John Kay is one of Britain’s leading economists. He is a distinguished academic, a successful businessman, an adviser to companies and governments around the world, and an acclaimed columnist. His work has been mostly concerned with the application of economics to the analysis of changes in industrial structure and the competitive advantage of individual firms. His interests encompass both business strategy and public policy.

John Kay began his academic career when he was elected a fellow of St John’s College, Oxford at the age of 21, a position which he still holds. As research director and director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies he established it as one of Britain’s most respected think tanks. Since then he has been a professor at the London Business School and the University of Oxford, and is currently a visiting Professor at the London School of Economics. He was the first director of Oxford University’s Said Business School.

In 1986 John Kay founded London Economics, a consulting business, of which he was executive chairman until 1996. During this period it grew into Britain’s largest independent economic consultancy with a turnover of £10m and offices in London, Boston and Melbourne. He has been a director of Halifax plc and remains a director of several investment companies. He is the first (and still the only) Professor of Management to receive the academic distinction of Fellowship of the British Academy. In 1999 he resigned his position at Oxford and sold his interest in London Economics. Now his time is principally devoted to writing.

A frequent writer, lecturer and broadcaster, he contributes a weekly column to the Financial Times. He is the author of Foundations of Corporate Success (1993), and The Business of Economics (1996). His most recent book, The Truth about Markets, was published in May 2003 to wide critical acclaim. (A US version, Culture and Prosperity, appeared in May 2004). A collection of his recent writings, Everlasting Light Bulbs, will be published on 28 September 2004.

John Kay believes that economics holds the most powerful tools available in the social sciences today, but that an exaggerated and sometimes exclusive emphasis on rational choice models and individual corporate selfishness undermines both our understanding of economic and social life and the functioning of our economic systems. This theme is today common to much of his work, which uses economic concepts to illuminate a variety of disparate issues

His current projects include an essay on the nexus between the economic and political development of the European Union, a book on the nature of the twenty-first century business organisation, and an analysis of the process of decision-making in business, political and personal life.