Labour, wellbeing and behavioural economics

A cross-cutting theme is social norms and labour supply. Leila Gautham works on time allocation and labour market inequalities with a focus on paid and unpaid work. Her research on the drivers of gender inequality in labour markets intersects with Quynh Huynh's work on gendered social norms and labour supply, and with Clemens Hetschko’s research on how these norms shape the wellbeing of the unemployed.

Another area of longstanding interest is the meaning and transformation of work, as highlighted in research by David Spencer and Gary Slater. David also explores the history of economic ideas on work and addresses working time and alternative work futures.

Quynh Huynh, Juliane Scheffel and Barnali Basak and Antonio Rodriguez-Gil conduct research on a broad range of education economics questions, including the enhancement of student outcomes (please find further work of the department on this topic here). Antonio is also interested in interactions between labour markets and macroeconomic policies, connecting our work to that of the Macro-Finance theme.

We translate our research into policy action, demonstrating how behavioural economics can be used to improve policy responses to pressing social issues. Irene Mussio’s work on health interventions and risk assessments informs environmental and public health policies, including in a development context (find out more about the further work of the department on development topics).

Similarly, Peter Howley explores how ‘nudges’ can be used to encourage farming practice that provides positive externalities (e.g, conservation). Stuart Mills’ research examines the political and social implications of applying behavioural economics in public life, including the opportunities and risks of using technology to shape human behaviour.

Our wellbeing research leverages robust survey data to build the evidence base necessary for designing human-centred policies. Several colleagues, including Peter Howley, Juliane Scheffel, Clemens Hetschko, Kausik Chaudhuri and Alan Piper, study mental wellbeing as both an outcome and a driver of economic phenomena and public policies. In further joint work, Kausik and Alan study ageing and life satisfaction, complementing Alan’s longstanding interest in wellbeing over the lifecycle.

Andrew Brown and David Spencer adopt a needs-based approach to the study of job quality. Suman Seth and Gaston Yalonetzky develop various normative measures for the distributional analysis of wellbeing and apply them to the assessment of public policy.  

Quynh, H. & Ku, H. (forthcoming). Gender Norms and Female Labor Supply: Evidence from Export Shocks in Vietnam, Review of Economics and Statistics. 

Spencer, D. (forthcoming): Envisioning the Future of Work. From Ideas to Reforms. British Journal of Industrial Relations.

Gautham, L., & Folbre, N. (2026). Household production time and inequality in material living standards in the US, 1965–2018. Journal of Public Economics, 255, 105582. 

Permanyer, I., Seth S., & Yalonetzky G. (2025) Inequality Measurement for Bounded Variables. Health Economics, 34(8), pp. 1443-1460. 

Zhang, Y, Howley, P., & Hetschko, C. (2025). Happy citizens trust their rulers.  Journal of Population Economics, 38(65).   

For further information on all other publications, click the names of our theme members above to access their individual websites.