Biography

Professor Shqiponja Telhaj is Professor of Economics at the University of Sussex and a Research Associate at the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics. Her research focuses on applied microeconomics, particularly education and labour economics, and has been published in leading economics journals, including the Journal of Public Economics and The Economic Journal. Her work has informed education and labour-market policy in the UK and internationally. She is Chair of Albania?s Higher Education Accreditation Board and a member of the Albanian National Economic Council. In 2026, she was awarded the title of Knight of the Order of the Academic Oak by the President of Albania in recognition of her contributions to academic research and public policy.

Current areas of research include:

• Public-sector labour markets and wage inequality: Pay for performance in education; leadership pay and organisational performance; employee wages and career outcomes; public-sector employment and labour misallocation.
• School academies and the teacher labour market: Academy conversion; teacher pay, recruitment and retention; leadership change and personnel policies.
• University quality in Albania: Institutional and programme quality; changes in higher-education provision over time.
• Compensating differentials in education: Pay and working conditions; compensation for working in disadvantaged schools; teacher recruitment and retention.
• Economic history and institutional change: Albania?s ban on religion; long-run effects on education and labour-market outcomes; persistence of social norms and institutions.