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Department of Economics

News & Events

This page documents media and blog coverage of my research as well as my presentations, interviews, new publications and working papers and any other relevant notable events (September 2015 onwards).

Please see impact for more media/press reactions to my work and publications for a full list of my working papers and published work.

May 2018
  • I have been invited to become a research fellow of the leading economic research institute, the IZA Institue of Labor Economics in Bonn.
  • My paper (joint with Andrew Oswald and Eugenio Proto), entitled Happiness and Productivity which was published int he Journal of Labor Economics in 2015, remains in the top 3 most read papers in the Journal of Labor Economics despite now being 3 years old (and was the most cited paper in the journal in 2015, with 442 cites on Google scholar).
March 2018
  • Presentation: The Effect of Positive Mood on Cooperation in the Repeated Prisoners' Dilemma, Royal Economic Society Annual Conference 2018, University of Sussex.
  • The answers to last month's World Wellbeing Panel survey have been posted online. The questions concern gender and wellbeing and the panel's answers can be found here: WWP survey. Here are my responses:
    • Question 1: Do you agree that on balance, clear and distinct gender roles (whatever they are) decrease the average wellbeing of the population?
    • Response: Agree. I am not aware of a huge amount of work in this area, but recent research by Heather Brown and Jennifer Roberts at Sheffield based on data from the British Household Panel Survey may provide some relevant guidance. For example, if women earn more than their husbands but still do more housework (perhaps because of the pressure on them to also act as homemakers) their wellbeing suffers. Similarly, males who see themselves as breadwinners have lower wellbeing when their wives earn more than they do. This suggests that gender biases based on traditional roles are persistent and damaging to wellbeing, especially in the face of welcome increases in equality in the workplace.
    • Question 2: Do you agree that an active policy that discourages any particular gender role narrative is likely to increase the average wellbeing of the population?
    • Response: Agree. Following on from my earlier answer, while there is not an overwhelming amount of research in this area (which suggests that we need more), what there is does seem consistent with common sense: it appears that gender role stereotyping puts pressure on both males and females and policy designed to overcome this is likely to help wellbeing.
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
  • Media: The weekly roundup of events "on the national scene" in the Jersey Evening Post includes a discussion of my work (with Thomas Hill and Eugenio Proto) on historical happiness.
  • Media: Was 1957 Really So Great? Shropshire Star.
November 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015