Background

I currently teach economics at the University of Birmingham.

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

Early in my career I was appointed a Full Professor by the University of London in 1998 at the age of 30, teaching at Royal Holloway College, one of the main five constituent colleges, where I also did things like being Head of Economics, Deputy Dean and Acting Dean for the Faculty of History & Social Sciences (which at that time included the Business School).

I have at various times been a part-time Research Professor at the University of Sussex and a full-time Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford, as well as holding a variety of visiting 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

Before all of this I attended a comprehensive high school on the Isle of Wight, progressing to a BA (1st Class) at the University of Cambridge, graduating as 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 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. In 2018 I was Chair of the Province of Ontario’s Clean Technology Panel. I've 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, etc.., 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 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). I currently co-direct the PhD Economics program at University of Birmingham.