Research Impact

My research focuses on how consumers and households manage their finances. This is a very active area of growth and innovation in industry and policy. I have recently worked in an advisory capacity for a variety of organisations and government agencies. I am always keen to explore possibilities for collaborative research with policymakers or industry, especially research that draws upon (completely anonymous) individual level data.


Research Impact Highlights

Regulation of High-Cost Short-Term Credit (including Payday Loans)

My research on the effects of payday loans on consumers, undertaken jointly with Ben Guttman-Kenney and Stefan Hunt (economists at the UK Financial Conduct Authority) and published in the Review of Financial Studies (here), was used by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as the evidence base for the design of a price-cap on payday lending. The research, conducted in 2014, drew on the near-universe of UK payday loan applications over a two year period and employed a regression discontinuity design. The original FCA consultation document including the research technical appendices and the FCA final policy also reproduce the research paper findings in full. The resulting policy limited interest and charges on payday loans and has saved consumers over £600m in interest and charges since it was introduced in 2015. I testified before the UK parliament on the implications of this research for policy, including appearing before the Treasury Select Committee Inquiry on Consumer Financial Management. I provided expert witness testimony on a variety of topics, including the Price Cap for Payday Lending. Testimony before UK parliament. I have written more generally on the topic of payday lending in a report published by the UK Think Tank Respublica "Climbing the Credit Ladder". I further advised the FCA on the design and implementation of research on the 'Rent-to-Own' credit market in the UK.

Causes of Consumer Credit Over-Indebtedness

Since 2009, I have undertaken a series of studies commissioned by UK government on the causes of over-indebtedness. The first project for the Department of Business scrutinized the existing definitions of ‘over-indebted’ and analysed the causes of household over-indebtedness at the individual level, published in the project report 'Drivers of Over-Indebtedness' A second report focused on the potential for using individual-level data held by the consumer counselling sector as an alternative and potentially higher quality data source to better understand the causes of over-indebtedness at the individual level, published as ‘Understanding Consumer Over-Indebtedness Using Counselling Sector Data’. I subsequently testified about this research at the Business Select Committee. Select Committee Inquiry Report. In 2016 I conducted an updated analysis for the Financial Conduct Authority "Can We Predict Which Consumer Credit Users Will Suffer Financial Distress?" (with Ben Guttman-Kenney), also see FCA Insight Coverage.


Other Impact Activities

  • 2016-17 together with Neil Stewart (Warwick) I have co-authored a series of consultation responses and expert opinions on the Financial Conduct Authority Credit Card Market Study. Our analysis draws on a large data set of individual level credit card data provided by five UK credit card lenders via UK Finance, the industry body for consumer finance in the UK
  • In 2015-16 I was Academic Adviser to the UK Competition and Markets Authority Retail Banking Market Investigation. See the CMA webpage here
  • May 2013 - September 2013 I advised the Money Advice Service on the design component of the Standard Financial Statement
  • Between 2009 - 2012 I was an Adviser to the UK Treasury Debt Strategy Group
  • In 2006 I undertook a PhD Internship at the Bank of England


Current and Future Collaborations

  • Beginning in 2019, a new project joint with Neil Stewart (Warwick Business School) in collaboration with NEST will examine the effects of automatic enrollment into workplace pensions on UK consumers.
  • In October 2018 Neil Stewart (Warwick Business School) and I are starting a new research initiative with Lloyds Banking Group, using data science to better understand customer behavior across Lloyd's business areas.
  • Throughout 2018, together with Neil Stewart (Warwick Business School) I am undertaking a program of research on individual investor behavior using a data set of individual investor stockbroking records provided by Barclays Stockbrokers