Dr Max Nathan

The Department of Strategy and International Business
Senior Birmingham Fellow (Regional Economic Development)

Contact details

Telephone: 0121 414 4713
Email: m.nathan@bham.ac.uk

Address: University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Max is Senior Birmingham Fellow (Regional Economic Development) at Birmingham Business School, and is a Deputy Director of the What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth. He is an economic geographer with a background in public policy. His researchfocuses on urban economic development, in particular the economics of immigration and diversity; innovation systems and tech clusters; and public policy for cities, especially policy design and evaluation. Max has over 15 years’ public policy experience in think tanks, consultancy and government, including at DCLG as an ESRC-DCLG Senior Policy Adviser. Max also co-founded the Centre for Cities, where he ran the research programme for the Centre’s first three years.

Qualifications

2011 - PhD Economic Geography and Spatial Economics, LSE
1998 - MSc Social Policy and Planning, LSE
1997 - BA (Hons) Politics, Philosophy and Economics, Oxford University

Teaching

I'm happy to hear from potential Birmingham PHD students working on urban economics and local economic development, using quantitative/mixed methods to look at innovation systems and ecosystems; entrepreneurship; the economics of migration and diversity; ICT and digital technology firms; the creative and cultural industries; urban policy evaluation.From time to time I'll have openings for postgrad or PHD-level research assistants on projects like these. If you're interested, please share your CV.

Research

Max’s research focuses on urban economic development, especially the economics of immigration and diversity, innovation systems and tech clusters, and public policy for cities. His work uses large administrative datasets and big data sources / techniques as well as qualitative approaches.

Max is always interested to hear from potential PHD students and research assistants. See Teaching for more.

Other activities

Max is affiliated to IZA, SERC and the Centre for London think tank.

Publications

Peer reviewed journal articles

Ethnic diversity and business performance: Which firms? Which cities?’ (2016) Environment and Planning A, 48:12, pp 2462-2483
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0308518X16660085

‘Do Inventors Talk to Strangers? On proximity and collaborative knowledge creation’ (2016) (with R. Crescenzi and A. Rodríguez-Pose). Research Policy, 45:1, pp 177 - 194.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004873331500116X

‘Mapping Digital Businesses with Big Data: some early lessons from the UK’ (2015) (with A. Rosso). Research Policy, 44:9, pp 1714–1733.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733315000104

‘Same Difference? Ethnic inventors, diversity and innovation in the UK’ (2015). Journal of Economic Geography, 15:1, pp 129-168.
https://joeg.oxfordjournals.org/content/15/1/129

‘After Florida: Towards an economics of diversity’ (2015). European Urban and Regional Studies, 22:1, pp 3-19. LEAD ARTICLE
https://eur.sagepub.com/content/22/1/3

‘Here Be Startups: Exploring a young digital cluster in Inner East London’ (2014) (with E. Vandore). Environment and Planning A, 46:10, pp 2283-2299. LEAD ARTICLE
https://envplan.com/abstract.cgi?id=a130255p

‘The Wider Economic Impacts of High-Skilled Migrants: A review of the literature for receiving countries’ (2014). IZA Journal of Migration, 3:4, doi: 10.1186/2193-9039-3-4.
https://www.izajom.com/content/3/1/4

‘Cultural Diversity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from London firms’ (2013) (with N. Lee). Economic Geography, 89:4, pp 367-394.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ecge.12016/abstract

‘Agglomeration, Clusters and Industrial Policy’ (2013) (with H. Overman). Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 29:2, 383-404.
https://oxrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/29/2/383.abstract

‘East London Tech City: Ideas without a Strategy?’ (2011). Local Economy, 26:3, pp 197-202.
https://lec.sagepub.com/content/26/3/197.abstract

Monographs

Urban Economics and Urban Policy (with P. Cheshire and H. Overman). (2014). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/urban-economics-and-urban-policy?___website=uk_warehouse

Book Chapters

'Exploring Digital Technology Industry Clusters using Administrative and Frontier Datasets.' (with A. Rosso). Forthcoming in Z. Chen and L. Schintler (eds), Big Data for Urban and Regional Economies. Oxford: Routledge

'Linking Research and Policy in Local Economies.' Forthcoming in L. Andres, J. Bryson and R. Mulhall (eds.) Regeneration Economies. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar

‘What works in urban regeneration policy?' In D. O’Brien and P. Matthews (eds), After Urban Regeneration: People, communities and place. (2015), Bristol: Policy Press.
https://www.policypress.co.uk/display.asp?K=9781447324164&

'All in the mix? Top team demographics and business performance in English firms'. In J. Bakens, P. Nijkamp and J. Poot (eds.) E Pluribus Prosperitas: The economics of cultural diversity. (2015), Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/the-economics-of-cultural-diversity

‘Exploring Munich’s innovation system’. (2013) (with P. Rode et al). In R. Burdett, A. Colantonio and P. Rode (eds.) Transforming Urban Economies, London, Routledge.
https://www.routledge.com/products/9781134622160