Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy
Welcome to the CPP site.
We are recognised as a global centre of excellence and have been granted official ESRC Research Institute status. The Research Centre at the heart of IFS is the CPP.
About CPP
CPP underpins and is fundamental to IFS's research agenda and is of central importance to our ability to integrate research with policy analysis. ESRC Centre funding enables the IFS to maintain the combination of impartiality, rigour and authority that is essential if we are to continue to achieve wide-ranging impact on policy and to inform the public debate.
The overarching objectives of CPP are to: make major scientific progress in understanding how individuals and firms behave and how they react to government policy; have substantial impact on policy in the fields of taxation, labour market, education, welfare, pensions, and public finances; and build technical and policy capacity in a new generation of highly-skilled researchers.
Examples of research areas we are currently engaged in:
Academic and societal impact
- 46
- top five economics journals over the past decade
- 101
- top economics field journals over the past decade
- 146
- front pages in 2023
- 206
- hansard mentions in 2023
- 21
- times evidence given at government committees in 2023
Directors
CPP is led by a team of six researchers, each with an outstanding academic record in their own right, supplemented by wide ranging policy experience. They are supported by the larger team of senior researchers at IFS and by an Advisory Committee, which provides intellectual oversight. The Centre attracts and retains talented researchers by providing high-quality training and a stimulating working environment and by maintaining an impressive global network of researchers.
Imran Rasul
Imran is Professor of Economics at University College London and Director of the Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy at the IFS.
Richard Blundell
Richard is Co-Director of the Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy (CPP) and Senior Research Fellow at IFS.
James Banks
James is Senior Research Fellow and Professor of Economics at Manchester, working on broad issues in the economics of retirement, savings and health.
Eric French
Eric is the Montague Burton Professor of Industrial Relations and Labour Economics at the University of Cambridge and Professor of Economics at UCL.
Rachel Griffith
Rachel is Research Director and Professor at the University of Manchester. She was made a Dame for services to economic policy and education in 2021.
Fabien Postel-Vinay
Fabien is an IFS Research Director and a Professor of Economics at UCL. His work’s focus is on labour markets.
Visitors
Itay Saporta Eksten
Itay is a Senior Professor visiting from Tel Aviv University.
January 2024 to August 2025
Giovanni Mastrobuoni
Giovanni is a Professor of Economics visiting from University of Turin (ESOMAS).
From June 2024
Research Fellows
Luke Sibieta
Luke is a Research Fellow at the IFS and his general research interests include education policy, political economy and poverty and inequality.
Lucinda Platt
Lucinda Platt is a Research Fellow of the IFS and Professor of Social Policy and Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Áureo de Paula
Áureo is an applied econometrician with strong interests in both methodological and empirical questions, affiliated with UCL, Cemmap, IFS and CEPR.
Featured Researchers
IFS has a strong record in training excellent social scientists, some of whom continue to work at IFS for many years; others go on to use the skills they have acquired in academia, policymaking, business or the media.
See all of our researchers here
Gautam Vyas
Gautam joined the IFS in 2023 and works in the IOD sector. His work focuses on the consumption behaviour of individuals in the UK.
Elaine Drayton
Elaine joined the IFS in 2020 and works in the Education and Skills sector.
We are recognised as a global centre of excellence and have been granted official ESRC Research Institute status. The Research Centre at the heart of IFS is the CPP.