I am Alice Pugh and I recently joined the City-REDI team, as a Policy and Data Analyst; having previously worked with City-REDI as a Research Associate. I graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2019 with a degree in BA Economics, where my dissertation surrounded austerity policy and inequality. This involved a combination of both a systematic literature review, as well as the analysis of quantitative governmental data. The focus of this project was to analyse which socio-economic group within the UK had been the most impacted by austerity policies, surrounding tax changes, government spending cuts and welfare reform.
Part of my undergraduate course was a sandwich year at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), as a Data Analyst/Economic Assistant. During my time at the DWP, my main project was leading on the data visualisation of a new debt monitoring dashboard. This involved creating suitable visualisation tools to present the data that would be going into the new monitoring dashboard that we had created. This also involved Conducting policy impact assessments on the collection of debt working closely with stakeholders in HM Treasury and HMRC, with a focus on the data issues relating to the transition of data regarding Universal Credit. Collaborating with Operational Managers across DWP departments to develop more efficient debt collection services, including transferring and inputting cross-department data.
Following, this I went on to complete my postgraduate in MA Criminology, where my course focused on criminalisation and policing policy. My Master’s Dissertation was based on the impact of drug policy changes on crime, which involved conducting a Rapid Realistic Review of the relevant academic and grey literature, in order to understand the economic impacts of drug policy changes.
I have previously worked at City-REDI on a number of projects, including leading on the gathering of data and reviewing of Local Enterprise Partnership Strategies to develop LEP profiles as part of the Midlands Engine Economic Observatory project. As well as conducting business case strategy reviews. I am currently, enjoying working on a few projects including the Megatrend project and West Midlands Space Cluster project. I am excited to be working at City-REDI at such an exciting and busy time, where I have the opportunity to utilise my passion for economics and research. And I am very proud to be part of such a friendly and welcoming team.
This blog was written by Alice Pugh, Policy and Data Analyst for City REDI and WM REDI.
Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this analysis post are those of the authors and not necessarily those of City-REDI or the University of Birmingham.