IFS Director Paul Johnson announces move to Queen’s College, Oxford in summer 2025

The Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Paul Johnson, has announced he will step down in summer 2025 to become Provost of Queen’s College, Oxford. The IFS would like to express its huge gratitude to Paul Johnson for his outstanding leadership since he became Director in January 2011. 

Imran Rasul, IFS Research Director, said “Paul has been a truly outstanding Director of the IFS. Most will know him from how well he has represented IFS research in the UK media and for his incisive commentary on the UK public finances. But that represents only the tip of the iceberg of his achievements. He is not only a skilled communicator but an excellent economist. He has played a key role on numerous IFS programmes – with the Mirrlees Review of the UK tax system, the IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities and the annual Green Budget being particular highlights. And he has very ably directed the Institute through a period of steady growth in outputs and impact, while navigating four general elections, a Scottish independence referendum, a Brexit referendum, and a pandemic. 

Most importantly he has been a wonderful colleague to work with and it has always been clear that he cares a great deal about the IFS and its staff. I, alongside the IFS Deputy Directors, Carl Emmerson and Helen Miller, and on behalf of all staff, thank him for his dedicated service. He will be greatly missed by us all and we wish him every success in this new chapter.”

Harry Gaskell, Chair of the IFS Board of Trustees, said “I would like to put on record the thanks of the trustees for Paul’s exceptional leadership of the IFS. We will be very sad to see him go, but he leaves us in robust good health. And Paul’s legacy will endure, I have every confidence that our research and professional services staff will continue to produce an impressive quantity of policy-relevant research of outstanding quality. In just the last year the Institute has had unparalleled levels of impact across academia, the media and public policy. There could be no better foundation for the next Director to build on – the search for whom will take place over the next few months.”

Paul Johnson, IFS Director, said “This really is a bittersweet moment. I first started at the IFS as a brand new graduate back in 1988, leaving in 1998 and returning as director in 2011. The IFS has been an incredibly important part of my life. I love it, what it does and what it stands for, and all my amazing colleagues. But after 14 years at the helm, it feels like the right time to move on and start a new chapter in my life. I am incredibly excited to be moving to The Queen’s College, a wonderful institution in one of the world’s very best universities, and look forward to working with a new set of colleagues and brilliant young people.”

Paul follows in the footsteps of his two immediate predecessors as IFS Director, Sir Andrew Dilnot and Sir Robert Chote, to run an Oxford college. He will continue in post until summer 2025. Harry Gaskell will work closely with the Institute trustees and the Institute Research Director to appoint a new IFS Director. Details of the process will be announced later this year.