Recurring Labour Shocks and Stated and Revealed Preferences for Redistribution (2025) - joint with Konstantinos Matakos (King's College London) -Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
Evidence on the relationship between employment shocks and preferences for redistribution is mixed - on stated outcomes - and sparse --on revealed ones. In an incentivised survey of US workers, we measure the relationship between repeated labor shocks and both stated and revealed preferences. We measure the former by support on seven different policies and the latter through donations. We examine experiences of both mild (having to reduce working hours) and hard shocks (unemployment), as well as past unemployment during formative years. We find evidence of adaptation to unemployment on policy preferences and compounding for milder shocks on donations, suggesting that repeated shocks are not independent in relation to preferences for redistribution. Our results show that unemployment may impact preferences in a self-interested way, while milder shocks may lead to broader support for redistribution.
Do wages underestimate the inequality in workers’ rewards? The joint distribution of job quality and wages across occupations (2024) - joint with Andrew Clark (Paris School of Economics) and Richard Layard (London School of Economics) - Economica
Which occupations are best for wellbeing? There is a large literature on earnings differentials, but less attention has been paid to occupational differences in non-pecuniary rewards. However, information on both types of rewards is needed to understand the dispersion of wellbeing across occupations. We analyse subjective wellbeing in a large representative sample of UK workers to construct a measure of ``full earnings'', the sum of earnings and the value of non-pecuniary rewards, in 90 different occupations. We first find that the dispersion of earnings underestimates the extent of inequality in the labour market: the dispersion of full earnings is one-third larger than the dispersion of earnings. Equally, the gender and ethnic gaps in the labour market are larger than data on earnings alone would suggest, and the true returns to completed secondary education (though not to a degree) are underestimated by earnings differences on their own. Finally, we show that our main results are similar, and stronger, for a representative sample of US workers.
The paper was covered in The Guardian.
Growing up in a Recession Increases Compassion? The Case of Attitudes towards Immigration (2024) - joint with Robert Dur (Erasmus University) and Stephan Meier (Columbia University) - Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.
Recent evidence shows that people who grew up in a recession more strongly favor government redistribution and are more compassionate towards the poor. We investigate how inclusive this increase in compassion is by studying how macroeconomic conditions experienced when young affect immigration attitudes. Using US and global data, we show that experiencing bad macroeconomic circumstances strengthen anti-immigration attitudes for life. Moreover, we find that people become generally more outgroup hostile. Our results thus suggest that the underlying motive for more government redistribution is not a universal increase in compassion, but more self-interested and restricted to one's ingroup.
Macroeconomic Conditions When Young Shape Job Preferences For Life (2023) - joint with Lea Cassar , Robert Dur and Stephan Meier - Review of Economics and Statistics
Preferences for monetary and non-monetary job attributes are important for understanding workers' motivation and the organization of work. Little is known, however, about how those job preferences are formed. We study how macroeconomic conditions when young shape workers' job preferences for the rest of their life. Using variation in income-per-capita across US regions and over time since the 1920s, we find that job preferences vary in systematic ways with experienced macroeconomic conditions during young adulthood. Recessions create cohorts of workers who give higher priority to income, whereas booms make cohorts care more about job meaning, for the rest of their life.
The paper was covered in The Guardian and Forbes.
Who benefits from attending the higher track? The effect of track assignment on skill development and the role of relative age (2022) - joint with Ron Diris (Leiden University) and Trudie Schils (Maastricht University). - Journal of Human Capital
Previous findings on (gradually decreasing) relative age effects in school suggest that too few younger and too many older students attend academic tracks. Using a regression discontinuity design around school-specific admission thresholds, we estimate the cognitive and non-cognitive effects of track assignment at the achievement margin, across relative age. We find that attending the higher track does not affect cognitive outcomes at any relative age. For older students, attending the higher track increases perseverance, need for achievement, and emotional stability. The results suggest that older students compensate lower ability (given high track attendance) with higher effort.
Learning From Praise: Evidence From a Field Experiment With Teachers (2021) - Journal of Public Economics
Financial incentive programs for teachers are increasingly common, but little is known about the effectiveness of non-monetary incentives in improving educational outcomes. This field experiment measures how repeated public praise for the best teachers impacts student performance. In treated schools, the students of praised teachers perform better on standardized exams undertaken six months after the intervention. Praised teachers also assign higher marks to their students two months after the intervention. The students of teachers who are not praised in treated schools are assigned lower marks two months after the intervention, but they do not perform any worse on final exams. Compared to costly interventions where teachers receive financial incentives, the effects of public praise for praised teachers are remarkably large.
Exercise, Volunteering, and Mental Health: Evidence from a Nation-Wide Programme (2025) - joint with Christian Krekel (LSE) and Ekaterina Oparina (LSE) - under review, draft available upon request
There is growing interest in how social prescribing, a therapeutic approach that refers individuals with unmet social or emotional needs to community activities, can improve mental health and revolutionize health care systems at cost. However, robust evidence on which interventions are effective is still scarce. We exploit a unique setting in the UK to measure the impacts of a lifestyle intervention that combines sports and volunteering on participant mental health. Specifically, we partner with a country-wide non-profit that provides infrastructure for exercising and volunteering in local communities. Using incentivised surveys linked to administrative data on participation, we compare individuals who participated with those who signed up but did not (recently or at all), including for exogenous reasons. We find that participation strongly reduces mental ill health and loneliness whilst raising feelings of belonging and connectedness to participants' local communities, as well as their trust towards others. Impacts are sizeable and persistent, returning to baseline more than six months after participation. The programme is highly cost-effective.
