Hamish is a Senior Economist and Economic Advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. He is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies and a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research. Previously, he was the James Meade Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford and Nuffield College, Oxford.
His research is across public finance, labour economics and macroeconomics. The underlying focus of his research agenda is on two broad set of issues: first, what sort of risks do individuals face over their life-times. Second, to what extent can individuals insure against these risks, through their private decisions over saving and labour supply, through their families and through government provided welfare and social insurance.
Key themes in his work are the interaction between different decisions and the dynamic implications of those decisions. Much of his research uses simulations of uncertainty in a life-cycle framework to model these mechanisms in a realistic way.
Education
PhD Economics, University College London, 1998
PhM Economics, University of Oxford, 1995
BA (1st Class Honours) Philosophy, Politics and Economics, University of Oxford, 1993
MPCs were directly elicited from a representative sample of UK adults in July 2020 using receipt of a hypothetical unanticipated, one-time income payment. Reported MPCs are low, around 11% on average.
This working paper looks at the marginal propensity to consume from a representative sample of UK adults in July 2020. Reported MPCs are low, around 11% on average. They are higher, but still modest, for individuals in households with high current needs.
Using new data from the Understanding Society: COVID 19 survey collected in April 2020, we show how the aggregate shock caused by the pandemic affects individuals across the distribution.
We show the extent of errors made in the award of disability insurance using matched survey-administrative data. False rejections (Type I errors) are widespread, and there are large gender differences in these type I error rates.
We specify an equilibrium model of car ownership with private information where individuals sell and purchase new and second-hand cars over their life-cycle.
Economists disagree on the size of labour supply elasticities. The column uses a model of female labour supply to show that there is substantial heterogeneity in both cross section and over the business cycle. It is not possible to think about labour supply elasticity as a unique structural parameter. To understand the consequences of income tax changes, for example, we need to be explicit about whose tax is changing.
