Felix Ritchie

C U R R I C U L U M   V I T A E
Personal statement
I am an applied economist and Director of Bristol Centre for Economics and Finance. My work is multidisciplinary and ranges widely, covering topics as diverse as understanding the use of café spaces, the anonymisation of data, the reliability of student drinking studies, and financial resilience in charities. I have particular research interests in
  • the use, quality, accessibility and policy application of government data
  • data confidentiality and access, statistical disclosure control, privacy and identification
  • earnings, minimum wages.,, and the low-wage labour market
  • student employability
  • social, psychological and institutional factors in decision-making
I engage in a substantial range of contracted research and consultancy. Since joining UWE, I have led and won multiple tenders, with a success rate of over 70%; most tenders are at Full Economic Cost. Successful bids have been made to ESRC, Low Pay Commission, BIS/BEIS, Eurostat, the Office for National Statistics, Wellcome Trust, Intellectual Property Office Power2Change, NIHR, and Australian government bodies.

UWE website: people.uwe.ac.uk/Person/FelixRitchie
Personal website:www.felixritchie.co.uk
Education
PhD Economics (1995, Stirling); MSc Economics (1991, Glasgow); BSc Economics and Computer Science (1988, Stirling, Hons. 1st class)
Key skills
Economics, econometrics and qualitative research
  • Labour markets, particularly in relation to earnings
  • Minimum wages and the low-pay labour market
  • Evaluation and use of microdata for policy
  • Alcohol and drug use and abuse
  • Panel data
  • Statistical coding
Data management, security and confidentiality:
  • Advisor on operational/institutional theory; deviser of the 'EDRU' approach, the 'Five Safes' (aka VML Security Model), 'active researcher management'
  • Statistical disclosure control: devisor of generalised output-based SDC, 'principles-based output SDC', 'safe statistics',
  • Design and evaluation of data access systems, processes, environments, training and security
  • Negotiation with and incentivisation of stakeholders
Reviewer for grant proposals and journals
    Operations and delivery
    • Formal project management training
    • Experienced (private and public sector) technical and business consultant
    • Professional experience of presenting to technical, non-technical and student audiences
    • Designer of training programmes in both professional (CPD) and academic environments
    • Expert witness (civil proceedings)
    Current role
    12.16 -
    Professor of Applied Economics
    Director of Bristol Centre for Economics and Finance
    University of the West of England, Bristol
    • Teaching: 3rd year and MSc econometrics; 1st year economic concepts, pluralism, employability; minimum wages
    • CPD teaching: confidential data, data governance, econometrics
    • Research topics: minimum wages, labour economics, data access and management, privacy and data governance, use and evaluation of government data, practical application of economics in business and government, social and institutional drivers of choice. My research is strongly interdisciplinary, working with researchers in law, criminology, public health, psychology, innovation, leadership and management, statistics, ccomputing, humand resources, and hospitality.
    • Publications: see publications page for a detailed list of peer-reviewed journal articles, reports, working papers, book chapters and presentations, organised by theme
    • Consultancy and funded research: primarily on minimum wages, official statistics, government microdata, confidentiality, data access, data governance, statistical quality and use. Over the period June 2012-July 2018 I brought in £550,000 of external funding (£373,000 as PI) in 20 (5) successful bids. Clients include ESRC, Low Pay Commission, Eurostat, Office for National Statistics, UK Data Archive, Welcome Trust and UK and Australian government departments.
    • External engagement: regular informal advisor to government departments in UK and abroad, particularly statistical agencies; regular collaborator with private sector consultant on tenders. I have been an invited speaker in New Zealand, Australia, China, Japan, Canada, US, Mexico, South Africa, and across Europe.
    • Leadership: contribution to day-to-day and strategic management of the Department and Faculty; cross-university engagement with data governance
    Previous experience
    06.12 - 11.16
    Associate Professor in Applied Economics
    University of the West of England, Bristol
    • Teaching in applied economics
    • Research in labour economics, data security, use and evaluation of government data, practical application of economics in business
    • Consultancy in offical statistics, confidentiality and data access
