Where to start?  I grew up in Malta, surrounded by art and activism. By the end of compulsory schooling, I had studied six languages before turning to Economics. At the University of Malta, while active in student bodies and political theatre, I completed a B.Com. and a BA (Hons) in Economics in 1992, both First Class. I then joined the Ministry for Economic Affairs.  On paper, it was an excellent start. In reality, I quickly found myself questioning the limits of conventional economics.  

A year later, I went to University College London to study environmental and resource economics. Under the mentorship of Prof. David Pearce, I completed an MSc with Distinction. That experience crystallised the questions that still guide my work: How do we make economies more human?

Policy and Broadcasting Keen to work on the ground, I spent the next 15 years in the Maltese public sector, working across planning and environmental regulation and leading teams on research, public consultation and EU accession. Informed by environmental economics, I developed policy proposals and projects, representing Malta in European and UN fora.

Alongside this, I broadcast (writer, presenter) eight non-fiction television series on socio-economic issues. For a while, my life involved writing policy documents by day and doing television by night. Somewhere along the way, I started asking whether any of this was actually making a difference.

Research, Beyond Boxes That question took me back to academia, this time to behavioural economics. My PhD, mentored by Prof. Liam Delaney at the University of Stirling, allowed me to bring together what had previously lived in separate boxes: economics, public policy and communication. Since then, working with others across disciplines and countries, I have built a body of research and writing, secured research funding, mentored diverse students worldwide and made some impact along the way.  

I work at the Department of Economics, University of Malta but I have found that the most interesting work happens between fields, rather than inside them. I consider myself a researcher, practitioner and communicator. My interests lie in human behaviour, market failure and governance and span the economics of environmental issues (climate, waste, transport), cultural participation, housing and wellbeing.

Now Across its various forms, my work explores what drives human choices, markets and policies, their wellbeing implications, and how we can do better.  Studying decision-making for a living has not, however, made me immune to making bad decisions. My most persistent is probably my inability to say “no” to interesting work!  

I like to make complex ideas accessible to diverse audiences. Naturally, my next challenge is to simplify my own workload. Early results suggest this may be harder than economics.