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Named chairs held by members of the department

Eight professors at the department hold named chairs.

Professor Oriana Bandiera
Sir Anthony Atkinson Chair in Economics

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The Anthony Atkinson Chair in Economics was created in 2017 in memory of Professor Anthony Atkinson who died in January this year. Tony Atkinson was one of the most distinguished Economists of the 20th  and 21st centuries. He profoundly influenced our thinking on poverty, inequality, mobility, public policy and the economics of growth. He joined the Economics Department first as the Tooke Professor of Economic Science and Statistics from 1980-1992 and then as Centennial Professor from 2010. He was chairman of STICERD between 1981 and 1987 and an active affiliate for the following thirty years. Professor Oriana Bandiera, Professor of Economics, is the inaugural holder of the chair.

LSE Department of Economics News

Professor Sir Tim Besley
William Arthur Lewis Professor of Development Economics

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The William Arthur Lewis Chair was created by LSE in 2015 to mark the centenary of the Nobel Prize winner's birth. Sir Arthur Lewis (1915-1991) was a student at LSE from 1934-37 and a member of staff from 1938-48, making him the UK’s first black professor. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1979 for “pioneering research into economic development research with particular consideration of the problems of developing countries". Professor Sir Tim Besley is the inaugural holder of the William Arthur Lewis Chair.

Professor Francesco Caselli
Norman Sosnow Professor of Economics

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The Norman Sosnow Chair was established in 1985 by journalist and businessman Eric Sosnow in memory of his son Norman, who died in an air crash in 1967 at the age of 23. Eric Sosnow, a graduate research student at LSE in 1936, and later a governor and honorary fellow of the School, also established travelling scholarships in his son’s name. Before Professor Francesco Caselli, the Norman Sosnow Chair was held by Charles Goodhart and Sir Christopher Pissarides.

Professor Sir Christopher Pissarides
Regius Professor of Economics

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The Regius Professorship in Economics was bestowed upon the LSE in 2013 by HM The Queen on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee, in recognition of the LSE Department of Economics' "exceptionally high level of achievement in both teaching and research". It was both the first Regius Professorship to have been awarded to the LSE, and the first to have been awarded in the field of economics. The Economics Department voted unanimously to nominate Sir Christopher Pissarides as the first holder of the Regius chair.

Professor Ricardo Reis
A W Phillips Professor of Economics (A W Phillips Chair in Empirical Macroeconomics)

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The A W Phillips Chair in Empirical Macroeconomics was created by LSE in 2016 to honour A W Phillips (1914-1975) who was a student at LSE from 1946-1949 and a member of staff from 1950-1967. His research uncovered one of the most famous relationships in macroeconomics, the Phillips curve, and he was also famous for building the MONIAC machine to assist in teaching the Keynesian model. Professor Ricardo Reis is the inaugural holder of the A W Phillips Chair.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Phillips, Alban William Housego (1914-1975), economist. By Nicholas Barr

Professor Peter Robinson
Tooke Professor of Economic Science and Statistics

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Endowed by public subscription, the Tooke Chair was founded in 1859 at Kings College London, in memory of Thomas Tooke, businessman, economist, free trade campaigner, and founder member of the Political Economy Club. In 1919 the Tooke Chair was transferred from Kings College to the LSE, but was left vacant until 1931, when it was taken up by Friedrich von Hayek, newly-arrived from Vienna. Other LSE Economics Department faculty who have held the Tooke Chair include William (“Bill”) Phillips (1958-1967), Denis Sargan (1982-1984), and Peter Robinson (1995-present).

STICERD Discussion Paper (EM/02/437): "Denis Sargan: Some Perspectives" by Peter Robinson

Professor Lord Nicholas Stern
I G Patel Chair in Economics and Government

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The I G Patel Chair in Economics and Government, based at the India Observatory within LSE’s Asia Research Centre and funded by gifts from the Reserve Bank of India and the State Bank of India, was founded in 2006 in honour of Indraprasad Gordhanbhai (I G) Patel, the eminent economist and former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. Dr Patel, was appointed the ninth Director of LSE in 1984, and served until 1990.  Professor Lord Stern is the inaugural holder of the I G Patel Chair. The I G Patel Chair’s duties include the directorship of both the LSE India Observatory, a dedicated research unit based at LSE's Asia Research Centre, and the Asia Research Centre itself. 

Professor John Sutton
Sir John Hicks Professor of Economics

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Sir John Hicks received the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences (jointly) in 1972 for his pioneering contribution to general economic equilibrium theory, and welfare theory; he donated his Nobel Prize to the School’s Library Appeal in 1973. He taught at LSE from 1926 to 1935, and his most well-known work is Value and Capital, written while he was at LSE and published in 1939. Before Professor John Sutton, holders of the Chair include Professor Lord Stern (1989-1993) and Professor Michio Morishima (1982-1988). 

Britannica: Sir John R Hicks