E-mail: jonathan.thomas AT ed.ac.uk

Personal Webpage: http://homepages.econ.ed.ac.uk/~jpthomas/

Academic Posts

• Edinburgh University, Professor of Economics, 2002-present
• University of St Andrews, Professor of Economics, 1999-2002
• University of Warwick, Professor of Economics, 1995-1999
• University of Warwick, Senior Lecturer in Economics, 1992-1995
• University of Warwick, Lecturer in Economics, 1985-1992
• University of Bristol, Temporary Lecturer in Economics, 1984-1985
• University of Cambridge, Department of Applied Economics, Junior Research Officer, 1982-1983; Research Officer, 1983-1984

Other Affiliations

• Fellow of the Econometric Society, 2007
• Fellow of the British Academy, 2002
• IFO/Center of Economics Studies, University of Munich, Fellow
• University of St Andrews, Honorary Professor of Economics
• University of Warwick, Honorary Professor of Economics

Visiting Positions

• Edinburgh University, Visiting Professorial Fellow, 2001-2002
• University of Oxford, Nuffield College, Visiting Fellow, 1998
• University of Munich, CES, Visiting Fellow, 1997.
• Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Visiting Professor, 1993.
• University of Bonn, Economics Department, Visiting Academic, 1991
• Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research, 1991
• University of Konstanz, Visiting Assistant Professor, 1987-1988

Research Interests

• Dynamic contracts
• Contract theory as applied to labour economics

Publications in Refereed Journals

• "The persistent effects of a change in government consumption," Economics Letters, 9 (1982).
• "Self-enforcing wage contracts" (with Tim Worrall), Review of Economic Studies, 55 (1988), pp.541-554.
• "Asymptotic efficiency in principal-agent models with hidden information" (with Ben Lockwood), Economics Letters, 30 (1989), pp.297-301.
• "Income fluctuation and asymmetric information: an example of a repeated principal-agent problem" (with Tim Worrall), Journal of Economic Theory, 51(1990), pp.367-390.
• "Sovereign debt: ignorance can be bliss", Journal of Development Economics, 39 (1992), pp.389-396.
• "Cartel stability in an exhaustible resource model", Economica, 59 (1992), pp.279-293.
• "Multiplier effects in a neoclassical model with a production lag", Metroeconomica, 43 (1992), pp.349-367.
• "Non-computable rational expectations equilibria", Mathematical Social Sciences, 25 (1993), pp.133-142.
• "Foreign direct investment and the risk of expropriation" (with Tim Worrall), Review of Economic Studies, 61 (1994), pp.81-108.
• "Sub-game perfect attainment of minimax punishments in discounted two-person games", Economics Letters, 47 (1995), pp.1-4.
• "The confidence heuristic: a game theoretic analysis" (with R. McFadyen), Journal of Economic Psychology, 16 (1995), pp.97-113.
• "Probabilistic voting, campaign contributions and efficiency" (with Derek Clark), American Economic Review, 85 (1995), pp.254-259.
• "Reputation and commitment in two-person repeated games without discounting" (with Martin Cripps), Econometrica, November 1995, 63 (6), 1401-1419.
• "A non-cooperative analysis of Hotelling's location game" (with H. Bester, A. de Palma, W. Leininger and E.L. von Thadden), Games and Economic Behavior, 1996, 12, 165-186.
• "Reputation in perturbed repeated games" (with Martin Cripps and Klaus Schmidt), Journal of Economic Theory, May 1996, 69 (2), 387-410.
• "Reputation and Perfection in Repeated Common Interest Games" (with M.W.Cripps), Games and Economic Behavior, 1997, 18 (2), 141-158.
• "Pooling sovereignty risks: the case of environmental treaties and international debt" (with E. Mohr), Journal of Development Economics, 1998, 55, 173-190.
• "Reputation and experimentation in repeated games with two long-run players" (with Bob Evans), Econometrica, 1997, 65 (5), 1153-1173.
• "IMF Conditionality as a Screening Device" (with S. Marchesi), Economic Journal, 1999, 109 (Conference Supplement), 111-125.
• "Mutual Insurance, Individual Savings and Limited Commitment" (with Ethan Ligon and Tim Worrall), Review of Economic Dynamics, April 2000, 3 (2), 216-246.
• "Cooperation and Punishment" (with Bob Evans), Econometrica, July 2001, 69 (4), 1061-1075.
• "An analysis of labour adjustment costs in unionized economies" (with L. Modesto), Labour Economics, 2001, 8, 475-501.
• "Informal Insurance Arrangements in Village Economies" (with Ethan Ligon and Tim Worrall), Review of Economic Studies, January 2002, 69, 209-244.
• "Gift-giving, Quasi-Credit and Reciprocity" (with Tim Worrall), Rationality and Society, 2002, 14(3), 308-352.
• "Gradualism and Irreversibility" (with Ben Lockwood), Review of Economic Studies, 2002, 69(2), 339-356.
• "Some Asymptotic Results in Discounted Repeated Games of One-Sided Incomplete Information" (with Martin Cripps), Mathematics of Operations Research, 2003, 28(3), 433-462.
• "Bankruptcy Proceedings for Sovereign State Insolvency and their Effect on Capital Flows", International Review of Economics and Finance, Vol. 13, Issue 3 , 2004, Pages 341-361.
• "Default Costs, Willingness to Pay, and Sovereign Debt Buybacks," Journal of Restructuring Finance, Vol. 1, No. 1, March 2004, 35-47.
• "Bankruptcy Proceedings for Sovereign State Insolvency," The World Economy, vol. 27, no. 2, February 2004, pp. 265-279 (15).
• "Fair pay and a Wagebill Argument for Wage Rigidity and Excessive Employment Variability", Economic Journal, Vol. 115, October 2005, 833-859.
• "Wage Dynamics, Cohort Effects and Limited Commitment Models" (with Pedro Martins and Andy Snell), Journal of the European Economic Association, Vol 3(2-3), April-May 2005, 350-359.
• "Unemployment Insurance under Moral Hazard and Limited Commitment: Public versus Private Provision" (with Tim Worrall), Journal of Public Economic Theory, 9 (1), 2007, pp. 151-181.
• "Limited Commitment Models of the Labour Market," (with Tim Worrall), Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 54 (5), November 2007, pp. 750-773.
• "Labor Contracts, Equal Treatment, and Wage-Unemployment Dynamics" (with Andy Snell), American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 2(3), 2010, 98–127. DOI:10.1257/mac.2.3.98.
• “Downward Wage Rigidity in a Model of Equal Treatment Contracting” (with Pedro Martins and Andy Snell), Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Special Issue: Price and Wage Dynamics, Volume 112, Issue 4, December 2010, pages 841–863, DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9442.2010.01628.x
• "Measuring What Employers Do about Entry Wages over the Business Cycle: A New Approach” (with Pedro Martins and Gary Solon), American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics,   4 (4), 36-55, October 2012.
• “Optimal Punishment in Contests with Endogenous Entry” (with Zhewei Wang) Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Volume 91, July 2013, Pages 34–50.
• “A competitive model of worker replacement and wage rigidity” (with Andy Snell and Zhewei Wang), Economic Inquiry, 53, 1, Jan 2015 pp. 419-430.
• “Marginal Subsidies in Tullock Contests” (with Zhewei Wang), Journal of Public Economic Theory, Volume 19, Issue 2, Pages 511–526, April 2017 [DOI: 10.1111/jpet.12203].
• “Bias in Returns to Tenure When Firm Wages and Employment Comove: A Quantitative Assessment and Solution” (with Andy Snell, Pedro Martins and Heiko Stüber), Journal of Labor Economics 2018, 36:1, 47-74.
• “Stochastic Stability of Monotone Economies in Regenerative Environments” (with Sergey Foss, Vsevolod Shneer and Tim Worrall), Journal of Economic Theory, January, 2018, Volume 173, pages 334-360. [ doi:10.1016/j.jet.2017.11.004 ] .
• “Dynamic Relational Contracts under Complete Information” (with Tim Worrall), Journal of Economic Theory, May 2018, Volume 175, pages 624-651. [ doi:10.1016/j.jet.2018.02.004 ]
• "Downward real wage rigidity and equal treatment wage contracts: theory and evidence,” (with Andy Snell and Heiko Stueber), Review of Economic Dynamics, October 2018, Volume 30, pages 265-284. [doi:10.1016/j.red.2018.06.001 ]

