Biography

François is Deputy Director of the Complexity Economics group, Lead Researcher at the Smith School for Enterprise and the Environment, an Oxford Martin fellow, an Associate member of Nuffield college, and an External Faculty at the Complexity Science Hub in Vienna.

François’s main areas of research are in the economics of innovation and productivity, environmental economics, complex systems, and forecasting. Currently, his research interests lie in the macroeconomics of the net zero transition, the structure and evolution of production networks, and the future of technology.

His research has appeared in economics and interdisciplinary journals, and has been featured in books, news articles, and public sector reports.

See https://francoislafond.info for updated information, including working papers.

Recent Publications

Sept 2024
INET Working Paper
No. 2024-06 - Forecasting Macroeconomic Dynamics using a Calibrated Data-Driven Agent-based Model
Samuel Wiese ,  Jagoda Kaszowska-Mojsa ,  Joel Dyer ,  Jose Moran ,  Marco Pangallo ,  François Lafond ,  John Muellbauer ,  Anisoara Calinescu ,  J. Doyne Farmer
Jun 2024
Journal
Measuring productivity dispersion: a parametric approach using the Lévy alpha-stable distribution
in Industrial and Corporate Change
Jangho Yang ,  Torsten Heinrich ,  Julian Winkler ,  François Lafond ,  Pantelis Koutroumpis ,  J. Doyne Farmer
Mar 2024
Journal
Reconstructing supply networks
in Journal of Physics: Complexity
Luca Mungo ,  Alexandra Brintrup ,  Diego Garlaschelli ,  François Lafond
Mar 2024
Journal
Why Is Productivity Slowing Down?
in Journal of Economic Literature
Ian Goldin ,  Pantelis Koutroumpis ,  François Lafond ,  Julian Winkler
Nov 2023
Journal
The unequal effects of the health–economy trade-off during the COVID-19 pandemic
in Nature Human Behaviour
Marco Pangallo ,  Alberto Aleta ,  R. Maria del Rio-Chanona ,  Anton Pichler ,  David Martin-Corral ,  Matteo Chinazzi ,  François Lafond ,  Marco Ajelli ,  Esteban Moro ,  Yamir Moreno ,  Alessandro Vespignani ,  J. Doyne Farmer
Oct 2023
Journal
Building an alliance to map global supply networks
in Science
Anton Pichler ,  Christian Diem ,  Alexandra Brintrup ,  François Lafond ,  Glenn Magerman ,  Gert Buiten ,  Thomas Choi ,  Vasco M. Carvalho ,  J. Doyne Farmer ,  Stefan Thurner
Oct 2023
INET Working Paper
No. 2023-19 - Reconstructing supply networks
Luca Mungo ,  Alexandra Brintrup ,  Diego Garlaschelli ,  François Lafond
May 2023
INET Working Paper
No. 2023-08 - Firm-level production networks: what do we (really) know?
Andrea Bacilieri ,  András Borsos ,  Pablo Astudillo-Estévez ,  François Lafond
Feb 2023
Journal
Reconstructing production networks using machine learning
in Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control
Luca Mungo ,  François Lafond ,  Pablo Astudillo-Estévez ,  J. Doyne Farmer
Jan 2023
INET Working Paper
No. 2022-02 - Reconstructing production networks using machine learning
Luca Mungo ,  François Lafond ,  Pablo Astudillo-Estévez ,  J. Doyne Farmer
Dec 2022
Paper
The unequal effects of the health-economy tradeoff during the COVID-19 pandemic
Marco Pangallo ,  Alberto Aleta ,  R. Maria Del Rio Chanona ,  Anton Pichler ,  David Martin-Corral ,  Matteo Chinazzi ,  François Lafond ,  Marco Ajelli ,  Esteban Moro ,  Yamir Moreno ,  Alessandro Vespignani ,  J. Doyne Farmer
Sept 2022
Journal
Forecasting the propagation of pandemic shocks with a dynamic input-output model
in Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control
Anton Pichler ,  Marco Pangallo ,  R. Maria del Rio-Chanona ,  François Lafond ,  J. Doyne Farmer
Jul 2022
Journal
Can Stimulating Demand Drive Costs Down? World War II as a Natural Experiment
in The Journal of Economic History
François Lafond ,  Diana Greenwald ,  J. Doyne Farmer
May 2022
INET Working Paper
No. 2022-08 - Why is productivity slowing down?
Ian Goldin ,  Pantelis Koutroumpis ,  François Lafond ,  Julian Winkler
Apr 2022
INET Working Paper
No. 2019-14 - Measuring productivity dispersion: a parametric approach using the Lévy alpha-stable distribution
Jangho Yang ,  Torsten Heinrich ,  Julian Winkler ,  François Lafond ,  Pantelis Koutroumpis ,  J. Doyne Farmer
May 2021
INET Working Paper
No. 2021-12 - Why is productivity slowing down?
Ian Goldin ,  Pantelis Koutroumpis ,  François Lafond ,  Julian Winkler

Recent Events

07 Mar 19
15:00

"Can stimulating demand drive costs down? World War II as a natural experiment" - Francois Lafond, Complexity Economics/Economics of Sustainability

INET Researcher Seminar

In Person Event
Francois Lafond Oms
05 Feb 15
15:00

INET Post-doc/Researcher Talks: Francois Lafond & Doyne Farmer "How predictable is technological progress?"

In Person Event

Research Areas

Methods and foundations of economics
Climate and environment
The clean energy transition
Progress, technology & innovation

Programme Teams

Complexity Economics
Economics of Sustainability (EoS)

Related Projects

Energy transition

This project focuses on energy technology portfolios, the predictability of energy transition progress, accelerating the energy transition and forecasting technological progress.
Network approaches to labour markets and industrial strategies

We use network analysis and agent-based models to analyse and what policies could ease this transition for workers in this time of unprecedented change in labour markets
Sensitive Intervention Points in the Transition to the Post-Carbon Society

This new project will model the physical, economic, sociological and political aspects of this transition to an entirely new energy network from an interdisciplinary perspective, seeking to understand the sensitive points that can accelerate it.
Understanding the economy from the bottom-up

Our models are based on fine-grained data sets at the level of firms, products and industries, with the goal of providing a detailed understanding of the rich and heterogeneous behaviour underlying business cycles, inflation and interest rates, innovation, and long-run growth.