In a joint session with the Government Economic Service, we are delighted that speakers Timothy Beesley and Nick Craft will share their views on Britain’s long run growth.

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) where he has co-founded the LSE Growth Commission.  He is also currently a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.  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 the current President of the International Economic Association and served as the President of the European Economic Association in 2010.

Nicholas Crafts is Professor of Economic History at the University of Warwick and the Director of the ESRC Research Centre on Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE) at Warwick University.  He is a Fellow of the British Academy.  He was a Lead Expert on the UK Government Office for Science, Foresight Future of Manufacturing Project that published its report in October 2013.

During the session, Tim will discuss the importance of and limitations of the view that it is all about “getting institutions right”, especially in light of Brexit. He will also talk a little bit about the role of the National Infrastructure Commission as an institutional innovation. Tim will also look at the disunion around some relevant historical and global experience, particular about transplanting successful institutional arrangements from elsewhere.  Nick will evaluate Bob Gordon’s controversial claims of an inverted-U shape for American growth in which the past was better and the future will be worse than most people think.

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