Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy
Welcome to the CPP site.
We are recognised as a global centre of excellence and have been granted official ESRC Research Institute status. The Research Centre at the heart of IFS is the CPP.
About CPP
CPP underpins and is fundamental to IFS's research agenda and is of central importance to our ability to integrate research with policy analysis. ESRC Centre funding enables the IFS to maintain the combination of impartiality, rigour and authority that is essential if we are to continue to achieve wide-ranging impact on policy and to inform the public debate.
The overarching objectives of CPP are to: make major scientific progress in understanding how individuals and firms behave and how they react to government policy; have substantial impact on policy in the fields of taxation, labour market, education, welfare, pensions, and public finances; and build technical and policy capacity in a new generation of highly-skilled researchers.
Examples of research areas we are currently engaged in:
Academic and societal impact
- 48
- top five economics journals over the past decade
- 129
- top economics field journals over the past decade
- 123
- front pages in 2025
- 224
- hansard mentions in 2025
- 22
- times evidence given at government committees in 2025
Directors
CPP is led by a team of eleven directors, each with an outstanding academic record in their own right, supplemented by wide ranging policy experience. They are supported by the larger team of senior researchers at IFS and by an Advisory Board, which provides intellectual oversight. The Centre attracts and retains talented researchers by providing high-quality training and a stimulating working environment and by maintaining an impressive global network of researchers.
Imran Rasul
Imran is Director of the CPP Institute and Professor of Economics at University College London
James Banks
James is an CPP Institute Co-director and Professor of Economics at the University of Manchester.
Richard Blundell
Richard is an CPP Institute Co-director and the Ricardo Professor of Political Economy at University College London.
Monica Costa Dias
Monica is an IFS Deputy Research Director, CPP Institute Co-director and Professor of Economics at the University of Bristol.
Eric French
Eric is a CPP Institute Co-director and the Montague Burton Professor of Industrial Relations and Labour Economics at the University of Cambridge.
François Gerard
François is a the Research Director at TaxDev, CPP Institute Co-director and Professor of Economics at UCL.
Rachel Griffith
Rachel is an CPP Institute Co-director and Professor of Economics at the University of Manchester.
Sonya Krutikova
Sonya is an IFS Deputy Research Director, CPP Institute Co-director and Professor of Economics at the University of Manchester.
Attila Lindner
Attila is an CPP Institute Co-director and Professor of Economics at University College London.
Áureo de Paula
Áureo is an CPP Institute Co-director and Professor of Economics at University College London.
Fabien Postel-Vinay
Fabien is an CPP Institute Co-director and Professor of Economics at University College London.
Visitors
Ruimin Ao
Ruimin is a visiting PhD scholar in Economics from UCL.
Eve Colson-Sihra
Eve is an Assistant Professor in the Economics Department and the PPE program of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
September 2025 to February 2026
Marianne Page
Marianne is the Director of the Center for Poverty Research at UC Davis.
Research Fellows
Our network of Fellows includes leading academics from the UK and overseas
Ran Gu
Ran is an IFS Research Associate and a Senior Lecturer in Economics at the City St George’s, University of London.
Uta Bolt
Uta is an IFS Research Fellow and University of Bristol lecturer with an interest in the development of inequalities over the lifecycle.
Dario Tortarolo
Dario is a Research Associate of the IFS, interested in Public Finance and Labour Economics, with a particular interest in developing countries.
Featured Researchers
IFS has a strong record in training excellent social scientists, some of whom continue to work at IFS for many years; others go on to use the skills they have acquired in academia, policymaking, business or the media.
See all of our researchers here
Darcey Snape
Darcey joined the IFS in 2024 as a research economist in the Education and Skills sector.
We are recognised as a global centre of excellence and have been granted official ESRC Research Institute status. The Research Centre at the heart of IFS is the CPP.