Global warming cools voters down: How climate concerns affect policy preferences (2024) - joint with Karlygash Kuralbayeva (King's College London) and Konstantinos Matakos (King's College London) - under review
This study examines how regional temperature variations across OECD countries influence political behavior and support for offset policies. Our analysis reveals that exposure to higher temperatures correlates with political moderation, reduced backing for extreme and populist parties, heightened climate concerns, and increased support for environmentally conscious agendas. These effects are primarily driven by older individuals, who exhibit increased concerns about climate change and the economic costs of climate policies following temperature spikes. Moreover, they express support for policies aimed at mitigating these economic impacts. Conversely, younger individuals show less apprehension about the economic consequences of climate policies and demonstrate readiness to bear them, including through higher energy bills. These findings emphasize the necessity of accounting for age-related perspectives when formulating effective climate policies for the future.
Short blogs covering findings can be found here and here.
Are the Socially Mobile More Left-Wing? (2023) - joint with Andrew Clark (PSE) - under review
It is well-known that wealthier individuals are more likely to have Right-leaning political preferences. We here in addition ask whether one's starting position matters, and whether observed upward social mobility relative to one's parents influences voting and preferences for redistribution. In 18 waves of UK panel data, both own and parental social status are independently positively associated with Right-leaning voting and preferences: given own social status, we show that higher-status parents produce Right-leaning political preferences and that the upwardly-mobile are more Left-wing. We investigate a number of potential mediators, and show that these results do not reflect the effect of own and parents' social status on personal wellbeing, but rather appear to be linked to individual beliefs about how fair society is.
The paper was Covered in the Guardian.
UK Wellbeing Report (2025) - with contributions from Prof Lord Richard Layard, Prof Jan-Emmanuel De Neve and Sarah Cunningham. Commissioned by the World Wellbeing Movement in June 2025.
UK Wellbeing Report (2024) - with contributions from Prof Lord Richard Layard, Prof Jan-Emmanuel De Neve and Sarah Cunningham. Commissioned by the World Wellbeing Movement in March 2024.
Happiness and Spatial Inequality: Past, Present, and Future - Invited Chapter in Brockmann, H. & Fernandez-Urbano, R. (Eds.). (2024). Encyclopedia of Happiness, Quality of Life and Subjective Wellbeing
Consultation commissioned by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on the Levelling Up Wellbeing Mission (2022) - joint with Richard Layard (LSE), Andrew Clark (PSE), and Jan de Neve (Oxford University).
The Effects of the National Minimum Wage on the Non-Wage Benefits in the Low Pay Sector (2021) - joint with Andrew Clark (Paris School of Economics) and Richard Layard (London School of Economics)
Funded by the Low Pay Commission Grant for Research on the Impact of the National Minimum Wage
A short blog covering findings can be found here.
Work and Well-being during COVID-19: Impact, Inequalities, Resilience, and the Future of Work (2021) - joint with Jan Emmanuel de Neve, Marta Golin, Micah Kaats and George Ward - UN World Happiness Report
The Impacts of Austerity on Workplace Stress, Anxiety, and Depression - joint with Andrew Clark (PSE) and Jonathan Wadsworth (Royal Holloway)
Temperature exposure and policy preferences: evidence from a survey experiment in the UK - joint with Karlygash Kuralbayeva (King's College London) and Konstantinos Matakos (King's College London)
Evaluating the impact of genetic, early social environment, and of socio-economic shocks on behaviour and preferences: evidence from a Twin Study. - joint with Konstantinos Matakos (King's College London) and Andrew Hunter (Royal Holloway)
Climate change and preferences for nature - joint with Karlygash Kuralbayeva (King's College London) and Konstantinos Matakos (King's College London)
The Power of Online Education in Times of Crisis: Lessons From Romanian Schools
Levelling Up: Wellbeing Differences Across Areas and their Political Implications - joint with Andrew Clark (PSE), and Richard Layard (LSE)
Beyond Income Inequality: Factoring in Non-Monetary Rewards - LSE Business review, CentrePiece.
What can we learn from the latest World Happiness report? - Economics Observatory , CentrePiece
What is the role of government in creating a happier world? - Economics Observatory.
The View From Above the Glass Ceiling: Do Female Managers Create Better Opportunities for Other Female Employees? -single author, MPhil thesis
I study whether a more gender diverse management translates into better opportunities for other female employees, using linked employer-employee panel data from the Netherlands. Results show that a higher share of female managers has a significant and positive relationship with (i) the probability of promotions for women working below management, in the subsequent year; (ii) the probability of a hire being a woman in the subsequent year; and (iii) the wages of women. The findings indicate that this relationship is linear at all levels of management gender diversity, such that a small number of female executives is not associated with any negative externalities for other female employees. Strikingly, comparable hiring probabilities for men and women correspond to a management gender composition skewed in the favor of females. Once employed, men and women have equal probabilities of promotion in firms with a fully male management, and increasing the share of female managers is related to positive discrimination in favor of other female employees in terms of promotion probabilities.
I have been a reviewer for a number of academic journals, including the American Economic Journal : Applied Economics, American Economic Journal : Macroeconomics, European Economic Review, Journal of Applied Econometrics, Journal of Economic Literature, Journal of Economic Surveys, Economics of Education Review, Journal of Population Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Health Economics, Management Science, European Journal of Political research, ILR Review, and Industrial Relations.