I am a Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick. My research focuses on the economics of the food system and its effects on health and the environment. In a recent paper, we document that consumers in deprived areas face higher relative prices of fruit and vegetables and argue that remedying this inefficiency with a subsidy would close a third of the gap between actual and recommended intakes of fruit and vegetables. I am a co-investigator on several grant consortia exploring interventions to make food purchasing healthier and more sustainable, particularly in the digital domain (online grocery shopping, food deliveries).
My earlier research interests lay in the intersection of labor and macroeconomics, addressing questions why there is a mismatch between the skills that employers are looking for and the skills that workers have, why so many workers lose their jobs in a recession and why it takes such a long time before the unemployment rate goes down after the economy recovers.
Curriculum Vitae (PDF) • Grants • Teaching and supervision
Recent working papers
Why did we think wages are rigid for all those years?
September 2025, with See-Yu Chan and Stephan Hobler
Warwick Economics Research Papers, No. 1577
Publications on food, health and sustainability
Promoting environmentally sustainable food purchases in online grocery shopping: insights from a pilot randomised controlled field trial
January 2025, with Helena Bentil, Oyinlola Oyebode, Peter Scarborough, Claire Thompson, Jessica Brock, Michael Clark, and Martin White
BMC Research Notes — DOI
Metabolic changes following intermittent fasting
February 2024, with Maria G. Lange, Alice A. Coffey, Paul C. Coleman, Thomas M. Barber, Oyinlola Oyebode, Sally Abbott, and Petra Hanson
Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics — DOI
Obesity Stigma: Causes, Consequences, and Potential Solutions
March 2023, with Susannah Westbury,
Oyinlola Oyebode, and
Thomas M. Barber
Current Obesity Reports, 2023
Healthy diets, lifestyle changes and wellbeing during and after lockdown: Longitudinal evidence from the West Midlands
December 2022, with Petra Hanson,
Oyinlola Oyebode,
Łukasz Walasek,
Thomas M. Barber,
Redzo Mujcic,
Ioannis Nezis, and
Lena Al-Khudairy
BMJ Nutrition, Prevention and Health, 2022(5)
How Distorted Food Prices Discourage a Healthy Diet
March 2022, with Roberto Pancrazi and
Marija Vukotić
First version: February 2020
Science Advances, 8(13)
A rapid review of the
evidence for children’s TV and online advertisement restrictions to fight obesity
April 2022, with Paul Coleman,
Petra Hanson, and
Oyinlola Oyebode
Preventive Medicine Reports, 26, 101717
COVID-19 outcomes in minority ethnic groups: do obesity and metabolic risk play a role?
October 2021, with Paul Coleman, Petra Hanson, Alice A. Coffey,
Thomas Barber and
Oyinlola Oyebode
Current Obesity Reports, 2021
Publications on the macroeconomics of the labour market
Delayed Adjustment and Persistence in Macroeconomic Models
September 2023, with Marija Vukotić
Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 55(6):1325–1356
Rethinking the skills gap
2023 update, with Roland Rathelot and See-Yu Chan
IZA World of Labor, 391.v2 — DOI
Originally published: October 2017, with Roland Rathelot
The Vanishing Procyclicality of Labor Productivity
January 2021, with Jordi Galí
First version: August 2008
Economic Journal, 131(633), pp.302–326
Accounting for Mismatch Unemployment
August 2020, with Benedikt Herz
First version: February 2011
Journal of the European Economic Association, 18(4), pp.1619–1654
The labor market in the UK, 2000–2019
2020, with Benedikt Herz
IZA World of Labor, 422.v2 — DOI
Originally published: February 2018
Selective Hiring and Welfare Analysis in Labor Market Models
April 2019, with Christian Merkl
First version: March 2011
Labour Economics, 57, pp.117–130
Wage Rigidity and Job Creation
November 2013, with Christian Haefke and
Marcus Sonntag
First version: April 2007
Journal of Monetary Economics, 60(8)
Skill-Biased Technological Change and the Business Cycle
October 2013, with Almut Balleer
First version: February 2008
Review of Economics and Statistics, 95(4), pp.1222–1237
How Important is the Intensive Margin of Labor Adjustment?
