He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics and a Masters in Physics from Oxford University. His research concerns the role of trade integration in the role of economic development, and has been published in scholarly journals such as the American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy and the Review of Economic Studies. He holds editorial positions at the Journal of International Economics, the Quarterly Journal of Economics and the Review of Economic Studies, and has previously held permanent and visiting faculty positions in the Department of Economics at MIT and Harvard University.