Sir Tim Besley

Sir Tim Besley is School Professor of Economics and Political Science and Sir W. Arthur Lewis Professor of Development Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research spans political economy, development economics, and public economics, with a focus on how political institutions and state capacity shape economic outcomes.

Besley served as an external member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (2006–2009) and as a member of the UK's National Infrastructure Commission (2015–2025). He co-chaired the LSE Growth Commission and is the Director of the Huth Initiative for a New Political Economy at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

He has served as President of the Econometric Society (2018), the International Economic Association (2014–2017), and the European Economic Association (2010), and was the first co-editor of the American Economic Review based outside the United States. He received the Yrjö Jahnsson Award (2005) and the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2022).

Before joining the LSE in 1995, Besley taught at Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA). He was appointed CBE in 2010 and knighted in 2018 for services to economics and public policy. He studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Keble College, Oxford, and holds an MPhil and DPhil in Economics from Oxford.