Professor Antonio Andreoni

Antonio Andreoni is Professor of Development Economics at the Department of Economics of SOAS University of London.

He is also Visiting Professor at the South African Research Chair in Industrial Development, University of Johannesburg, and Honorary Professor at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, University College London. At SOAS, he is also College Convenor for Research and Knowledge Exchange for the Departments of Development Studies, Economics, Finance and Management and Chair of the School Knowledge Exchange Committee. Antonio has acted as an advisor to several multilateral organisations including UNIDO, UNCTAD, UNDP, ILO, UN ECA, World Bank and OECD, as well as national governments on industrial policy issues, including the European Commission, the UK, Finland, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Mauritius.

Antonio is an Editor of the European Journal of Development Research (EJDR), hosted by the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI).

Antonio is a Member of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia University; Member of the Sustainable Global Supply Chains Research Network; Member of the Academic-Industry Research Network – AIRNet; Member of the Babbage Forum at the University of Cambridge; New Economics Senior Fellow, ZOE Institute for Future-fit Economies; Founding Member of Reteaching Economics UK. Antonio has held teaching position and research affiliations at the Institute for Manufacturing of Cambridge University; Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, University College London; Institut Mines-Télécom Business School, Paris; Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Potsdam; Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies; School of Economics, University of Bologna; Department of Economics and Finance, LUISS Guido Carli. He also holds an ASN National Habilitation to Full Professor in Economics in Italy. Antonio has a PhD from Cambridge University and is Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge.

Antonio Andreoni's research aims at understanding how value is created, captured, and distributed within and across different sectoral value chains, industrial ecosystems, and institutional political economy contexts. His research blends ‘productionist’ and political economy perspectives to disentangle processes of development and structural transformation. His research focuses on how production, technological and organisational capabilities develop, as well as how industrial ecosystems innovate, diversify and restructure. He studies how large corporations and platforms shape markets and industries, and how financialisation, rents capture and corruption processes destroy the productive fabric of the society, ultimately closing the door to inclusive and sustainable development pathways. His research has also given particular emphasis to the developmental, entrepreneurial, and regulatory role of the state, including regional governments. He has conducted country-specific and comparative research on how the state can use industrial and competition policies to direct innovation and change, shape industries and markets, manage conflicts and transitions, towards inclusive and sustainable structural transformation.

Continuous engagement with business enterprises and industries, public institutions, and policy work across mature industrial economies (Italy and UK), emerging economies (South Africa and Brazil) and fast growing least developed countries (Tanzania and Ethiopia) has enriched his comparative political economy understanding of economic structures, agencies and dynamics. He has also developed sectoral expertise in medical device, pharmaceuticals, automotive, packaging machinery, mining equipment, automation and robotics, energy sector.

At SOAS, Antonio was co-Research Director of the Anti-Corruption Evidence Research Partnership Consortium with a focus on Tanzania. Antonio’s research received funding from the Department for International Development (DFID); Gatsby Foundation; Rockefeller Foundation; African Climate Foundation; UNU-WIDER; University of Johannesburg.

Production Capabilities and Technological Change; Industrial Ecosystems and Global Value Chains; Social Conditions of Innovation, Financialisation and Corporate Governance; Structural Transformation and Industrial Policy; Sustainable Industrialisation and Energy Policy; Digitalisation, Platforms and Competition Policy; Political Economy of Industrial Policy; Comparative Political Economy; Southern and Eastern Africa.