Matthew Oakley is Head of Economics & Social Policy. His team focuses on welfare reform, growth and the UK economy, public sector reform and financial policy. His recent publications include an assessment of the public sector pay premium across the wage distribution; reports outlining the next steps for tackling unemployment and benefit dependency; and a report outlining areas where Government must focus to boost growth in the long-term.

His current work includes: an assessment of the economic advantages of moving to a more localised system of pay bargaining in the public sector; analysis of the social foundations of benefit dependency; how to finance innovation and the growth of small firms; and how a new approach to tackling child poverty could lead to better outcomes and life chances.

Prior to joining Policy Exchange he was an Economic Advisor at the Treasury, where he worked on a number of tax and welfare issues for the previous eight years. He was closely involved in analysing the labour market impacts of and responses to the recession and in the Green and White Papers on Universal Credit. Before this, his other roles at the Treasury included working on property tax strategy, microeconomic analysis of the labour market and on medium-term tax strategy.

He has an MSc in Economics from University College London, where he specialised in labour economics and econometrics.

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