Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Southampton
Guest Researcher, WZB Berlin Social Science Center
I am an applied microeconomist, with a PhD from Bristol. My research explores the motives behind prosocial behaviour in contexts such as charitable giving, climate change, and political economy. I enjoy working with unstructured, non-traditional data.
Do people care more about the environment after climate disasters? I find that those directly affected by flooding do, but most do not change their actions when their neighbours are hit—except for those with strong moral universalist values.
Published Version Economics Observatory Understanding Society Blog
When a big charity is hit by scandal, do people give elsewhere or stop donating altogether? Donors do not give up on giving; instead, they shift support to other similar charities, identified by the words charities use in their missions.
Does a universal crisis localise giving? After Covid, donors shifted to local charities, especially in harder-hit, ethnically homogeneous communities, while responding less to overseas appeals, and areas with greater parochialism rebounded faster in wellbeing.