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{{short description|British academic economist|bot=PearBOT 5}}
{{for|the Australian engineer, businessman and public servant|Tim Besley (public servant)}}
{{BLP sources|date=August 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}}
{{Infobox economist
| honorific_prefix = [[Knight Bachelor|Sir]]
| name             = Tim Besley
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=|CBE|FBA}}
| school_tradition =
| image            = TJB use.png
| image_size       =
| caption          = Tim Besley in 2022
| birth_date       = {{birth date and age|1960|9|14|df=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Kesteven]], [[Lincolnshire]], England
| death_date       =
| death_place      =
| institution      = [[London School of Economics]]<br>[[Princeton University]]<br>[[All Souls College, Oxford]]
| field            = [[Political economics]]
| alma_mater       = [[University of Oxford]]
| doctoral_advisor  = [[W.M. Gorman]]
| academic_advisors = 
| doctoral_students = 
[[Rohini Pande]]<br />[[Dave Donaldson (economist)|Dave Donaldson]]<br /> [[Imran Rasul]]
| notable_students  = 
| influences       = 
[[Amartya Sen]]<br />
[[James Mirrlees]]<br />[[James M. Buchanan]]
| influenced       =
| contributions    = Citizen-candidate model, Political Agency Models, Economics of State Capacity
| awards           = [[Yrjö Jahnsson Award]] (2005)<br/> [[John von Neumann Award]] (2010)<br/> [[BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award]] (2022)
| signature        = <!-- file name only -->
| repec_prefix = e | repec_id = pbe46

}}
'''Sir Timothy John Besley''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|CBE|FBA}} (born 14 September 1960) is a British academic economist who is the School Professor of Economics and Political Science and Sir W. Arthur Lewis Professor of Development Economics at the [[London School of Economics]] (LSE).

He is also a commissioner on the [[National Infrastructure Commission]], a Quondam Fellow of [[All Souls College, Oxford]], and the director of the Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines (STICERD) at the LSE. In 2018, he served as president of the [[Econometric Society]], and from 2006 to 2009 he was an external member of the Bank of England's [[Monetary Policy Committee (United Kingdom)|Monetary Policy Committee]]. He won the 2005 [[Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation|Yrjö Jahnsson Award]] and the 2022 [[BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award]].

==Early life and education==
Born in [[Lincolnshire]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=5wY0MyEmkGwM4VhxbtzGtw&scan=1|title=Index entry|access-date=30 December 2017|work=FreeBMD|publisher=ONS}}</ref> Sir Tim Besley attended [[Aylesbury Grammar School]] and then studied at [[Oxford University]], where he gained a BA in [[Philosophy, Politics, and Economics]] (PPE) with First Class Honours from [[Keble College, Oxford|Keble College]], winning the George Webb Medley Prize for best exam performance in his cohort for his second and third years. He continued his graduate studies at Oxford, receiving an MPhil in economics with Distinction and the George Webb Medley Prize for the best MPhil performance in his cohort, followed by a DPhil in Economics upon election as an Examination Fellow of [[All Souls College, Oxford|All Souls College]] in 1984.

== Career ==
Besley's first position was as an assistant professor in the economics department and [[Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs]] at [[Princeton University]], before returning to the UK in 1995 as professor of economics at [[London School of Economics|LSE]]. He has served as the director of the Suntory-Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines (STICERD), and as a member of the Steering Group for the [[International Growth Centre]]. He served on the [[Bank of England]]'s [[Monetary Policy Committee (United Kingdom)|Monetary Policy Committee]] from September 2006 to August 2009.

== Other activities ==
Besley is a research fellow of the [[Centre for Economic Policy Research]], and a former member of the Institutions, Organizations and Growth Programme of the [[Canadian Institute for Advanced Research]] (CIFAR). He is a past research fellow of the [[Institute for Fiscal Studies]] and was a member of the Mirrlees Review committee. He is also a co-chair of the [[LSE Growth Commission]] and a member of the [[National Infrastructure Commission]].

On the international level, Besley has served as a consultant to the [[World Bank]] and to the [[European Bank for Reconstruction and Development]]. In June 2021, he was appointed to the [[World Bank]]–[[International Monetary Fund]] High-Level Advisory Group (HLAG) on Sustainable and Inclusive Recovery and Growth, co-chaired by [[Mari Pangestu]], [[Ceyla Pazarbasioglu]], and [[Nicholas Stern]].<ref>[https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2021/06/14/pr21175-world-bank-imf-launch-hlag-sustainable-inclusive-recovery-growth World Bank, IMF Launch High-Level Advisory Group on Sustainable and Inclusive Recovery and Growth] [[International Monetary Fund]], press release of 15 June 2021.</ref>

== Research ==

Besley's research is focused on aspects of economic policy formation in developed and emerging market economies.  He is one of the leading economists in restoring the study of political economy to prominence in mainstream economics.

