Timothy Besley is School Professor of Economics and Political Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He is also a Visiting Professor at the Institute for International Economic Studies at Stockholm University. From September 2006 to August 2009, he served as an external member of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee. He is also the Gluskin-Granovsky Fellow in the Institutions, Organizations and Growth Program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR).
He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society, the British Academy, and the European Economic Association. He is also a foreign honorary member of the American Economic Association and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2010 he served as the President of the European Economic Association. Professor Besley is a past co-editor of the American Economic Review, and a 2005 winner of the Yrjö Jahnsson Award of the European Economics Association which is granted every other year to an economist aged under 45 who has made a significant contribution to economics in Europe. His research, which mostly has a policy focus, is mainly in the areas of Development Economics, Public Economics and Political Economy.
Education
PhD Economics, University of Oxford, 1987
MA Philosophy, Politics and Economics, University of Oxford, 1987
MPhil Economics, University of Oxford, 1985
BA (1st Class Honours) Philosophy, Politics and Economics, University of Oxford, 1983
This paper discusses a theoretical framework to study the issues of competition and incentives without relying on the standard profit-oriented market model in the context of the debates about public service reform in the UK.
A rich array of institutional diversity makes the United States an excellent place to study the relationship between political institutions and public policy outcomes.
