Dr Christopher Spencer

Christopher Spencer is an economist with expertise in the areas of monetary policy, household finance, and applied econometrics.

Christopher began his academic career in 2001 as a Research Officer at the University of Oxford, contributing to a research project funded by the European Commission. Following this, he joined the Department of Economics at University of Surrey as an ESRC funded doctoral research student. His PhD examined the empirical and theoretical aspects of central bank policy-making, in which he applied panel data techniques to estimate reaction functions for Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee members. After working at the University of Surrey as a Research Fellow, Christopher joined Loughborough University in 2008 as a Lecturer in Economics. He became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2014, and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in Economics in 2016.

Christopher has published in journals such as the Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Economic Inquiry, Journal of Empirical Finance, Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Public Choice, and the Economic History Review. He has presented his work at major conferences such as the Royal Economic Society Annual Conference and the Annual Congress of the European Economic Association.

Christopher teaches at both undergraduate and postgraduate level and leads the below modules:

• Intermediate Macroeconomics 
• Central Banking and Financial Crises
• Dissertation

Presently, Christopher is supervising funded PhD research in the area of central bank communication and financial crises, and welcomes applications from prospective doctoral students with an interest in researching issues relating to:

• central banking
• monetary policy
• the history of US Federal Reserve System

Chris' current research focuses on:

• monetary policy
• household finance
• the history of central banking

Christopher has published in journals such as:

• Journal of Money
• Credit and Banking
• Economic Inquiry
• Journal of Empirical Finance
• Oxford Economic Papers
• Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics
• Public Choice
• Economic History Review

Christopher has presented his work at major conferences such as the Royal Economic Society Annual Conference and the Annual Congress of the European Economic Association. 

• Uncertainty and the Bank of England’s MPC. Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, forthcoming (with Henry Chappell, William Greene, and Mark Harris).
• Portfolio Allocation, Background Risk, and Households’ Flight to Safety. Journal of Empirical Finance, forthcoming (with Sarah Brown, Daniel Gray, and Mark Harris).
• Household Saving, Health, and Healthcare Utilisation in Japan. Oxford Economic Papers, forthcoming (with Raslan Alzuabi, Sarah Brown, Daniel Gray and Mark Harris).
• Modelling category inflation with multiple inflation processes: Estimation, specification, and testing, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, forthcoming. ISSN: 0305-9049. DOI: 10.1111/obes.12366 (with Sarah Brown and Mark Harris)
• Stop‐go monetary policy, Economic Inquiry, 57(3), pp.1698-1717, ISSN: 0095-2583. DOI: 10.1111/ecin.12787 (with Henry Chappell, Mark Harris, and Rob Roy McGregor)
• Standards, Learning and Growth in Britain, 1901‐2009, Economic History Review: a journal of economic and social history, 2016, 69(2), pp.627-652, ISSN: 1468-0289. DOI: 10.1111/ehr.12129 (with Paul Temple)
• Inflated ordered outcomes, Economics Letters, 2012, 117(3), pp.683-686, ISSN: 0165-1765. DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2012.08.020 (with Robert Brooks and Mark N. Harris)
• "A decade of dissent: explaining the dissent voting behavior of Bank of England MPC members," Public Choice, Vol 146(2), pp.413-442, October 2011 (with Mark N Harris and Paul Levine).
• "How forward-looking is the Fed? Direct estimates from a `Calvo-type' rule," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 104(2), pages 92-95, August 2009. (with Vasco Gabriel and Paul Levine)
• "The Policy Choices and Reaction Functions of Bank of England MPC Members," Southern Economic Journal, Southern Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 482-499, October 2009. (with Mark N. Harris)