@benbgeiger
Social policy researcher (though sometimes pretends to be a philosopher), Prof co-leading WelfareExperiences project and kcl.ac.uk/csmh work & welfare strand. Was at @BenBaumberg at the other place.
Are we underestimating popular discontent with welfare state change, and the damage done to political-institutional trust? New measures of "welfare state emotions" suggest as much. With Tor Syrstad and Atle Haugsgjerd. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
About growth in Europe and the US; itโs not the story youโve heard open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...
Universal Creditโs problems arenโt a mysteryโฆ so why do they persist?
In our recent substack post, @alexclegg.bsky.social argues that UC's flaws are widely known, well evidenced, and relatively cheap to fix...if the Government is willing to genuinely listen to claimants.
โก๏ธ buff.ly/tAggcVM
Pleased to see this written up by the FT, and to see my driving analogy make the cut. We need to look beyond just the fiscal speedometer.
www.ft.com/content/c88b...
agree with this (hah) but also think a particular mistake the left made for a long time online, and still makes to an extent, is failing to understand that the person whose mind you may actually change is the one reading the argument you're having, not the one you're arguing with
Absolutely! My most cited paper (obviously nothing compared to Card..) had a null result.
I agree - instead of seeing this a anti-quant, better for quantitative researchers to be in conversation with those with lived experience to figure out what they should be measuring (like we're doing in @welfare-experience.bsky.social !)
Really like this way of doing system maps with experts by experience, and comparing them to system maps generated by experts & policymakers - a really persuasive way of showing what's missed from research/policy ways of thinking
We asked claimants what was the biggest problem with UC, and one issue came up more than any other โคต๏ธ
Panel 1: A tech bro strides across a stage. The word โPeoplBOTSโ is in huge letters behind him. He says: โOur journey began with a simple question:โ Panel 2 โCan we create a robot that is enormously powerful, but also completely safe?โ Panel 3 โThe answer to that question was 'No'.โ A huge red armoured metal robot trundles across the stage belching smoke. It has a flamethrower for one arm and large shears for the other. Its eyes glow meanly red. Tech bro announces โSo I give you: Dangerbot900!!โ
A recent cartoon for @newscientist.com.
p.s. my new book of science cartoons, โPhysics for Catsโ is out now. Links at www.tomgauld.com
The Equality Act should protect disabled people at work
But @citizensadvice.bsky.social supported 5,393 people with health-related job discrimination in 2025 - roughly one every 1.5 hours
Mine and @victoria-anns.bsky.social's new report digs into the barriers our disabled clients face at work /1
๐Iโm delighted to announce the publication of my book! ๐
โ๐๐๐ค๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ค ๐๐๐ฒ ๐ข๐ง ๐๐๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐๐ซ๐ ๐๐ญ๐๐ญ๐๐ฌ: ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐จ๐ฅ๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐๐ฌ ๐จ๐ ๐๐ง-๐๐จ๐ซ๐ค ๐๐๐ง๐๐๐ข๐ญ๐ฌ ๐ข๐ง ๐
๐ซ๐๐ง๐๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐๐ ๐๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐จ๐ฆโ
link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
This book is the final milestone from my PhD and I hope is useful to scholarly debate.
A bit of a Festivus inspired post about CLPMs and RI-CLPMs: floggingpvalues.blog/2026/01/20/t...
Please do forward on @louisemurphy.bsky.social sky.social @mikebrewerecon.bsky.social y.social @eduinlatimer.bsky.social @beccastacey.bsky.social @pollardtom.bsky.social - and many thanks!
Please do forward on @kingscsmh.bsky.social l @annieirvine.bsky.social @benjaminbarr.bsky.social @heejungchung.bsky.social @jedmeers.bsky.social @martinbaekgaard.bsky.social @jdportes.bsky.social tes.bsky.social - and many thanks!
Job opportunity - we need a fab new colleague to do quant research on work, welfare and mental health within
@kingscsmh.bsky.social (closes 8 Feb)
This is funded until Apr/28, but we'll support you in bids to extend it - please do circulate to suitable ppl!
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQD294/p...
...where Harry Collins et al say that ""the views STS was espousing were consistent with post-truth irrespective of their authorsโ intentions or their causal impact" (journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...)
Latour is a good shout. There's also an editorial in Social Studies of Science that led to a debate there (journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1....
Huh. Turns out officials thought they were dealing with a tolerable risk of harm.
I really hoped that wasn't the explanation
There's a key element about the cost of living crisis that a lot of people are missing, according to @luketryl.bsky.social from @moreincommonuk.bsky.social.
He explains the pernicious impact when everyone feels like they're going backwards ๐
Yesterday, over 60 of us fr @changingrealities.bsky.social came together in @10dowingstreet.bsky.social for a reception at which the PM & @darrenpjones.bsky.social thanked us for our efforts to push for action on child poverty. Together, we can make change happen. But this is just the beginning.
Precise null results of inequality exposure on educational choices.
I actually was writing almost this exact paper at some point during my PhD but got talked out of it.
Well, Iโm glad someone did.
@profbambra.bsky.social @aaronreeves.bsky.social @vkatikireddi.bsky.social @benjaminbarr.bsky.social @jdportes.bsky.social
Great permanent job opportunity for interesting health economists in my department at King's College London - please circulate to anyone who might be a good fit! Deadline 8th Jan
www.kcl.ac.uk/jobs/130565-...
A long-term picture of participation is helpful - we're more or less at record highs. (@benbgeiger.bsky.social has drawn this chart before so I'm not new here)
Have written a piece teeing up tomorrow's labour market stats, pointing out the sort-of obvious - that we currently have a problem with unemployment (i.e. demand) not just participation (i.e. supply). www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications...
Quote from IFS Senior Research Economist Eduin Latimer: "Across four different reforms, we find an unintended consequence of benefit cuts โ that they lead to more people claiming disability benefits. One result of these spillover effects is that the fiscal savings from cutting non-health-related benefits are slightly smaller than previously thought. These effects will likely also have a long-term legacy, as people often stay on disability benefits for many years."
"The big-picture lesson for policymakers is that changes to one part of the benefit system can shift pressures elsewhere, rather than remove them entirely."
๐ Read our report, funded by @jrf-uk.bsky.social and @healthfoundation.bsky.social, here: ifs.org.uk/publications...