Discussion of Aggregate Hours Worked in OECD Countries by Lee Ohanian and Andrea Raffo
Prepared for the April 2011 Carnegie-Rochester Conference on Advances in Labor Market Dynamics
January 2012
Journal of Monetary Economics, 59(1), pp.57–63
Heterogeneous Life-Cycle Profiles, Income Risk and Consumption Inequality
January 2009, with Giorgio Primiceri
First version: February 2006
Journal of Monetary Economics, 56(1), pp.20–39
Education, Growth and Income Inequality
February 2008, with Coen Teulings
First version: January 2001
Review of Economics and Statistics, 90(1), pp.89–104
Should Higher Education Subsidies Depend on Parental Income?
Summer 2004, with Robert Dur and
Coen Teulings
Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 20(2), pp.284–297
Online publications (not peer-reviewed)
Blog post: New field trial explores what drives sustainable choices in online grocery shopping
November 2024, with Oyinlola Oyebode
Springer Nature Research Communities
Evaluation of Interventions in Online Grocery Shopping for Sustainability and Health: An Adaptive Design Randomized Controlled Trial (Protocol)
2024, with H. Bentil and Oyinlola Oyebode
Research Square / Springer preregistered experiment —
v1 DOI |
v2 DOI
Age-based policy in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic: How common are multigenerational households?
November 2020, with Andrew Oswald
Vodcasts at CAGE Research Centre (25 Nov 2020) and UCL Institute for Global Prosperity (5 Nov 2020)
Discussion
of Is Declining Union Membership Contributing to Low Wages Growth?
RBA Annual Conference Volume 2019, Reserve Bank of Australia
Case against sugar tax is sugar coated (with
Ben Richardson)
The Conversation, September 2016
Paying Skilled Workers More Would Create More Skilled Workers
Harvard Business Review, May 2016
Affiliations
- Professor of Economics, University of Warwick, Economics, Coventry, United Kingdom — 2 Aug 2021 – present
- Steering committee grant on price promotions to sell HFSS foods, National Institute for Health Research; University College London — 17 Jul 2025 – present
- Academic Advisory Panel “SCHOUSE: Supporting Communities in social Housing and Optimising Urban food System interventions for Equity”, UK Research and Innovation; University of Liverpool — 8 Jul 2025 – present
- IDR Spotlight Health leadership team, University of Warwick — 23 Apr 2024 – present
- Project group for grant on “Prenatal Environmental Effects on Postnatal Outcomes” (PEEPO), Nuffield Foundation; Lancaster University — 21 Dec 2022 – present
- Research Associate, ESRC Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE) — 6 Aug 2012 – present
- Research Fellow, IZA Institute of Labor Economics — 5 Nov 2007 – present
- Associate Professor, University of Warwick, Economics, Coventry, United Kingdom — 3 Sep 2012 – 31 Jul 2021
- Senior Visiting Fellow, UNSW Sydney, Department of Economics — 1 Oct 2018 – 31 May 2019
- Research Affiliate, Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) — 2 Jul 2007 – 28 Dec 2018
- Academic Parliamentary Fellow, House of Commons Health Select Committee — 11 Jan 2018 – 30 May 2018
- Economist Visitor, European Commission — 2 Sep 2013 – 27 Sep 2013
- Junior Researcher, Centre de Recerca en Economia Internacional, Barcelona, Spain — 1 Sep 2005 – 31 Aug 2012
- Affiliated Professor, Pompeu Fabra University, Department of Economics & Barcelona Graduate School of Economics — 1 Sep 2005 – 31 Aug 2012
- Consultant, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) — 4 Jan 2010 – 30 Dec 2011
- Visiting Scholar, Northwestern University, Department of Economics — 3 Jan 2011 – 29 Jul 2011
- Economics Advisor, Office of the High Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina — 4 Jan 1999 – 27 Aug 1999
Policy engagement
- Written evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on Food, Diet and Obesity, October 2024
- Podcast on the economics of diet and health. In this podcast, which is based on my recent research, I discuss how people's diets are affected by their income levels and the area they live in. Is the obesity epidemic due to people s choices and preferences, or is it caused by factors in the external environment such as the price and availability of food? To what extent should policymakers intervene? (3 February 2021)
- Age-based policy in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic: How common are multigenerational households? (with Andrew Oswald), CAGE working paper no. 522, November 2020
- The road to COVID recovery: Weighing up costs, benefits, and intergenerational fairness (vodcast), CAGE Research Center, 25 November 2020
- Health economics post-covid (vodcast), UCL Institute for Global Prosperity, 5 November 2020
- Contribution to the BEIS engagement with academics on the National Minimum Wage evaluation: counterfactual research, November 2018
- Written evidence submitted to the Parliament HSCC s Childhood Obesity Inquiry, resulting in the report Childhood obesity: Time for action, 30 May 2018
- I was an Academic Fellow to the UK Parliament, assisting the House of Commons Health Committee on childhood obesity, 2017-2018
- On 5 July 2017, I appeared live on the BBC News Channel talking about the poor productivity figures that came out that day. The couple of sentences I uttered were quoted a few times since.
