Dr Franz Buscha

Franz Buscha is a Professor of Economics in the School of Organisations, Economy and Society at the University of Westminster. Franz joined the university as a Research Fellow in 2006 after completing his PhD in Economics at Lancaster University. Since then Franz has been an important member of Westminster Business School (WBS) and the CER, actively contributing to income generation, research output and impact. In his current role Franz acts as mentor to junior researchers and as principal investigator advisor on CER projects. Franz has also taught Labour Economics at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels and was a deputy course leader of the MSc/MA in International Economic Policy and Analysis.  Between 2013 and 2017 he was the Director of PhD Studies for WBS and in this role Franz was responsible for all processes that related to doctoral study, including research student enrolment, registration, transfers and annual appraisal.

Currently, Franz is the College Director of Research for the Westminster Business School. In this capacity Franz is responsible for the management of Westminster Business School’s research portfolio, building and maintaining an prominent research culture and overseeing the research activities of circa 200 academics. In this role Franz also represents the college on various University committees, such as Research Committee.

Franz’s personal research interests are in education economics, labour economics, and applied econometrics. Franz has made scientific contributions to issues such as social mobility, measuring the returns to education, the effect of weather of happiness, political beliefs and identity formation. He has been involved in numerous funded research projects from research councils and government departments.

He has published in leading journals such as Economics of Education Review, the Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, the British Journal of Political Science and the British Journal of Sociology. Franz has also contributed to numerous policy reports and his research has been covered by media outlets such as BBC news, BBC Radio 4, The Economist, The Guardian, The Times, and Huffington Post. Franz also has a monthly radio program called Policy Matters on Share Radio.