About

I am Professor of Economics at the University of Nottingham, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, and a Research Fellow at CEPR. I am also Chair of the Advisory Board of the Economics and Management Department at the University of Padova in Italy.

After obtaining my DPhil from Oxford, my first academic appointment, in 1988, was a temporary lectureship at the University of Leicester. I subsequently held positions at Bristol and York, before holding chairs in economics at York, Leicester and Rome (Tor Vergata). I have also held visiting positions in Tokyo, Bonn and Barcelona.

My research bridges applied theory and empirical analysis in microeconomics, labour economics, health economics and the economics of education. I have published almost 100 refereed papers in international journals, including several of the leading journals in economics (some “top five” among them). Further details of my research and publications are available on my academic website.

Mentoring has been an important part of my academic career. I have supervised almost 40 PhD students, many of whom are now successful academics. I was Placement Officer for many years and Director of PhD Students for more than twenty years, at three different institutions. In the absence of a specific post of placement officer, these responsibilities included a substantial amount of career advice and mentoring.

In my term as Head of Department, I made recruitment and mentoring my main priorities, and devoted considerable time to colleagues’ career development. I have co-authored research papers with many colleagues, and in the day-to-day conversations and meetings with them, I have always tried to pass on my experience on how to negotiate the tortuous route from initial ideas to successfully presented research outputs.

I have been a mentor for many years, and formally trained by my employers. While the process has had various degrees of formality and several names (appraisal, mentoring, performance/professional and development review, appraisal and development conversation, etc), I have always viewed it as a formalised way to receive or give, depending on my role, career advice. Over the years, these experiences, added to many activities whose aim is more tilted towards evaluation than explicit advice, like the dozens of appointment shortlisting and appointment committees I have been member of, and the hundreds of papers I have refereed for academic journals and grant providers, and the over two hundred conference and seminar presentations, have all contributed to shape my understanding and judgement of what contributes to academic success.

After almost four decades in academia, I am ready to make my experience available to academics who would benefit from a considered and independent perspective on their own careers.

While my own academic background is in economics, my experience is not confined to this research area. In addition to (too many) senior level faculty- or university-wide meetings, I have experienced many rewarding events which have broadened my understanding of the shared features and the subtle differences between economics and other disciplines. For example, at the University of Nottingham I have mentored a full professor in the Law School through the University's “Future Leaders” scheme. In addition, over the years, I have chaired numerous appointment panels for Assistant or Associate Professor in a widely disparate range of subjects, among them nutritional science, primary care, linguistics, music, paediatric oncology, and several others.

I therefore welcome initial conversations with academics from other disciplines where my experience and perspective can be useful.