A selected bibliography includes:
* "Principled Agents: The Political Economy of Good Government", Oxford University Press, 2006.
* "Pillars of Prosperity: The Political Economics of Development Clusters", Princeton University Press, 2011 (with [[Torsten Persson]]).
* "Incumbent Behavior:  Vote Seeking, Tax Setting and Yardstick Competition" (with [[Anne Case]]). American Economic Review, 85 (1), 25–45, 1995.
* "Property Rights and Investment Incentives:  Theory and Evidence from Ghana", Journal of Political Economy, 103(5), 903–937, 1995.
* "An Economic Model of Representative Democracy" (with [[Stephen Coate]]), Quarterly Journal of Economics, 112(1), 85–114, 1997.
* "The Political Economy of Government Responsiveness: Theory and Evidence from India", (with [[Robin Burgess]]), Quarterly Journal of Economics, 117(4), 1415–1452, 2002.
* "Competition and Incentives with Motivated Agents", (with [[Maitreesh Ghatak]]), American Economic Review, 95(3), 616–636, 2005.
* "The Origins of State Capacity: Property Rights, Taxation and Politics", (with [[Torsten Persson]]) American Economic Review, 99(4), 1218–44, 2009.
* "The Logic of Political Violence", (with [[Torsten Persson]]) Quarterly Journal of Economics, 126 (3), 1411–1446, 2011.
* "State Capacity, Reciprocity and the Social Contract", Econometrica, 88(4) 1307–1335, 2020.
* "The Political Economics of Green Transitions", (with [[Torsten Persson]]) Quarterly Journal of Economics, 138 (3), 1863-1906, 2023.

==Honours and awards==
Sir Tim Besley is a [[Fellow of the British Academy]], a fellow of the [[Econometric Society]], and a foreign honorary member of the [[American Economic Association]] and the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]].  He was a co-editor of [[American Economic Review]] – the first person to serve in this position not based at a US university. He is the 2010 president of the [[European Economic Association]]. From 2014 to 2017, he served as president of the [[International Economic Association]]. In 2018, he began serving as president of the [[Econometric Society]].  In 2005, he won the [[Yrjö Jahnsson Award]] for [[Europe]]an economics and was awarded the 2010 [[John von Neumann Award]] by the Rajk László College for Advanced Studies at Corvinus University of Budapest.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://eopp-blog.blogspot.com/2010/02/tim-besley-receives-john-von-neumann.html|title=EOPP Blog: Tim Besley receives the John von Neumann Award 2010|last=Sanchari|date=17 February 2010}}</ref> Besley was appointed a [[Order of the British Empire|Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] (CBE) in the [[2010 Birthday Honours]] for services to Social Science, and a [[Knight Bachelor]] in the [[2018 New Year Honours]] for services to Economics and Public Policy.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=59446 |date=12 June 2010 |page=7 |supp=y}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette |issue=62150 |date=30 December 2017 |page=N2 |supp=y}}</ref> For 2022 he was awarded the [[BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award]].<ref>[https://www.frontiersofknowledgeawards-fbbva.es/noticias/15th-edition-economics-finance-management-timothy-besley-torsten-persson-guido-tabellini/ BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award 2022]</ref>

==Personal life==
{{BLP unsourced section|date=August 2022}}
Besley married political economist Gillian Paull in 1993; the couple has two sons. He lives in Barnes, Richmond upon Thames in London. He is a fan of [[Fulham Football Club]].

== Works ==
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=4ATGtOc2DCwC&q=Tim+Besley ''Principled agents?: the political economy of good government''], Oxford University Press, 2006, {{ISBN|978-0-19-927150-4}}
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=Dms-vwlZYXkC&dq=Tim+Besley&pg=PP1  ''Delivering on the promise of pro-poor growth: insights and lessons from country experiences''], Editors Timothy Besley, Louise Cord, World Bank Publications, 2007, {{ISBN|978-0-8213-6515-1}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Monetary Policy Committee (United Kingdom)}}
{{Yrjö Jahnsson Award recipients}}
{{John von Neumann Award recipients}}
{{Presidents of the European Economic Association}}
{{Presidents of the International Economic Association}}
{{Presidents of the Econometric Society}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Besley, Tim}}
[[Category:1961 births]]
[[Category:Academics of the London School of Economics]]
[[Category:Alumni of Keble College, Oxford]]
[[Category:20th-century British economists]]
[[Category:21st-century British economists]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Fellows of Keble College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:Fellows of the British Academy]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Econometric Society]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Econometric Society]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:People educated at Aylesbury Grammar School]]
[[Category:Alumni of Nuffield College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Fellows of the European Economic Association]]