François Lafond

François Lafond holds multiple research positions at the University of Oxford as Deputy Director of the Complexity Economics Programme at the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), Lead Researcher at the Smith School for Enterprise and the Environment (SSEE), Oxford Martin School fellow, and Associate Member of Nuffield College. He also serves as external faculty of the Complexity Science Hub in Vienna and affiliated researcher at Macrocosm.

His research spans economics of innovation and productivity, environmental economics, networks and complex systems, applied econometrics and forecasting. Lafond's approach uniquely combines complex systems methodologies with economic domain knowledge to address critical questions about the net zero transition, production networks, and technological change. His work has been published in economics and interdisciplinary journals and featured in books, news articles, and public sector reports.

Lafond's recent publications analyze productivity slowdown patterns, firm-level production networks, emissions intensity dynamics, and technological forecasting. His research demonstrates how complex systems approaches can provide new insights into 21st century economic challenges related to climate change, inequality, and technological innovation.

He actively participates in the academic community through events like the Interdisciplinary Workshop on Firm-Level Supply Networks and contributes to special journal issues that bridge economics with complex systems science. His current research agenda includes forecasting technological change, as evidenced by his September 2025 announcement about hiring a postdoc in this area.