Academy Fellow

Professor Zenou has made highly distinguished contributions to research in his field as evidenced by his exceptional publication record, with 70 of his 114 journal articles published in Group 1 (Top-5 and A* journals). In all, he has published over 150 works, including two books, 14 book chapters and numerous works in other languages.

The number of citations that Professor Zenou’s work has attracted also speaks to the outstanding quality and contribution of his research, with 13,372 citations as of September 2019, and he has a h-index of 62. Professor Zenou is unquestionably one of Australia’s very top economists, being ranked 2nd in Australia, and, measuring the past 10 years, 106th worldwide in REPEC. In his particular fields he is ranked 5th (Urban and Real Estate Economics), 3rd (Network Economics) and 1st (Social Norms and Social Capital).

Over and above citations, his work has influenced the way research is conducted in many areas, especially in the field of networks. Indeed, ground-breaking ideas often come from inter-field perspectives on a problem. The field of networks is not only interdisciplinary (sociology, economics, applied mathematics, physics) but also inter-field within economics (urban, labor, IO, development, public, finance, etc.). Yves’ broad background gives him the breadth and depth needed to tackle problems that benefit from inspiration drawn from related but different fields. He has a track record of doing just that.

One of his main contributions to the field of networks has been to study how social networks influence behaviour. He has developed the theory of the ‘key player’ – the idea that some people (or entities) in a network are much more influential than others. In the context of criminal networks, the key player isn’t necessarily the person who commits the most crime, but the one who’s most connected to others, and particularly to people who are central to the network. The key player is, in fact, the person who, once removed from the network, reduces the most crime.

Professor Zenou is also an Associate editor of 7 journals including the Journal of Urban Economics, the Scandinavian Journal of Economics and the Journal of Public Economic Theory. During 10 years (2007-2017), Yves was the Editor of Regional Science and Urban Economics (a leading journal in urban and regional economics) and he has been the guest editor of 5 special issues.

Professor of Economics and Richard Snape Chair in Business and Economics at Monash University

Elected Fellow of the Econometric Society, Elected Fellow of the Regional Science Association International, Fellow of the Academy of Europe (Academia Europaea).

1. König, M., Liu, X. and Y. Zenou (2019), “R&D networks: Theory, empirics and policy implications,” Review of Economics and Statistics 101, 476-491.

2. Olivetti, C., Patacchini, E. and Y. Zenou (2019), “Mothers, friends and gender identity,” Journal of the European Economic Association.

3. Verdier, T. and Y. Zenou (2018), “Cultural leaders and the dynamics of assimilation,” Journal of Economic Theory 175, 374-414.

4. Jackson, M.O., Rogers, B. and Y. Zenou (2017), “The economic consequences of social network structure,” Journal of Economic Literature 55, 49-95.

5. Zenou, Y. (2015), “A dynamic model of weak and strong ties in the labor market,” Journal of Labor Economics 33, 891-932.