Lecturer

Contact Details

• Tel: 0116 252 2789
• Email: fmm14@le.ac.uk
• Office: AC105
• Office Hours:

Biography

Personal Page

Curriculum Vitae (updated 13 July 2007) 

Research Interests

• Economics of Education
• Local Public Economics
• Fiscal Federalism
• Urban Economics
• Political Economy
• Social Conflict

Supervision Interests

Education and development. The theoretical literature on the Economics of Education has paid little attention to developing countries. This is surprising given the key role education policy plays in fostering social and economic development. The cultural, economic and social characteristics of developing countries call for specific theoretical analyses. Different issues deserve attention, among which are school attendance policies and the causes and consequences of relevant stylised facts such as the greater share of public education spending these countries devote to Higher Education.

Segregation and ability tracking. Conventional wisdom is that tracking (ie putting pupils of similar ability in the same school/class increases segregation to the extent that ability and income are correlated. However, some parents of middle ability income whose children would not be in the top track in an affluent area may prefer to live in a less affluent area to ensure that their children are in the top track. The research investigates the trade-offs, and the interaction between the social interaction market (sports clubs, marriage and so on) and the location decisions. (joint with G. De Fraja).

Political economics of education. Recent developments in political economics allow a more sophisticated analysis of the political issues surrounding education policy. This is a promising area of research. An example of an issue that could be studied with up-to-date models of political economics is the simultaneous determination of the overall level of public education spending and its allocation among compulsory and higher education. An application of a state-of-the-art political economy model to the study of education policy which can serve as an example of this line of work can be found in Levy (2005, Quarterly Journal of Economics).

Teaching

• EC1014: Linear Algebra and Optimisation for Economists
• EC3044: Economics of Human Resources
• EC3002/3: Dissertation 

Administrative Responsibilities

• External Staff Seminar Series Organiser (joint with Roberto Leon Gonzalez)

Most Recent Publications

• (Forthcoming) The Existence of Non-Elite Private Schools, Journal of Public Economics
• (2003) Opting-out of public education in urban economies. Working Paper E2003/52. Fundación centrA (Working Paper version of The Existence of Non-Elite Private Schools)
• (2003) Income stratification across public and private education: the multi-community case. Discussion Paper in Economics 01/2003. The University of York 

Full listing of publications