Experts

Andy Westwood is Professor of Government Practice at the University of Manchester. An expert in further and higher education, science policy and local/regional economic development and has worked regularly as an adviser for the OECD, IMF and the EU and the House of Lords select committee on Economic Affairs and Digital Skills. He has also worked in the UK government as a political and special adviser and civil servant in a variety of departments. He is a Co-Investigator at The Productivity Institute.

Christine Whitehead is Emeritus Professor in Housing Economics at the London School of Economics. She is an internationally respected applied economist concentrating in the fields of housing economics, finance and policy.  She has worked with a wide range of international agencies as well as regularly for the UK government and Parliament. She is currently specialist adviser to the Levelling Up Select Committee. Her latest book with Geoff Meen is Understanding Affordability published in 2020.

Kemar Whyte is a senior economist in the macroeconomic modelling and forecasting division at NIESR. His main research topics are financial stability and macroprudential policy, with a particular interest in the linkages between the financial and real sector. Most recently, he has also focused on applied macroeconomics and economic policy.

Gemma Williams is a Research Fellow at Birmingham City University (BCU), and co-leads their Family, Gender & Health Research Cluster. Gemma’s research interests include period poverty, menstruation and chronic illness/disabilities. Gemma is currently Project Lead for an ESRC funded research project looking at how UK period poverty initiatives are mitigating Covid-19 related challenges.

Mark Williams is a Professor of Human Resource Management in the School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London. Mark’s expertise is on the quality of jobs (e.g., wages, security, nature of job content, job control, job demands) in the United Kingdom. He has particular expertise in job quality disparities across occupations and classes. His research has also explored disparities in job attitudes (e.g., job satisfaction, job meaningfulness).

Riley is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Brigham Young University. He studies labor markets and the impacts of government social programs. His recent work explores people’s decisions to move to economic opportunity, behavioral responses to programs like the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on domestic violence.