Leigh Sparks is Professor of Retail Studies at the University of Stirling. I undertake research into spatial-structural change in retailing. My research has been funded by local authorities, governments, retail organisations and most of the research councils. I have published over 160 refereed journal articles and books. I have been an expert advisor to the Scottish Government on retail, town and place matters since 2012 and am currently chairing a review of the Town Centre Action Plan for them.
University of Stirling
Leigh Sparks
University of Bristol
Elizabeth Spooner
My name is Elizabeth Spooner. I am a final year Economics and Management student at the University of Bristol. I have a keen interest in the practice of management and behavioural economics.
Fraser of Allander Institute, University of Strathclyde
Mairi Spowage
Mairi Spowage is Deputy Director of the Fraser of Allander Institute. Areas of expertise include economic policy, regional economic statistics, and economic & fiscal forecasting. Mairi leads on the Institute’s work with various partners, including those in business, the public and third sector. Previously, she was Deputy Chief Executive of the Scottish Fiscal Commission and Head of National Accounts at the Scottish Government, and has 15 years of experience in different areas of analysis.
British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Oxford
Sugandha Srivastav
Sugandha Srivastav is an economist at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford. She received her PhD in Environmental Economics from Oxford in 2022. Her research focuses on the clean energy transition. In particular she explores how we can incentivise firms to innovate in novel clean technologies, which policies help reduce emissions from the power sector, and the impacts of the clean energy transition on labour markets.
Harvard University
Stefanie Stantcheva
Stefanie Stantcheva is a professor of Economics at Harvard University. Her research focuses on how to improve the tax and transfer system for firms and individuals. She combines theory and empirics to study the effects of taxes and transfers on human capital, capital, migration, and innovation and how to incorporate these effects into our tax models. She also explores what drives people’s social preferences, attitudes, and perceptions using large-scale online surveys and experiments. Since May
Financial Times
Bethan Staton
Bethan Staton is a reporter for the Financial Times, covering education. She has recently written about the UK’s skills gap, the politics of intergenerational inequality, government funding for higher education, and the impact of the pandemic on schools. She also writes about economics and other areas of public policy, and before joining the FT was a reporter at Sky News, and a freelance journalist in the middle east.
