Hamish is the James Meade Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford, a Professorial Fellow of Nuffield College and a Research Fellow at IFS. His research interests include life-cycle models, consumption and saving behaviour, labour supply, uncertainty, unemployment insurance, optimal taxation and computational methods.
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.
The combination of credit constraints and indivisible consumption goods may induce some risk-averse individuals to gamble to have a chance of crossing a purchasing threshold.
This is the presentation that Hamish Low gave at the Understanding the Great Recession: from micro to macro conference held at the Bank of England on 23 and 24 September 2015.
