My research sits at the intersection of economics, political philosophy, and public policy.
I work both as an empirical economist — using microeconomic methods to study labour markets and firm behaviour — and as a political philosopher, drawing primarily on the liberal egalitarian tradition.
My current research focuses on two main themes:
Good jobs and the future of work. What makes a "good" job, how are good jobs distributed, and what is the role of AI in shaping the future of work? These questions are increasingly urgent given the growing divergence in economic prospects between college and non-college educated workers, and the role that this may be playing in rising discontent and support for authoritarian politics. I am particularly interested in work as a source of identity, recognition and self-respect, and in the institutions through which we could promote broader access to meaningful work.
Community, belonging, and liberal democracy. Ask people what matters most to them, and the answer will usually centre on relationships — with family and friends, colleagues and neighbours. Yet the conditions that make community possible are under growing strain. I am developing a liberal political economy of community that takes seriously both the philosophical questions — can liberalism offer a positive vision of community, not just a defensive one? — and the empirical ones: what forces are eroding family life, local communities, and social solidarity, and what can policy do about it?
I am always happy to hear from other researchers with interests in these areas — please feel free to get in touch.
Anatomy of Automation: CNC Machines and Industrial Robots in UK Manufacturing, 2005–2023 With Aniket Baksy and Peter Lambert
Using a novel proprietary survey of UK manufacturing sites, we study the impact on employment of arguably the two most important industrial automation technologies of the past fifty years: computer numerical control (CNC) machine tools and industrial robots. First, we document the growing prevalence of both technologies across a wide range of industries between 2005 and 2023. Second, we use a local-projection difference-in-difference design to show that plants that adopt these technologies for the first time increase their employment by 6% to 8% after four years, compared to non-adopting plants in the same industry. Third, we find that for both technologies, automation is associated with an increase in employment among industry-competitor sites, and a positive overall impact on industry-level employment.
Where You Work or What You Do? Domestic Outsourcing and the Wages of Low-Skilled Service Workers in the UK
Recent decades have seen a growing tendency across advanced economies for firms to “outsource” parts of their production process to specialised third-party companies. This paper uses matched worker-firm data to provide the first empirical analysis of the impact of domestic outsourcing on workers in the UK, focusing on two of the occupations most widely associated with this change: cleaners and security guards. First, using my preferred (fixed effects) specification, I estimate a wage penalty of 2.8% for cleaners and 5.6% for security workers. Second, I show that contractor companies pay systematically lower AKM wage premiums than companies that employ cleaners and security workers in-house. Finally, I argue that these low wage premiums reflect the fact
that contractor firms have significantly lower rents per worker and, for security workers, a lower propensity to share rents with their employees.
Working paper (PDF) →
Towards a Rawlsian Economics
This paper argues that the standard economic interpretation of John Rawls—as an advocate of redistribution justified by a maximin social welfare function—misrepresents the spirit and substance of his theory. Rather than endorsing a more egalitarian form of welfarism, Rawls offers a conception of justice grounded in reciprocity and concerned with the lifetime prospects of the least advantaged—not only for income, but also for economic power and the social bases of self-respect. I outline the core features of a Rawlsian normative economics: plural in values, grounded in measurable primary goods, and psychologically realistic in its emphasis on reciprocity; and I argue that such a framework can help shift economic thinking beyond the conventional focus on redistribution toward a broader policy agenda centred on predistribution and meaningful work.
Available on request