Michael Storper

Michael joined the Department in October 2000 as LSE Centennial Professor of Economic Geography. He is also affiliated with the Centre de Sociologie des Organisations at Sciences-Po in Paris, and the Department of Urban Planning in the School of Public Affairs at UCLA.

Professor Storper is a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, and has received the Regional Studies Association's Sir Peter Hall Prize for overall contribution to the field.

He is an internationally recognised scholar and author, particularly well known for his books which include The Capitalist Imperative: Territory, Technology and Industrial Growth (with R. Walker; Blackwell, 1989), Pathways to Industrialization and Regional Development (with A. Scott; Routledge, 1992), Worlds of Production: The Action Frameworks of the Economy (with Robert Salais, Harvard Univ. Press, 1997), The Regional World: Territorial Development in a Global Economy (Guildford Press, 1997), and Latecomers in the Global Economy (editor with L. Tsipouri and S. Thmodakis; Routledge, 1998).

His latest books are The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies (Stanford University Press, 2015), and Keys to the City: How Economics, Institutions, Social Interaction,and Politics Shape Development (Princeton University Press, 2013).

In 2016 Michael received the Founder’s Medal for scholarship and leadership in human and economic geography from the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG).

In 2017 he was awarded the Distinguished Scholarship Honors by the American Association of Geographers for his outstanding record of scholarly achievement and innovative contributions to the fields of global economic development and the geography of urban and regional systems.

Recent honors

• 2025 European Regional Science Association, ERSA Prize in Regional Science
• 2024 Stanford-Elsevier Top Scientists List (I have been on this list for several years)
• 2022 Prix Vautrin Lud (the “Nobel” prize of Geography)
• Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Founder's Medal

Research interests

• Globalisation and local and regional economic development processes
• The effects of liberalised trade and technology flows on global location patterns
• The role of local economic policies in influencing the effects of globalisation in local and regional economies
• The overall geography of the global economy: changes and continuities in location and specialisation patterns
• Face-to-face contact as a source of urbanisation economies
• The effects of new communications technologies on face-to-face contact and delocalisation
• Comparative regional development processes