Alex Coad

Alex Coad is Professor at Waseda University’s Graduate School of Business and Finance, Faculty of Commerce, Tokyo. A 2007 PhD graduate of Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, he specialises in industrial dynamics, entrepreneurship and applied econometrics, with field-leading work on high-growth firms, innovation policy and firm survival.

Education

• PhD student, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, 2004-2007

Research Interests

Coad’s research straddles three tightly linked domains: (i) the life-cycle of firms—how they start, grow, innovate and exit; (ii) the identification and support of high-growth enterprises (gazelles, scale-ups) and their role in job creation and productivity; and (iii) the econometric evaluation of innovation and entrepreneurship policies, including post-crisis resilience after COVID-19. He employs large micro-data panels, quasi-experimental designs and, more recently, machine-learning techniques to uncover robust empirical regularities.

Publication Landscape

Across 119 Scopus-indexed papers (h-index 44) and 17 000+ Google-Scholar citations (h-index 59), Coad’s recent output reveals three dominant streams: (1) policy-oriented studies on European high-growth firms and scale-ups; (2) COVID-related analyses of firm vulnerability, investment expectations and recovery paths; and (3) methodological contributions linking random-forest prediction to gazelle identification. His work consistently blends rigorous econometrics with actionable policy insight.

Honours & Awards

• 2021 Waseda Research Award

Teaching & Doctoral Supervision

At Waseda he teaches graduate courses in Firm Growth & Innovation, Econometrics, Time-Series Analysis, Data-Science for Management and Japan Industry Studies, and supervises research seminars for the MSc in Finance. No individual student names are listed in the supplied material.

Grants & Teams

Coad leads or co-leads large EU-funded micro-data projects on productivity, innovation and COVID resilience, often involving cross-country research consortia; specific grant numbers or budgets are not disclosed in the text.