Dr Angus Holford Senior Research Fellow, University of Essex
- ajholf@essex.ac.uk
- Telephone
- 2605
- Office
- 2N2.4.26
I’m an economist based in the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex. I collected and am now analysing a unique longitudinal survey of undergraduates for a ground-breaking study of student life and outcomes from Higher Education. I have recently published on undergraduate students’ decisions to gain extra-curricular experience, unpaid work and access to science professions, the returns to part-time employment among teenagers.
Research Agenda: My research agenda is focused on the mechanisms in determining gender, socio-economic and ethnic differences in educational attainment and early labour market outcomes. At present, this means one strand of work focusing on the impacts of Universal Free School Meal programmes, and another on access and returns to Higher Education.
I’m also a Research Affiliate with the IZA (Institute for the Study of Labor) and was a Research Fellow at the Behavioural Insights Team (‘Nudge Unit’) at the Cabinet Office, Oct 2012-Jan 2013, where I produced verbal and written policy advice and research reports, and was involved in randomised control trials for evidence-based policy.
Research Interests: Evidence-based policy; randomised control trials; peer effects; microeconometrics; family economics; education inequalities.
Teaching: I deliver the course Introduction to Impact Evaluation annually through the National Centre for Research Methods
I am the course convenor and lead lecturer on the MSc module “EC969: Applications of Data Analysis” run jointly with the Department of Economics. This is a compulsory module for the MSc Applied Economics and Data Analysis and optional for MSc Economics.
Supervision: I am co-supervisor for two PhD students, Tomasso Sartori and Ziyi Huang, and co-supervised Sonkurt Sen and Joshua Fullard to completion. I’m available to discuss proposals for potential PhD supervision.
Latest Blog Posts
- Universal free school meals would make a huge difference to the cost-of-living crisis – here’s how
- Student loans: would a graduate tax be a better option?
- Four key methods for evaluating policy impact