of Public Economics, 72(2), May 1999.
"Property Rights and Investment Incentives"
in New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics and the Law (edited
by Peter Newman), London: MacMillan, 1999.
"Sales Taxes and Prices: An Empirical Analysis"
(with Harvey Rosen), National Tax Journal, 52(2), 1999.
(Winner of the inaugural Richard Musgrave Prize.)
"Political Institutions and Policy Competition",
in Gudrun Kochendorfer-Lucius and Boris Pleskovic (eds), The
Institutional Foundations of a Market Economy, Villa Borsig
Workshop Series 2000, The World Bank ,102-109, April 2001.
"From Micro to Macro: Public Policies and
Aggregate Economic Performance" in Economic Growth and
Government Policy, papers presented at a HM Treasury Seminar
at 11 Downing Street on 12 October 2000, London: HM Treasury,
15-21, April 2001, (also published in Fiscal Studies, Volume
22(3), 357-374, September 2001.)
"Land Reform, Poverty Reduction and Growth:
Evidence from India", (with Robin Burgess), Quarterly
Journal of Economics, 115(2), May 2000, 389-430.
"Unnatural Experiments? Estimating the
Incidence of Endogenous Policies" (with Anne Case). Economic
Journal (Features), 110, November 2000, F672-F694.
"Lobbying and Welfare in a Representative
Democracy", (with Stephen Coate), Review of Economic Studies,
68 (1), January 2001, 67-82.
"Political agency, government responsiveness
and the role of the media", (with Robin Burgess), European
Economic Review, papers and proceedings of the 15th Annual
Congress of the European Economic Association, Vol 45, Nos 4-6,
May 2001.
"Public versus Private Ownership of Public
Goods," (with Maitreesh Ghatak), Quarterly Journal of
Economics, 116(4), November 2001, 1343-1372.
"Mass Media and Political Accountability."
(with Robin Burgess and Andrea Prat) in The Right to Tell:
Institutions and the Media, (edited by Roumeen Islam), for
the World Bank. 2002.
"The Political Economy of Government Responsiveness:
Theory and Evidence from India," (with Robin Burgess), Quarterly
Journal of Economics, November 2002, 117(4), 1415-1452.
"On the Public Choice Critique of Welfare
Economics," (with Stephen Coate), Public Choice, 114(3),
2003, 253-273. (Winner of the Duncan Black Prize for best paper
published in Public Choice in 2003).
"Understanding the Workhouse Test: Information
and Poor Relief in Nineteenth-Century England" (with Stephen
Coate and Timothy Guinnane) in History Matters: Essays in Honour
of Paul David, (edited by Timothy Guinnane, William Sundstrom
and Warren Whatley), Stanford University Press. 2003.
"Political Institutions and Policy Outcomes:
Evidence from the United States" (with Anne Case), Journal
of Economic Literature, 41(1), March 2003, 7-73.
"Incentives, Choice and Accountability
in the Provision of Public Services," (with Maitreesh Ghatak),
Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Summer 2003, 19(2), 235-249.
"Halving Global Poverty", (with Robin
Burgess), Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2003,
17(3), 3-22.
"Elected versus Appointed Regulators,"
(with Stephen Coate), Journal of the European Economics Association,
1(5), 1176-1206. September 2003.
"Welfare Economics and Public Choice"
and "Elected versus Appointed Regulators" in The
Encyclopaedia of Public Choice, (edited by Charles Rowley)
Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003.
"Central versus Local Provision of Public
Goods: A Political Economy Analysis" (with Stephen Coate)
Journal of Public Economics. 87(4), 2611-2637. December
2003.
"Can Labor Regulation Hinder Economic
Performance? Evidence from India." (with Robin Burgess),
Quarterly Journal of Economics, 19(1), 91-134. February
2004.
"Paying Politicians: Theory and Evidence",
Joseph Schumpeter Lecture, Journal of the European Economics
Association, April 2004. 2 (2-3) 193-215.
"The Politics of Public Good Provision:
Evidence from Indian Local Governments," (with Rohini Pande,
Lupinh Rahman and Vijayendra Rao) Journal of the European Economics
Association, Vol 2, April 2004, 416-426.
"Credible Pensions" (with Andrea Prat),
Fiscal Studies, 26(1), 119-135, March 2005.
"Introduction", in Development
Challenges of the 1990s: Leading Policy Makers Speak from Experience,
Timothy Besley and Roberto Zagha (eds), Oxford University Press
for the World Bank, 2005.
