Finbarr Livesey

Dr Livesey joined POLIS in March 2013 as Lecturer in Public Policy and Deputy Director of the MPhil in Public Policy. Prior to this he was Acting Director of the MPhil in Technology Policy at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.

Dr Livesey’s research addresses two core areas – the role of government in supporting growth based on the emergence of new industries, and the how policy making is changing due to new technologies.

The changing economics of technology-based industries and the role that government can and should play in supporting their growth are critically important for countries such as the UK, as future growth depends on being able to understand how new industrial systems and industries emerge and how the national economy can capture sufficient value as they grow and internationalise. This area has been understudied over the past twenty years as industrial policy and the complementary analysis of the structure of the economy went out of fashion.

At the same time calls for evidence-based policy making, moves to open policy making combined with the increasing use of digital technologies across government are radically changing the policy development process. There is much hype and a lack of rigorous work on how these changes will affect the policy process.

Dr Livesey originally trained in physics (University College Cork, Ireland) and Computer Science (University of Cambridge) and spent five years as a technology developer and consultant with Olivetti Research Labs and Cambridge Consultants Ltd. After leaving industry, he completed a Masters in Public Policy at the Kennedy School (Harvard University) and then took a PhD in industrial economics and policy (University of Cambridge). He also ran the Centre for Industry and Government at the Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge from 2004 to 2011 and retains an affiliation as an academic visitor at the Institute. Finbarr was a Fellow of the RSA in 2013 - 2014.