Sir Tim Besley - Commissioner

Timothy Besley is School Professor of Economics and Political Science and W. Arthur Lewis Professor of Development Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). From September 2006 to August 2009, he served as an external member of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee and since 2015 has been a member of the UK’s National Infrastructure Commission. He is also the Gluskin-Granovsky Fellow in the Institutions, Organizations and Growth Program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR). He earned his D.Phil from Oxford where he was a prize fellow of All Souls College. He then taught at Princeton before being appointed Professor in the economics department at the LSE in 1995. 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. He is the current President of the International Economic Association and served as the President of the Europe

Better defining ‘levelling up’ is a crucial step to achieving it
Portrait of Professor Sir Tim Besley CBE

Better defining ‘levelling up’ is a crucial step to achieving it

Some form of regional inequality has been a persistent feature of the UK.  Not only are there profound differences between regions (i.e. North and South), there are also inequalities within regions. Pockets of low productivity and heightened levels of deprivation exist in both successful and unsuccessful places.  But these are not set in stone; changing...

Crossrail 2 in the context of a national strategy
Skyline of The City in London, England at sunrise

Crossrail 2 in the context of a national strategy

London is a city synonymous with innovative infrastructure. The capital has prospered on the shoulders of great pioneers of engineering such as Marc Isambard Brunel and Sir Joseph Bazalgette, responsible respectively for the first Underground rail line and London’s elaborate sewer network. Building on Brunel’s success, the capital is home to the first metro system...

Engagement, consideration, and a landmark publication – the National Infrastructure Assessment in 2017
Professor Tim Besley

Engagement, consideration, and a landmark publication – the National Infrastructure Assessment in 2017

Two reports published in 2013 recommended the establishment of a National Infrastructure Commission. One was the Armitt Review led by our own Deputy Chair, and the other was Investing for Prosperity published by the LSE Growth Commission, which I co-chaired with John van Reenen. At their core was a simple idea; to safeguard our long-run...


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