I am a Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics, at the University of Bristol . I am also a Research Fellow at Centre for Economic Policy Research and The IZA Institute of Labor Economics. Currently, I sit on the Advisory Boards of Teach First (Research), Behavioural Insights Team (Research), and Understanding Society (Ethnicity Strand).

I was the Director of The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, CMPO from 2004 – 2015. I was also the Director of The Centre for Understanding Behaviour Change, CUBeC from 2010 – 2014. Before that I was Faculty Research Dean for the Faculty of Social Science and Law at the University of Bristol.

I am a labour economist, and for the last ten years or so my research interests have been in the economics of education. My particular interests are in teacher effectiveness; pupil motivation; school accountability; choice and competition, school admissions and unequal access to high-performing schools. I also work on the educational performance of minority students and ethnic segregation in schools.

Previously I have worked on employment and unemployment dynamics, the analysis of poverty and household income dynamics, incentives in organisations, and a few other topics.

I joined IZA as a Research Fellow in October 1999.