Martin O'Connell
Deputy Research Director
ORCID
Education
PhD Economics, University College London, 2015
MSc Economics (Distinction), London School of Economics, 2008
MA Financial Economics (1st Class), University of St Andrews, 2007
Martin is Deputy Research Director of IFS, and head of the Industrial Organisation and Demand sector. His research interests include empirical IO, public economics and applied microeconometrics. He joined the IFS in 2008.
Academic outputs
IFS Working Paper W20/8
Soda taxes aim to reduce excessive sugar consumption.
Journal article | Journal of Public Economics
Alcohol consumption is associated with costs to society from anti-social behaviour, crime and public costs of policing and health care. These externalities are non-linear in alcohol consumption, with a small number of heavy drinkers creating the majority of the costs. Governments attempt to reduce ...
Reports and comment
Observation
The spread of COVID-19 has led to sweeping changes in the way households work, spend their time and shop. This has led to large changes in spending patterns and, in some cases, rapid price changes. How will changes such as these be reflected in headline inflation measures such as the Consumer ...
Observation
Over 50 countries and localities, including the UK, have recently introduced taxes on soft drinks. In new IFS research funded by the National Institute of Health Research under the Department for Health’s Obesity Policy Research Unit, we survey the evidence on the effects of soft drink taxes on ...
Presentations
Presentation
This presentation was given by Martin O'Connell at the Westminster Food & Nutrition Forum Keynote Seminar on 27 April 2017.
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Observation
The spread of COVID-19 has led to sweeping changes in the way households work, spend their time and shop. This has led to large changes in spending patterns and, in some cases, rapid price changes. How will changes such as these be reflected in headline inflation measures such as the Consumer ...
IFS Working Paper W20/8
Soda taxes aim to reduce excessive sugar consumption.
Briefing note
Soft drink taxes have been implemented in 50 jurisdictions (as of August 2019). We review the evidence on their effects, summarising 27 studies of taxes in 11 jurisdictions.
Observation
Over 50 countries and localities, including the UK, have recently introduced taxes on soft drinks. In new IFS research funded by the National Institute of Health Research under the Department for Health’s Obesity Policy Research Unit, we survey the evidence on the effects of soft drink taxes on ...
External publication
Advertising of high fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) food and drink during children’s television programmes has been banned in the UK since 2007. The Government has recently announced that they will consult on further advertising restrictions for products high in fat, salt and sugar on TV.
Journal article | Journal of Public Economics
Alcohol consumption is associated with costs to society from anti-social behaviour, crime and public costs of policing and health care. These externalities are non-linear in alcohol consumption, with a small number of heavy drinkers creating the majority of the costs. Governments attempt to reduce ...
Observation
The government has launched a consultation on whether to ban the advertising of food and drink high in fat, salt or sugar on television before the 9pm watershed. But the impact of such restrictions would depend on how firms change their advertising strategies following the ban.
Briefing note
Since 2007 it has not been permitted to advertise food and drink that is high in fat, salt or sugar during children's television programmes. Evidence from Ofcom suggests that in 2016 children spent 64% of their viewing time watching programmes outside children’s programming. Recent discussion ...
Press release
Since 2007 it has not been permitted to advertise food and drink that is high in fat, salt or sugar during children's television programmes. Evidence from Ofcom suggests that in 2016 children spent 64% of their viewing time watching programmes outside children’s programming.
Newspaper article
The impact of variation in diet quality across individuals on obesity and diet-related disease has received much attention, but variation in individuals’ diet quality over time less so. This column combines British data on food purchases with a model in which individual choice is driven by the ...