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
- 46
- top five economics journals over the past decade
- 101
- top economics field journals over the past decade
- 146
- front pages in 2023
- 206
- hansard mentions in 2023
- 21
- times evidence given at government committees in 2023
Directors
CPP is led by a team of six researchers, 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 Professor of Economics at University College London and Director of the Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy at the IFS.
Richard Blundell
Richard is Co-Director of the Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy (CPP) and Senior Research Fellow at IFS.
James Banks
James is Senior Research Fellow and Professor of Economics at Manchester, working on broad issues in the economics of retirement, savings and health.
Eric French
Eric is the Montague Burton Professor of Industrial Relations and Labour Economics at the University of Cambridge and Professor of Economics at UCL.
Rachel Griffith
Rachel is Research Director and Professor at the University of Manchester. She was made a Dame for services to economic policy and education in 2021.
Fabien Postel-Vinay
Fabien is an IFS Research Director and a Professor of Economics at UCL. His work’s focus is on labour markets.
Visitors
Dor Leventer
Dor is a PhD candidate in economics at Tel Aviv U.
September to December 2024
Barbara Zelu
Barbara is a visiting PhD candidate in economics at Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain.
September to December 2024
Ruimin Ao
Ruimin is a visiting PhD scholar in Economics from UCL.
January 2023 to December 2025
Itay Saporta Eksten
Itay is a Senior Professor visiting from Tel Aviv University.
January 2024 to August 2025
Giovanni Mastrobuoni
Giovanni is a Professor of Economics visiting from University of Turin (ESOMAS).
From June 2024
Marianne Page
Marianne is the Director of the Center for Poverty Research at UC Davis
October to November 2024
James P. Ziliak
James is a Research Fellow at the IFS and a Professor of Economics at University of Kentucky.
October to November 2024
David Green
David is a Research Fellow of the IFS and a Professor at the University of British Columbia.
September to December 2024
Research Fellows
Our network of Fellows includes leading academics from the UK and overseas
Ran Gu
Ran is an IFS Research Associate and a Lecturer at the University of Essex interested in understanding household and firm behaviour.
Alison Andrew
Alison is a Senior Research Economist of our Institute with research interests in the economics of gender, marriage and education.
Costas Meghir
Costas is a Research Fellow of the IFS and a Professor of Economics at Yale University and a Visiting Professor at University College London.
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
Christine Farquharson
Christine's research examines inequalities in children's education and health, especially in the early education and childcare sector.
Eduin Latimer
Eduin is a research economist in the Income, Work and Welfare sector. His research focuses on benefits policy and the low-paid labour market.
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.