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- Professor of Economics
- Dept of Economics
- Faculty of S&HS
Stephen Smith is a Professor of Economics at University College London.
He is a graduate of the Universities of Oxford (BA), Manchester (MA(Econ)), and London (PhD). He worked for eight years (1977-1985) as a member of the Government Economic Service at the UK Department of Trade and Industry. In 1985 he joined the staff of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, an independent research institute specialising in the economic analysis of taxation and public finance. He was Deputy Director of IFS from 1990 to 1997.
Stephen Smith first joined UCL part-time in 1990, to teach a course on Environmental Policy for the MSc in Environmental and Resource Economics, founded by Professor David Pearce, and he taught successive generations of students on this degree programme for nearly 20 years. He has recently distilled some of the key ideas from his teaching into a short book for non-specialists, “Environmental Economics. A Very Short Introduction”, published in 2011 by Oxford University Press.
Stephen Smith joined UCL full-time as Professor of Economics in 1997, and was head of the Economics Department from 1997 to 2002. He has been closely involved in the development of teaching and research on Public Policy at UCL, initiating UCL’s multi-disciplinary MSc programme in Public Policy in 1996, and teaching the economics component of this programme for a number of years. From 2008 to 2013 he was Executive Dean of the UCL Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences.
Stephen Smith has acted as a consultant to a number of government departments and international organisations including HM Treasury, DEFRA, the UK Environment Agency, European Environment Agency, the OECD, the European Commission, and the IMF.




Stephen Smith's current research on environmental policy is mainly concerned with the economics of instrument choice in environmental regulation. His recent papers include work with Joseph Swierzbinski (University of Aberdeen) to assess the experience of emissions trading in the UK, and with Vidar Christiansen (University of Oslo) on theoretical aspects of the combined use of externality taxes and regulation. In the area of taxation he mainly works on the economics of European VAT tax policy and on excise taxes. Together with co-authors he has contributed papers on VAT and on Environmental Taxation to the Mirrlees Review of the UK Tax System, coordinated by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), which reported during 2011.
At UCL Stephen Smith's teaching has included graduate courses on the economic theory of environmental policy, and on European environmental policy, and undergraduate courses on Environmental Economics, and Economics of Tax Policy.
PhD supervision
Yong-Gyun Kim (PhD awarded 2003) "A microeconometric analysis on the impact of the 1997 Economic Crisis of Korea on the labour market, household economy and social welfare."
Alexander Klemm (PhD awarded 2006) "Empirical Analyses of Corporate and Personal Tax Reforms".
Matthew Fleming (PhD awarded 2008) "An examination of the means of establishing the efficacy of Asset Recovery and Anti-Money-Laundering Policies".
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2008 | Executive Dean | Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences | UCL, United Kingdom |
JAN-2006 | Programme Director | MSc in Environmental and Resource Economics | UCL, United Kingdom |
2006 – 2008 | Vice-Dean (Research) | Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences | UCL, United Kingdom |
2004 – 2005 | Head of Department and Acting Director | School of Public Policy | UCL, United Kingdom |
JUL-1997 – SEP-2002 | Head of Department | Economics | UCL, United Kingdom |
1997 | Professor of Economics | UCL, United Kingdom | |
1996 – 1998 | Programme Director | MSc in Public Policy | UCL, United Kingdom |
01-OCT-1995 – 30-SEP-1997 | Reader in Economics | Economics | UCL, United Kingdom |
01-OCT-1990 – 30-SEP-1995 | Senior Lecturer | Economics | UCL, United Kingdom |
01-OCT-1990 – 30-SEP-1997 | Deputy Director | Institute for Fiscal Studies, United Kingdom | |
01-OCT-1987 – 30-SEP-1997 | Programme Director | Institute for Fiscal Studies, United Kingdom | |
01-OCT-1985 – 30-SEP-1987 | Senior Research Officer | Institute for Fiscal Studies, United Kingdom | |
01-OCT-1982 – 30-SEP-1985 | Economic Adviser | Government Economic Service | UK Department of Trade, United Kingdom |
01-OCT-1979 – 30-SEP-1982 | Senior Economic Assistant | Government Economic Service | UK Department of Industry, United Kingdom |
01-OCT-1977 – 30-SEP-1979 | Economic Assistant | Government Economic Service | UK Department of Industry, United Kingdom |
1997 | Doctor of Philosophy | London | |
1983 | Master of Arts | University of Manchester | |
1977 | Bachelor of Arts (Honours) | University of Oxford |