Paul Johnson (economist)
Paul Gavin Johnson (born 5 January 1967) is a British civil servant and economist, currently serving as Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies and as a member of the Committee on Climate Change and a visiting professor in Economics at University College London.
Life
The son of Robert and Joy Johnson,[1] he was educated at Kings Manor School, Shoreham-by-Sea, then at Keble College, Oxford, where he held a college scholarship and gained a First in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics, and finally at Birkbeck College, London, where he graduated with an MSc in Economics.[2][1]
His first job was at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, where he remained from 1988 to 1998, in the last two years serving as a Deputy Director.[1] From September 1998 to January 1999 he was an advisor on pensions and welfare reform in the Cabinet Office.[2] He was then briefly head of Economies of Financial Regulation at the Financial Services Authority, 1999–2000, then transferred as Chief Economist and Director of Analytical Services to the Department for Education and Employment, soon renamed as the Department for Education and Skills, remaining until 2004. That year he went to HM Treasury as Director of Public Services and Chief Micro-Economist, continuing in post until 2007. He was also deputy head of the Government Economic Service from 2005 to 2007. In 2007 he returned to the Institute for Fiscal Studies as a research fellow, and in 2011 was appointed as its Director.[1][3]
Johnson was also a Member of the Economic and Social Research Council from 2002 to 2007[2] and a Senior Associate of Frontier Economics Ltd from 2007 to 2011.[1]
He has served as a Visiting Professor in the Economics department of University College London since 2013, as a member of the British government's Committee on Climate Change since 2012,[3] and as a member of the Actuarial Council.[1]
Private life
With his partner Lorraine Dearden, Johnson has four sons.[1] In 2008, they were living in Highgate.[2]
Selected publications
- Inequality in the UK (contributor), 1996
- Pension Systems and Retirement Incomes Across OECD Countries (contributor), 2001
- Tax by Design: the Mirrless review (editor), 2011
