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
The large increase in remote work since 2020 has prompted concerns about adverse effects on population loneliness and mental health. We show that any such adverse effects were small, in a UK context. We use data from UKHLS and differences-in-differences estimators that flexibly control for a rich set of covariates to compare changes in key variables amongst two groups: those who worked in teleworkable occupations in 2019, and those who worked in non-teleworkable occupations in 2019. While the former experience large and persistent increases in their probability of working remotely compared to the latter, any relative changes in self-reported loneliness or adverse mental health symptoms are transitory and disappear by the year 2023.
"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 Andrew Jones, James Lomas, and Suzanna Nesom
"The long-term effects of alcohol consumption on heart health" with Débora Mazetto
"Prosocial motivation, wage expectations and career choice - an information experiment" with Nils Gutacker, Gintare Malisauskaite, Florin Vadean, and Daniel Wiesen