Selected Publications
"The causal effects of workplace autonomy on mental health." (2025) Economics and Human Biology
Working Paper Accepted for Publication
This paper explores the relationship between work-related autonomy and mental health. Using Understanding Society data from the United Kingdom, I assess the association between mental health and autonomy, defined across five different dimensions, using a range of different controls, including person and occupation fixed effects. I find low work-related autonomy consistently associates with poor mental health. The degree of selection bias on observable controls is small. Finally, I bound causal effects under assumptions about the degree of confoundedness of unobservables, and assess the possibility of reverse causality.
"The heterogeneous effect of retirement on mental health by occupation in the UK" (2024) Health Economics Letters
I investigate heterogeneity across occupational characteristics in the effect of retirement eligibility on mental health in the United Kingdom. I use K-means clustering to define three occupational clusters, differing across multiple dimensions. I estimate the effect of retirement eligibility using a Regression Discontinuity Design, allowing the effect to differ by cluster. The effects of retirement eligibility are beneficial, and greater in two clusters: one comprised of white-collar jobs in an office setting and another of blue-collar jobs with high physical demands and hazards. The cluster with smaller benefits mixes blue- and white-collar uncompetitive jobs with high levels of customer interaction. The results have implications for the distributional effect of raising the retirement age.
Selected Working Papers
"Loneliness, Mental Health and the Work-From-Home Revolution" with Ben Cowan
We examine the effect of the large post-COVID increase in remote work on loneliness and mental health, using Understanding Society data from the United Kingdom. We use differences-indifferences estimators that flexibly control for a rich set of co-variates to compare changes in key variables amongst two groups: those work worked in teleworkable occupations in 2019, and those who worked in non-teleworkable occupations in 2019. We find that relative to those who worked in non-teleworkable occupations, workers in teleworkable occupations significantly increased their propensity to remote work from 2020 onwards. They also experienced higher levels of self-reported loneliness, particularly amongst women, and worse mental health. By contrast, we find no evidence of changes in job satisfaction and any improvement in work-related autonomy is limited to men. Our results suggest that the rise of remote work may contribute to increased loneliness and worsening population health, albeit at modest levels.
"Disability Benefits without work restrictions or means-testing: evidence from the UK" (JMP)
This paper examines the welfare effects of work restrictions in disability benefit programs. Work restrictions can discincentivize people with high work capability from applying and therefore control fiscal costs. However, they also distort the labor supply of claimants. To credibly assess the overall effect on claims from removing work restrictions, I study a disability benefit program in the UK which does not feature work restrictions or means tests. Only around 3% of benefits payments are made to those in the top 20% of the household income distribution, while over 40% of payments are made to those in the bottom 20% of the household income distribution. Transitions onto benefits have small effects on the labor supply of beneficiaries. I simulate an ex ante welfare-neutral expansion of benefit generosity with corresponding tax increases and find that this policy generates positive net revenue for the government, suggesting welfare gains from increased generosity. I evaluate the effect of work restrictions by developing a structural life cycle model with endogenous benefit application, work, and asset accumulation decisions. I estimate this model using UK data and use it quantify the effect of benefit generosity and introduction of work restrictions on benefit claims, labor supply, and welfare. I find that a revenue neutral doubling of benefit generosity in my model leads to a 24% increase in the benefit take up rate, while overall welfare is improved by the equivalent of 1.9% to 2.2% of lifetime consumption, depending on educational attainment. Introduction of work restrictions in my model reduces overall welfare by 1.6% to 1.3% of lifetime consumption, depending on educational attainment. Since most disability benefit programs include some form of work restriction, my results have important implications for the design and reform of public disability insurance programs.
Awards: best paper at CINCH-dggö academy in health economics
Selected Work in progress
"The effect of disability benefit reform on the mental health of older English people" with James Lomas and Andrew Jones
"The long-term effects of alcohol consumption on heart health" with Débora Mazetto