Tom Kemeny

Professor, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy
Headshot of Tom Kemeny

Areas of interest

  • Regional analysis and development
  • Economic geography
  • Urban, rural and regional economics
  • Economics of innovation and technical change
  • Economic development policy
  • Public Policy

Biography

Main Bio

Tom Kemeny is a professor at the Munk School at the University of Toronto. His prize-winning research is focused on cities, technology, and the deep determinants of economic performance. Current projects include work tracing the historical links between disruptive innovation and income inequality; a study of the effects of immigrant diversity on productivity in contemporary Britain; and an investigation of the changing geography of wealth in the United States. Dr. Kemeny won the 2019 Understanding Society Paper Prize for a study linking migration and the Brexit vote. For his work on the effects of knowledge-sharing in local social networks, he was awarded the 2016 Urban Land Institute Prize for the best paper published in the Journal of Economic Geography. In 2015, together with Michael Storper, Taner Osman, and Naji Makarem, he published The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies: Lessons from San Francisco and Los Angeles (Stanford University Press).

Dr. Kemeny has advised governments and NGOs on issues of regional and international development, including the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); the U.S. Economic Development Administration; and the World Bank. Before joining U of T, he held academic appointments at Queen Mary, University of London; the University of Southampton; the London School of Economics; and UNC-Chapel Hill.

For more information, visit Tom’s website: https://tkemeny.github.io/

Awards & recognition