Neil Lee

He joined the Department in 2013, having previously run a research team in a think-tank. He convenes the Cities, Jobs and Economic Change theme in the International Inequalities Institute and is Director of BSc Geography with Economics.

He holds a PhD in Economic Geography from LSE and has held visiting positions at Columbia University, the University of Oxford, Science Po Tolouse, and the Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences.

His research considers economic development, innovation, public policy, and inequality. Recent studies have included work on institutions and economic development in Africa and China, regional inequality and political polarisation in Europe and the United States, and innovation policy in Kuwait. Current projects include a major ESRC funded project constructing new measures of regional inequality and a book, due 2023, on innovation and inclusive growth.

He is Chair of the Policy Committee of the Regional Studies Association and has worked with public and private sector organisations including the World Bank, the OECD, the European Commission, NESTA, the Kuwaiti Government and the UK government.

Expertise Details

Cities; Creative industries; Economic Geography; Enterprise; Inequality; Innovation; Labour markets; Regional and local economic development; Urban and regional policy

Education

• PhD London School of Economics and Political Science (2007 — 2011)
• University College London, U. of London

Projects

• Cities, Jobs, and Economic Change
  International Inequalities Institute
• The innovation trap: Towards Private Sector R&D in Kuwait
  Funded by KFAS / LSE Kuwait Programme. W/ Simona Iammarino (LSE) & Husam Arman (KISR)
• Policy and Evidence Centre for the Creative Industries
  Funded by the AHRC

Publications

Preprint

• Inclusive innovation as urban policy: A review and critique. Neil Lee

2021

• Systems of innovation, diversification, and the R&D trap: A case study of Kuwait, Science and Public Policy.
  Husam Arman, Simona Iammarino, J Eduardo Ibarra-Olivio, Neil Lee
• The long shadow of history in China: Regional governance reform and Chinese territorial inequality, Applied Geography.
  Han Wang, Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, Neil Lee
• Golfing with Trump: social capital, decline, inequality, and the rise of populism in the US, Forthcoming in Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy, and Society.
  Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, Neil Lee & Cornelius Lipp
• Faith no more? The divergence of political trust between urban and rural Europe, Political Geography.
  Frieder Mitsch, Neil Lee, Elizabeth Morrow
• Quality of government and sub-national economic development in Africa, Journal of Development Studies.
  Yohan Iddawela, Neil Lee, Andrés Rodríguez-Pose
• The Geography of Business Angel Investments in the UK: Does local bias (still) matter?, Environment and Planning A.
  Ross Brown, Marc Cowling, Neil Lee

2020

• Entrepreneurship and the fight against poverty in US cities, Environment and Planning A.
  Neil Lee, Andrés Rodriguez-Pose
• Global cities, creative industries and their representation on social media: A micro-data analysis of Twitter data on the fashion industry, Environment and Planning A.
  Patrizia Casadei, Neil Lee
• Hipsters vs. Geeks? Creative occupations, STEM and innovation in cities, Cities.
  Andrés Rodriguez-Pose, Neil Lee

2019

• Do low-skilled workers gain from high-tech employment growth? High-technology multipliers, employment, and wages, Research Policy.
  Neil Lee, Stephen Clarke
• The big-city bias in access to finance: evidence from firm perceptions in almost 100 countries, Journal of Economic Geography.
  Neil Lee, Davide Luca
• Inclusive growth in cities: A sympathetic critique, Regional Studies.
  Neil Lee
• Big data methods, social media, and the psychology of entrepreneurial regions: capturing cross-county personality traits and their impact on entrepreneurship in the USA, Small Business Economics. [blog]
  Martin Obschonka, Neil Lee, Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, Johannes C. Eichstaedt & Tobias Ebert
  
• Funding for UK high growth SMEs since the global financial crisis, Journal of Business Research. [blog]
  Ross Brown, Neil Lee
• Start-up factories, transnational entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial ecosystems: unpacking the lure of start-up accelerator programmes, European Planning Studies. [blog] Ross Brown, Susanne Mawson, Neil Lee & Lauren Peterson