I have worked as an academic economist for most of my life. I started researching international trade theory when I was a Research Assistant at the LSE and then as a Lecturer La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. At the School of Oriental and African Studies and later at the University of Westminster, I worked on economic development, with a focus on Africa. I have undertaken many consultancy assignments, and visited Africa on more than a hundred occasions. A list of publications and assignments is in the full CV that can be accessed through the Personal page of this site, or by clicking here
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CORRUPTION AND DEVELOPMENT
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My experience working in Nigeria as the manager of project to create three Polytechnics and a College of Education led me to focus on corruption is a major obstacle to progress in developing countries.
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There are two draft articles related to corruption and development.
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ECONOMIC MODELS
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As with most economics teachers I have spent quite some time expounding basic macro and microeconomics to both undergraduates and postgraduate students. As part of this I have developed some computer-based models that run in Excel and illustrate graphically the central ideas of neoclassical market analysis and modern macroeconomics.
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The micro-models owe much to two former colleagues at the School of Oriental and African Studies - the late Caroline Dinwiddy and Francis Teal and their book The Two-Sector General Equilibrium Model: A New Approach. I began developing the macro models when teaching in Vietnam in 1993, and they were mostly completed during two spells at the Indian Institute of Management Calicut in 2007 and 2007.
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The models can be used to check the impact of changes in the exogenous variables and parameters. The first sheet of each model shows the graph(s) and has cells for entering data. The second sheet is a Manual for using the model. The third sheet solves the equations for the model and generates the graphs. You are quite at liberty to vary the models.
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General Equilibrium
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The model is the simplest possible configuration that show the properties of a general equilibrium economic system. There are two goods produced, and two factors of production in given fixed amounts, labour and capital. The amounts of labour and capital required to produce each of the two goods are governed by Cobb-Douglas production functions. The model is solved - determining outputs of the two goods, the amounts of labour and capital used to produce each good, and the relative prices of labour, capital and each of the two goods - by adjusting prices in the manner of the ‘Walrasian Auctioneer’. The involves raising prices in markets where there is a shortage of supply in relation to demand, and lowering prices where there is a n over-supply.
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The model can be calibrated to the conditions of any particular economy - there are instructions on where to find the information required in the Manual sheet. This gives the model a (somewhat tenuous) link to reality. The models here are calibrated for India.
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The model comes in two forms: one with decreasing returns-to-scale in the production functions, and one with constant returns-to- scale. The constant returns model was developed by Jack Hodd
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MacroEconomics
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A set of models follows the development of macroeconomics in Mankiw G Macroeconomics. They can be used to check the impact of changes in the exogenous variables and parameters.
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