- Comments on the sugar tax
- The skills gap: Is it a myth? [podcast], CAGE/SMF Global Perspectives Series: Paper 5, December 2015
- Economics and the Arts, This_is_Tomorrow programme by the Warwick Arts Centre. Blog by Matt Trueman.
- Spanish elections and the fiscal crisis Nieuwsuur daily news broadcast [video, in Dutch], November 19, 2011
- Spanish Labor Market Reform, Roundtable discussion at the 8th trobada of the Barcelona GSE [video], October 22, 2011
Discussions
- Shopping, Demand Composition, and Equilibrium Prices, by Lukas Nord
- Marginal Jobs and Job Surplus: A Test of the Efficiency of Separations, by Simon Jäger, Benjamin Schoefer and Josef Zweimüller
- Is Declining Union Membership Contributing to Low Wages Growth?, by James Bishop and Iris Chan
- Modelling Technology Adoption and Technical Efficiency in Maize Production in Rural Ethiopia, by Abebayehu Geffersa, Frank Agbola and Amir Mahmood
- Job Search Behavior among the Employed and the Non-Employed by Jason Faberman, Andreas Mueller, Aysegül Șahin, and Giorgio Topa
- Reservation Wages and the Wage Flexibility Puzzle by Felix Koenig, Alan Manning, and Barbara Petrongolo
- What hides behind the German labor market miracle? by Benjamin Hartung, Philip Jung and Moritz Kuhn
- Labor Reallocation and Productivity Dynamics: Financial Causes, Real Consequences by Claudio Borio, Enisse Kharroubi, Christian Upper, and Fabrizio Zampolli
- An Equilibrium Asset Pricing Model with Labor Market Search by Lars-Alexander Kuehn, Nicolas Petrosky-Nadeau and Lu Zhang
- Monetary Policy with Heterogeneous Agents by Nils Gornemann, Keith Kuester and Makoto Nakajima
- Unemployment and Mismatch in the UK by Jennifer Smith
- The Cyclical Behavior of Equilibrium Unemployment and Vacancies in the US and Europe by Alejandro Justiniano and Claudio Michelacci
- Hours Worked over the Business Cycle in OECD Countries, 1960-2010 by Lee Ohanian and Andrea Raffo
- The Propagation of Technology Shocks: Do Good, Labor and Credit Market Imperfections Matter and How Much? by Nicolas Petrosky-Nadeau and Etienne Wasmer
- Sectoral Labour Market Effects of the 2006 FIFA World Cup by Arne Feddersen and Wolfgang Maennig
- Housing Market Spillovers: Evidence from an Estimated DSGE Model by Matteo Iacoviello and Stefano Neri
- Efficient Search on the Job and the Business Cycle by Guido Menzio and Shouyong Shi
- The Missing Swedish Skill Premium by David Domeij and Lars Ljungqvist
- Not All Oil Shocks Are Alike by Lutz Kilian
- Peer Influence in Higher Education in China by Li Han and Tao Li
- Gold Rush Fever in Business Cycles by P. Beaudry, F. Collard and F. Portier
Notes and comments
- The Incentive Theory of Matching: A Note, March 2010
- Age Effects and the Pre-Sample Evolution of Income and Consumption Inequality, August 2008, with Giorgio Primiceri
- Comment on Gertler and Trigari, April 2008
- Passive Monetary Policy Under Asymmetric Information, April 2008, with Alberto Martin
- The Value of an Educated Workforce: What We Learn From a Comparison of Growth and Inequality Across Countries, February 2008
Teaching notes (old)
Macro • Macro I • Macro II • Topics Macro II • Labor • Applied I • OECD (applied econometrics)