CAGE/GES Policy Fellowship visit 2023

CAGE welcomed its Policy Fellows - Carl Comer and Jacob Gibbs - from the Government Economic Service (GES) for a two-day visit on 14th and 15th November 2023.

The year's Policy Fellows are:-

Carl Comer – who currently works in the TCA (EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement) team in the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) as an Economic Advisor.

Carl’s recent work has involved in extensive analysis of EU subsidies, level playing field and regulatory divergence issues from the TCA EU agreement. Previously, he worked in Food regulation at the Food Standards Agency, appraising different policy interventions and monitoring and analysing food insecurity in the UK.

and

Jacob Gibbs – who currently works as an Economic Advisor for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (formerly BEIS).

Jacob’s recent work leading a team of data scientists on energy and climate analysis. Previously, he was the analytical lead on the Energy Price Guarantee, which capped consumer energy bills over winter 2022/3 (and continues to operate). He also spent several years working on the UK Emissions Trading scheme, providing support on a range of policy, delivery, and operational work.

Two GES Policy Fellowships are awarded each year to foster knowledge exchange between CAGE researchers and government policymakers on topics of shared interest. For the 12 months of the fellowship, and afterwards, the fellows are invited to participate in the work of CAGE and develop strong working relationships with its academic team.

2023 is the tenth year of the Policy Fellowship scheme and the first to have a dedicated theme. This year’s theme is “the economic, environmental and health costs of living: designing effective policies on energy, environment and housing.”

During their visit, Carl and Jacob met with several CAGE Research Associates, discussed their current work, and explored better ways of working together. The Policy Fellows also gave an informal talk to research students on their work in the civil service and on how policy is informed by research evidence.

Carl Comer said:

“Over the two days, we were able to see how CAGE thinks about answering real word questions focussing on array of topics e.g Trade, Climate and Energy. As well as this, we were able to demonstrate just how practically Economists in Government answer policy specific questions using well developed analytical evidence. Hopefully this is a relationship that can continue to develop.”

Jacob Gibbs said:

“Our initial visit laid an excellent foundation for future collaboration. The researchers at CAGE were accommodating, engaging, and shared our interest in improving government policy. They brought keen insights on issues of policy, as well as on how to improve engagement between government and academics. I look forward to continuing to engage with CAGE in the future and will be following the centre’s research outputs with interest.”

CAGE Impact Director Dennis Novy said:

“CAGE has a long-standing partnership with the Government Economic Service. We highly value the engagement with civil servants who use evidence to produce insights for policy making. Carl and Jacob are two outstanding economists working on topics close to CAGE research such as environmental, climate, health and trade policy. We hope to further strengthen our relationship with the GES through our ongoing Policy Fellowship programme.”