    • Interim Director of Bristol Economic Analysis September 2015 - July 2016.
    03.12 - 02.13
    Visiting Fellow
    WISERD, Cardiff University
    • Visiting researcher with a particular interest in quantitative and qualitative methods for social sciences
    02.05 - 02.12
    Head of Microdata Analysis and User Support; Deputy Head of Economic Interpretation
    Office for National Statistics, Newport, South Wales
    • Development of Virtual Microdata Laboratory (including long term strategic planning)
    • Development of microdata resources within ONS, within government and in academia
    • Development of Longitudinal Data Strategy
    • Development of policy for confidential data access
    • Support for microanalysis (economic, social, statistical) across and outside ONS
    • Management and leadership of Tourism Intelligence Unit
    • Management of New Economy/Economic Methods workstreams (from October 09)
    • Training and development of economists professional group
    • International representation as UK expert on data, security and research policies
    • General economic research and technical consultancy within ONS
    • Divisional finance
    11.02 - 01.05
    Economic Adviser; Head of Business Data Linking
    Office for National Statistics, London
    • Conceived, designed, managed and developed the Virtual Microdata Laboratory (VML) to provide access for research purposes to sensitive data from ONS and other government departments
    • Technical papers on data release and disclosure control, impact of weighting on productivity estimates
    07.01 - 11.02
    IT Consultant/Econometrician
    Trig Consulting, London and Camberley
    • Independent IT consultant specialising in internet communications, web conferencing, streaming media, online learning. Tasks and responsiblities include web design and programming, client liaison, project specification and management.
    • Econometric and economic consultant and trainer, specialising in longitudinal data, large datasets and econometric teaching.
    01.00 - 06.01
    Operations Manager
    Virtual Environments International, Oxford (now in liquidation)
    • Primary technical consultant
    • Management of technical and design teams; occasional programming and design
    • Consultancy and implementation on all webcasting and streaming media projects
    • Pre- and post-sales consultancy, account management
    • Drafting of user guides and other technical documents
    • General supervision of internal operational issues and business activity
    10.98 - 09.99
    Head of Computer Department
    IZA (Institute for the Study of Labour), Bonn, Germany
    • Designed and managed the implementation of external access and information management strategies
    • Designed, administrated and evaluated the physical network
    • Managed data resources; and provided general economic and statistical advice
    • Managed and responsible for the equipment and training budget (£150-200k p.a.)
    04.98 - 09.98
    Economist
    Scottish Office Agriculture Environment and Fisheries Department, Edinburgh
    • Econometric modelling of fish stocks; evaluation of land reform proposals
    • General advice on economic and statistical issues
    09.93 - 12.97
    Lecturer
    Department of Economics, University of Stirling
    • Research: statistics, computational aspects of large databases, labour economics
    • Teaching (BSc and MSc): mathematics, general theory; labour markets: environmental and energy issues
    • Devised and delivered professional training in IT systems and programming
    • Consultancy projects for Department of Employment included the design of remote access strategy for DoE databases and the consequent programming to implement this
    • Co-ordinated and managed the research computers shared among eight university departments spread across Scotland (budget c. £70,000)
    • PhD Thesis: Accessing the New Earnings Survey Panel Dataset: new techniques and applications
      Used the panel features of the data to develop efficient unrestricted longitudinal estimators, applying the results to the UK labour market; developed the accompanying software
    05.89 - 10.90
    Generation and system studies analyst
    Electricity purchasing department, Southern Electric plc, Maidenhead
    • Analysis of electricity purchase-contracts and advice to contract negotiation team
    • Designed, built and maintained a purchase cost forecasting model
    1985 - 1989
    Programmer
    Arena Software Limited, Cambridge
    • Team design and programming of PC-based office management system
    • Some user installation and technical support
    Contact details
    Email: fr_cv@felixritchie.co.uk

    This page last edited 21st January 2019

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