Matt Cole

Professor of Environmental Economics

Birmingham Business School

University of Birmingham

Matt Cole

Professor of Environmental Economics

Birmingham Business School

University of Birmingham

About me

I am a Professor of Environmental Economics in

the Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.

My research interests lie at the intersection of environmental economics and urban economics, and draw upon trade, development and labour economics. Current topics include pollution and decision making, environmental policy evaluation, and the economic integration of migrants.

Recent research

Cole, M.A., Jabbour, L., Ozgen, C. and Yumoto, H. (2026). Refugees' Economic Integration and Firms, forthcoming

Journal of Human Resources.

Tong, C., Dai, Y., Cole, M.A., Elliott, R.J.R, Bartington, S., Liu, B. and Shi, Z. (2025). Further improvement in London’s Air Quality Requires More Than the Ultra Low Emission Zone policy, npj Clean Air, 1, 29.

Selected Publications and work in progress

Cole, M.A., Koster, H., Ozgen, C. and Yumoto, H. (2026). Invisible Immigrants? Urbanisation, Co-National Density and the Legal Integration of Refugees. IZA Discussion Paper No. 18590.

Cole, M.A., Jabbour, L., Ozgen, C. and Yumoto, H. (2026). Refugees' Economic Integration and Firms, forthcoming Journal of Human Resources. Also available as IZA Discussion Paper No. 16828

Cole, M.A., Elliott, R.J.R., Liu, B., Vu, T. and Shi, Z. (2026). On the environmental monitoring of firms: Does the centralization of inspections matter? Economic Inquiry (forthcoming).

Carneiro, J., Cole, M.A. and Strobl, E. (2024). Foetal Exposure to Air Pollution and Students' Cognitive Performance: Evidence from Agricultural Fires in Brazil. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 86, 1, pp. 156-186.

Carneiro, J., Cole, M.A. and Strobl, E. (2021). The Effects of Air Pollution on Students’ Cognitive Performance: Evidence from Brazilian University Entrance Tests. Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists , 8, 6, pp. 1051-1077.

Cole, M.A., Elliott, R.J.R. and Strobl, E. (2021). Biodiversity and Economic Land Use. Land Economics, 97, 4.

Cole, M.A. and Zhang, L. (2019). The Clean-up of Chinese Manufacturing: Examining the Role Played by Changing Techniques of Production. Economics Letters, 180, pp. 11-14. (link to paper on publisher's website).

Cole, M.A., Elliott, R.J.R., Okubo, T. and Strobl, E. (2019). Natural Disasters and Spatial Heterogeneity in Damages: The Birth, Life and Death of Manufacturing Plants. Journal of Economic Geography, 19, 2, pp. 373-408. (link to paper on publisher's website)

Cole, M.A., Elliott, R.J.R, Occhiali, G., and Strobl, E. (2018). Power Outages and Firm Performance in Sub-Saharan Africa. Journal of Development Economics, 134, pp. 150-159. (link to paper on publisher's website)

Google Scholar Profile

Google Scholar

Contact:

Matt Cole

Department of Economics

Birmingham Business School

University of Birmingham

B15 2TT

United Kingdom

m.a.cole@bham.ac.uk

My University Webpage