Bio

I am a Professor of Economic Geography at the London School of Economics (LSE), currently serving as the Deputy Head of the Department of Geography and Environment (resort Teaching/Education). I am also a Professor of Real Estate Finance and Economics at the University of Zurich (UZH). I am an Associate of the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) and a Member of the Academic Panel of the What Works Centre.

I hold a Ph.D. in Economics (1998, summa cum laude) and an MSc in Business and Economics (1994, top of class) from the University of Basel, Switzerland. Prior to joining the LSE in 2003, I was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (1999-2002) and an Economist at Fannie Mae (2002-2003). 

My research concerns urban economics, real estate/housing, local public finance, and political economy. The core focus of my current research is on issues relating to housing and land supply, land use regulation, homeownership, real estate price and rent dynamics, public finance, and inequality. I am interested in policy evaluations. My research has been published in journals such as Review of Economics and Statistics, Economic Journal, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Urban Economics or Journal of Economic Geography. My work has been quoted in the Economist, Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the Washington Post, among other outlets, and was used as evidence in hearings before the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance and the U.S. Senate Budget Committee. I won numerous prizes for my research (including best paper awards), teaching, and services to the research community (refereeing). I won the PhD Dissertation Prize of the University of Basel, LSE's Teaching Prize and Major Review Teaching Prize and the Economic Journal Annual Referee Prize.

I currently serve as an Associate Editor of Regional Science and Urban Economics (RSUE) and Journal of Regional Science (JRS), as a member of the Editorial Boards of Journal of Housing Economics (JHE) and Real Estate Economics (REE), and as a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Public Finance Review. I served as a Member of the Board of Directors of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association (AREUEA) between 2015 and 2017 and as the Director of LSE’s MSc Real Estate Economics and Finance (REEF) between 2003 and 2018. I am a Fellow of the Weimer School of Advanced Studies in Real Estate and Land Economics. I served as a consultant to the H.M. Treasury and gave evidence to the H.M. Treasury Select Committee, the House of Lords Select Committee,  and the National Audit Office.  I have advised the Prime Minister’s Implementation Unit and the National Housing and Planning Advisory Unit, amongst others. I have acted as a consultant to several international organizations including the OECD and the Asian Development Bank. I am currenly an expert member of the Advisory Group to the Geospatial Commission, UK  National Land Data Programme.