We are delighted to announce that Professor Imran Rasul is taking over from August 2022 as Director of the ESRC-funded Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy (CPP) at IFS. Professor Sir Richard Blundell is stepping down after 31 years in the role. Imran has been a Co-Investigator at CPP since 2015 and is a Research Director at IFS, along with Professor Dame Rachel Griffith and Professor Fabien Postel-Vinay.
We owe a tremendous debt of thanks to Richard, who spearheaded the successful application in 1991 for an ESRC Centre at IFS and has presided over its research programme since then. This Centre, enjoying Institute status since 2018, has become the heart of the academic excellence underpinning all of IFS’s activities. Since he first took on the role of IFS Research Director in 1986, Richard’s contribution to the intellectual life of IFS during his stellar career, recognised by numerous prizes and honours including a Knighthood in 2014, has been absolutely key to the success of the organisation and the respect it is accorded.
Imran, an internationally respected economist, is a worthy successor to Richard. Imran was awarded the Yrjö Jahnsson Award in Economics in 2019 (joint with Oriana Bandiera), received an OBE in 2020, and is an elected Fellow of the British Academy and of the Econometric Society. He is also Professor of Economics at UCL, co-director of the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Centre on Wealth Concentration, Inequality and the Economy, and Research Programme Director in the Firms portfolio, at the International Growth Centre at UCL. Imran’s involvement with IFS goes back to 2013 when he first joined our network of Research Fellows.
Richard will continue to be a Co-Investigator with CPP and to work closely with colleagues across the IFS.