This autumn Professor Richard Baldwin took up a position as a visiting research professor at the prestigious Oxford University, where he will work in addition to his position at the Institute. The Institute interview Professor Baldwin on this occasion.

What will you be doing at Oxford?
I have been appointed for a 20% position for three years and will continue with the research agenda that I have been pursuing with Oxford professor Tony Venables on trade theory and offshoring.  I will be affiliated with New College but have my office in the economics department.

Why were you interested in pursuing this position there?
Oxford has a fantastic agglomeration of international economists and microeconomic theorists who are at the cutting edge of empirical and theoretical research. Most striking, however, is the fact that many of these scholars are also well informed about the real world challenges facing governments. This is an incredibly fertile environment for my type of research.

Will your affiliation at Oxford benefit the Institute?
The research I will pursue there will contribute to the Institute’s visibility and help bolster cooperation between Oxford and the Institute. For instance Professor Venables’s centre has engaged a student from the Institute for a post doc position, which is very prestigious and will give him a leg up on getting an assistant professor position. Oxford also admitted an Institute master student into their PhD programme, at least in part due to the relationships I have built up with the Oxford economists, although mostly it reflected on the excellence of the student. I hope to be able to help give other Institute students opportunities at Oxford. I am also in touch with the Oxford professors involved in the Europeaum consortium which the Institute is part of and have given lectures to their group.

What else do you hope to accomplish?
At its heart, most economic research cooperation is based on personal connections and personal trust since most of it comes out of people’s mind rather than, say, a laboratory or field work. In this sort of world, spending time at a department that is as active and important as Oxford provides multiple benefits for the direct participants. It also opens lines of communication that can benefit a much wider group on either side. Lastly, I have to say that the miserable weather in Oxford is a great help in advancing research projects.

Richard Baldwin is Professor of International Economics at the Graduate Institute and co-Director of the Centre for Trade and Economic Integration.

His research on supply chains was recently discussed in the Economist.