Recent Unpublished Research

• "Employer Collusion and Employee Training,” (with Pedro Martins) mimeo, latest version December 2022.
• "Job security, asymmetric information, and wage rigidity,” (with Heiko Stueber and Andy Snell), June 2019. Previous version.
• "A simple model of extensions of collective contracts,” mimeo, September 2019.
• "Dynamic Relational Contracts with Credit Constraints,” The School of Economics Discussion Paper Series 1009, University of Manchester (with Tim Worrall), March 2010.
• “Are Departures from Rational Expectations a Contributory Cause of Business Cycle Volatility?” (with Andy Snell), 2013.

Other Publications

• "Some micro and macro implications of inventories," in F.H.Hahn (ed.), The Economics of Games, Information and Missing Markets, (1989), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• "Learning and reputation in repeated games of incomplete information" (with Martin Cripps), in Rationality and Learning in Economics, edited A.Kirman and M.Salmon, Oxford: Basil Blackwell (1995), pp.276-307.
• "Pareto efficiency", in A. Kuper and J. Kuper (eds.), The Social Science Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition, 1996.
• Comment on "A Theory of the Onset of Currency Crises", in The Asian Financial Crisis: Causes, Contagion and Consequences, edited P.R. Agenor, M.Miller, D. Vines, A. Weber, CUP 1999.
• "Discussion of Incomplete contracts, the port of Gaza, and the case for economic sovereignty," forthcoming in The Economics of Palestine: Economic Policy and Institutional Reform for a Viable Palestinian State, edited by David Cobham and Numan Kanafani.

Other Recent Activities

• Royal Economic Society Council member, 2007-2012.
• Member of the British Academy Economics Section Standing Committee, 2008-2013.
• 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, Economics and Econometrics Sub-Panel Member.
• 2014 Research Excellence Framework Economics and Econometrics sub-panel member.