About

I am a Professor in the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto, as well as a member of its Innovation Policy Lab. I’m also a Visiting Senior Fellow in the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics.

My research focuses on cities, in particular the growing spatial polarization of jobs, innovation and prosperity in high-income countries like the United States and Canada. Under that theme, I am exploring what it means for our wellbeing that our most important, disruptive innovations, emerge from a narrow range of places. I am also investigating how growing up in left behind places shapes opportunity and social mobility. Right now, I am leading an international team examining the spatial distribution of wealth in the United States and Canada. Ongoing work is also linking inequality and the housing affordability crisis in America.

A second broad topic of I focus is the economics of migration. In particular, I am investigating the productivity impacts of ethnic- and gender-diverse teams, workplaces, and cities. My work in this area has quantified economic benefits of immigrant diversity in the US, and Norway. An ongoing project examines these themes in the context of the United Kingdom (details here).

For my study on Brexit and immobility, my co-authors and I won the Understanding Society Paper Prize. In 2016, my work on the economic value of local social networks won the Urban Land Institute Prize for the best paper published in the Journal of Economic Geography. Back in 2013, I also won an Early Career Award from the Regional Studies Association.

I serve on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Economic Geography, as well as at Progress in Economic Geography. Between 2017 and 2021, I was an Editor at Regional Studies.

Cutting across my research interests, I’m interested in policy efforts to stimulate prosperity. I have advised governments and NGOs on issues of regional and international development, including the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the U.S. Economic Development Administration, and the World Bank.

Before joining U of T, I held academic appointments at Queen Mary, University of London; the University of Southampton; the London School of Economics; and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I received my PhD from UCLA.

You can find my full CV here