Prof Riccardo Crescenzi is (Full) Professor of Economic Geography at the London School of Economics. He is also an Associate at the Centre for International Development (CID) at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He has been a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Taubman Centre, Harvard University. Until September 2014 he was Programme Director of the MSc in Local Economic Development
Riccardo is the current holder of a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant, one of the most competitive research funding schemes in Europe (application success rate: approx. 8%). He is also Co-Investigator in a large ESRC-funded Research Project. He developed an extensive experience in the leadership and management of large collaborative research projects as the Principal Investigator of the ESPON 2013 – KIT Project and co-Investigator in two EU-funded (FP7) projects.
Before joining the LSE, Riccardo was a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute (Florence) and a visiting scholar at the London School of Economics and at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Past research and academic awards include the Royal Geographical Society Best Dissertation Prize, the Italian Regional Science Association G.Leonardi Prize for the best PhD Dissertation and the joint Italian National Accademia dei Lincei & British Academy for the Humanities and the Social Sciences Research Fellowship. He has been awarded the LSE Major Review Teaching Prize for outstanding teaching performance and the LSE Excellence in Education Award upon promotion to Professor. Riccardo is also the 2016 recipient of the Talented Young Italians Award for ‘Research and Innovation’, "in recognition of his outstanding research accomplishments" and the 2017 recipient of the Geoffrey J.D. Hewings Award from the North American Regional Science Council for “outstanding contribution to Regional Science Research”.
Riccardo has provided academic advice to, amongst others, the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Inter-American Investment Bank (IADB), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Bank and various national and regional governments. In 2018 and 2019 Riccardo has served as the Rapporteur of the High Level Expert Group on Innovative Cities established by the European Commissioner of Research and Innovation to provide the Commission with expert advice on the Horizon Europe agenda for research on Cities.
He has published in leading international journals in economic geography and regional science (such as the Journal of Economic Geography, Economic Geography, Environment and Planning A and Regional Studies), economics (such as the Journal of International Economics, The World Economy and Regional Science and Urban Economics) and international business & management (such as the Journal of International Business Studies and Research Policy). He has also published a book (with Andrés Rodríguez-Pose) ‘Innovation and Regional Growth in the European Union’ (Springer, 2011) and edited another one (with Marco Percoco) 'Geography, Institutions and Regional Economic Performance' (Springer, 2013).
He is Associate Editor of the Journal of Regional Science (JRS) and Regional Studies, Regional Science, Member of the Editorial Board of Papers in Regional Science (PiRS). He is a referee for Cambridge Journal of Regions; Economic Geography; Environment and Planning A; Environment and Planning C; European Urban and Regional Studies; European Planning Studies; Growth and Change; Journal of Economic Geography; Journal of International Business Studies; Journal of Common Market Studies; Journal of Regional Science; Papers in Regional Science; Regional Studies; Scienze Regionali - Italian Journal of Regional Science; Small Business Economics; Spatial Economic Analysis; Urban Studies.