"Political Selection," Journal
of Economic Perspectives, 19(3), 43-60, 2005.
"Competition and Incentives with Motivated
Agents," (with Maitreesh Ghatak), American Economic Review,
95(3), 616-636, 2005.
"The New Political Economy" Keynes
Lecture, Proceedings of the British Academy, 2005.
"Public Goods and Economic Development"
(with Maitreesh Ghatak), chapter 19 in Abhijit Banerjee, Roland
Benabou and Dilip Mookherjee (eds), Understanding Poverty,
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
"Participatory Democracy in Action: Survey
Evidence from South India," (with Rohini Pande and Vijayendra
Rao) Journal of the European Economics Association, 2005.
"Handcuffs for the Grabbing Hand? Media
Capture and Government Accountability" (with Andrea Prat)
forthcoming in the American Economic Review, 2006.
"Sorting with Motivated Agents: Implications
for School Competition and Teacher Incentives,'' (with Maitreesh
Ghatak) Journal of the European Economics Association,
2006."Health and Democracy" with Masa Kudamatsu, American
Economic Review, Papers and Proceeedings, 2006.
PUBLICATIONS—DISCUSSION
PAPERS:
"Peer Group Externalities and Learning
Incentives: A Theory of Nerd Behavior" (with Abhijit Banerjee).
Woodrow Wilson School, John M. Olin Program Discussion Paper No
68, (October 1990).
"Monitoring and Wage Incentives: Capitulation
versus Efficiency Wages" (with John McLaren). Woodrow Wilson
School, John M. Olin Program Discussion Paper, (October 1990).
"Diffusion as a Learning Process: Evidence
from HYV Cotton" (with Anne Case). Woodrow Wilson School,
Research Program in Development Studies Discussion Paper No 174,
(May 1994)
"Read My Lips: The Political Economy of
Information Transmission", (with Rohini Pande), STICERD Economic
Theory Discussion Paper No 98/355, July 1998.
"Issue Unbundling via Citizens' Initiatives,"
(with Stephen Coate) CEPR Discussion Paper No 2857 2001, revise
and resubmit Quarterly Journal of Economics.
"Does Tax Competition Raise Voter Welfare,"
(with Michael Smart) CEPR Discussion Paper No 2857 2001.
"Political Competition and Economic Performance:
Evidence from the United States" (with Torsten Persson and
Daniel Sturm), NBER Discussion Paper No 11484, 2005.
"Political Selection and the Quality of
Government", (with Rohini Pande and Biju Rao), Development
Economics Discussion Paper, STICERD, LSE, No DEDPS44.
PUBLICATIONS—RESEARCH
REPORTS
"The Supply of Manufactured Goods and Agricultural
Development: The Case of Ghana" (with Jean-Paul Azam). OECD
Development Centre Papers. (1989): 13-65.
"Private Health Insurance and the State
of the NHS", (with John Hall and Ian Preston), Institute
of Fiscal Studies, Commentary, No 52, 1996.
"Tax-Based Savings Incentives," (with
Costas Meghir) for World Bank Project on Savings, 1997.
"Participation and Poverty Reduction,"
(with Michelle Adato, John Hoddinott and Lawrence Haddad), background
paper for 2000 World Development Report on Poverty, 2000.
"Institutional Evolution in Rural Financial
Markets," (with Sanjay Jain), for 2001 World Development
Report on Institutions for a Market Economy, 2000.
OTHER UNPUBLISHED
WORK AND
WORK IN
PROGRESS:
"Reputation as a Public Good" (with
Michihiro Kandori). May 1992.
"Redistributive Politics and Efficient
Investment" (with Stephen Coate), June 1997.
"Women in Politics: Finding Instruments
for Incidence Analysis," (with Anne Case), November 1997.
"The Economics of Corporate Social Responsibility,"
(with Maitreesh Ghatak), November 2004.
"The Effect of the Military on Policy"
(with James Robinson), October 2005.
"Political Competition and Economic Performance
in India" (with Robin Burgess), October 2005.
"The de Soto Effect: Property Rights, Social
Networks and Gains from Trade," (with Maitreesh Ghatak) July
2006
"Public Organizations" (with Maitreesh
Ghatak) July 2006.
PERSONAL:
British Citizen: Married to Gillian Paull: Two
sons: Thomas (born 1995) and Oliver (born 1997).
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