Hamish Low

Hamish Low
James Meade Professor of Economics
Nuffield College
Associate Head of Department
+44 1865 271086
hamish.low@economics.ox.ac.uk

 

Hamish is the James Meade Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford and a Professorial Fellow at Nuffield College. He is also a Research Fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Hamish joined the Department of Economics in 2018 from the University of Cambridge, where was a Professor of Economics and Fellow of Trinity College, and where he had been a member of the Faculty of Economics since 1998. Hamish holds a PhD in Economics from University College London, and an MPhil in Economics and a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford.

Hamish’s research agenda is focused on three connected sets of issues: first, what sort of uncertainty do individuals face over their life-times; second, how do individuals respond to this uncertainty; and third, what is the role of government, especially through social insurance, in mitigating this uncertainty. The uncertainty that individuals face is partly due to economic risks, such as to their future wages or employment, to the value of their assets, such as housing and pensions, and economy-wide risks such as of recessions or financial contractions. Individuals also face risks to their health and to family structure, and these risks often have economic implications, such as when health shocks mean individuals are unable to work. These issues are both microeconomic and macroeconomic, which are addressed using computer simulation and structural econometrics to model and estimate realistic economic environments. Hamish’s work has been published in leading economic journals including the American Economic Review and Econometrica.

 

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  • The Heterogeneous and Regressive Consequences of COVID-19: Evidence from High Quality Panel Data

    November 2020
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    Journal article
    |
    Journal of Public Economics

  • Disability Insurance: Theoretical Trade-Offs and Empirical Evidence*

    March 2020
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    Journal article
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    Fiscal Studies

  • Disability Insurance: Error Rates and Gender Differences

    November 2019
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    Journal article

  • Durables and Lemons: Private Information and the Market for Cars

    September 2019
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    Journal article
    lemons penalty, car market, estimated life-cycle equilibrium model

  • Durables and Lemons: Private Information and the Market for Cars

    September 2019
    |
    Journal article
More

  • Department of Economics Discussion Paper Series

    The Heterogeneous and Regressive Consequences of COVID-19: Evidence from High Quality Panel Data

    September 2020
    |
    Working paper
    |
    Department of Economics Discussion Paper Series
    Using new data from the Understanding Society COVID-19 Study collected in two waves in April and in May 2020 in the UK, we make three contributions. First, Understanding Society is based on probability samples and the Covid-19 Study is carefully constructed to support valid population inferences. Second, the panel allows a long-run measure of income to characterise regressivity. Third, we have novel data on the mitigation strategies that households use. Our key findings are that those with precarious employment, under 30 and from minority ethnic groups face the biggest labour market shocks. Almost 50% of individuals have experienced declines in household earnings of at least 10%, but declines are most severe in the bottom income quintiles. Methods of mitigation vary substantially across groups: borrowing and transfers from family and friends are most prevalent among those most in need.
    COVID-19, job loss, inequality, mitigation, financial distress
  • SSRN Electronic Journal

    The Heterogeneous and Regressive Consequences of COVID-19: Evidence from High Quality Panel Data

    August 2020
    |
    Working paper
    |
    SSRN Electronic Journal
  • Department of Economics Discussion Paper Series

    Estimating Temptation and Commitment Over the Life-Cycle

    July 2020
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    Working paper
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    Department of Economics Discussion Paper Series
    This paper estimates the importance of temptation (Gul and Pesendorfer, 2001) for consumption smoothing and asset accumulation in a structural life-cycle model. We use two complementary estimation strategies: first, we estimate the Euler equation of this model; and second we match liquid and illiquid wealth accumulation using the Method of Simulated Moments. We find that the utility cost of temptation is one-quarter of the utility benefit of consumption. Further, we show that allowing for temptation is crucial for correctly estimating the elasticity of intertemporal substitution: estimates of the EIS are substantially higher than without temptation. Finally, our Method of Simulated Moments estimation is able to match well the life-cycle accumulation profiles for both liquid and illiquid wealth only if temptation is part of the preference specification. Our findings on the importance of temptation are robust to the different estimation strategies. Revised July 2020
    life-cycle, temptation preferences, housing, estimating Euler equations
  • Department of Economics Discussion Paper Series

    The Idiosyncratic Impact of an Aggregate Shock The Distributional Consequences of COVID-19

    June 2020
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    Working paper
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    Department of Economics Discussion Paper Series
    Using new data from the Understanding Society: COVID 19 survey collected in April 2020, we show how the aggregate shock caused by the pandemic affects individuals across the distribution. The survey collects data from existing members of the Understanding Society panel survey who have been followed for up to 10 years. Understanding society is based on probability samples and the Understanding Society Covid19 Survey is carefully constructed to support valid population inferences. Further the panel allows comparisons with a pre-pandemic baseline. We document how the shock of the pandemic translates into different economic shocks for different types of worker: those with less education and precarious employment face the biggest economic shocks.Some of those affected are able to mitigate the impact of the economic shocks: universal credit protects those in the bottom quintile, for example. We estimate the prevalence of the different measures individuals and households take to mitigate the shocks. We show that the opportunities for mitigation are most limited for those most in need.
    COVID-19, job loss, inequality, mitigation, financial distress
  • Department of Economics Discussion Paper Series

    Disability Insurance: Error Rates and Gender Differences

    December 2019
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    Working paper
    |
    Department of Economics Discussion Paper Series
    We show the extent of errors made in the award of disability insurance using matched survey-administrative data. False rejections (Type I errors) are widespread, and there are large gender differences in these type I error rates. Women with a severe, work-limiting, permanent impairment are 20 percentage points more likely to be rejected than men, controlling for the type of health condition, occupation, and a host of demographic characteristics. We investigate whether these gender differences in Type I errors are due to women being in better health than men, to women having lower pain thresholds, or to women applying more readily for disability insurance. None of these explanations are consistent with the data. We use evidence from disability vignettes to suggest that there are different acceptance thresholds for men and women. The differences by gender arise because women are more likely to be assessed as being able to find other work than observationally equivalent men. Despite this, after rejection, women with a self-reported work limitation do not return to work, compared to rejected women without a work limitation.
    Disability Insurance, Gender Differences
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