Alans Research Legacy – a Personal View
Christine Whitehead
LSE
7th December 2015
People
• Alans early academic career made him particularly
sympathetic to young researchers;
• Alan was happy to share his encyclopaedic knowledge
of data and history of policy as well as his practical
understanding with me as a raw PhD student trying to
develop an econometric model of the UK housing
market – even though he didn’t really believe in the
approach;
• Throughout his career he supported academic
researchers and young colleagues - always being
positive about what they were doing and finding
practical ways forward – and accepting when they did
not do what he had hoped.
Statistics
• Alan was an economic statistician to the core;
• But he did not just use them, he was often
involved in developing the survey questions and
ensuring consistency and protecting the capacity
to compare;
• And also in trying to keep them available to
researchers;
• The last few years have been hard for him as
surveys have disappeared or changed – but he
would always look for a positive way round when
some statistic was not available in the form he
wanted.
Evidence- based Research
• While he had a civil servant’s patience with
politicians and policy people he always looked to
ground initiatives in the available empirical
research and to add to that body of knowledge;
• And indeed where possible to try to modify
initiatives when he felt that they went against the
analysis;
• His reference works on housing statistics and
policy were careful and detailed in the extreme –
but he accepted, apparently without complaint,
when others took easier ways.
Depth and Width of Knowledge
• Not just the UK – long and continuing interest in
other countries experience and data – notably
the USA, Canada, Australia but also France, the
Netherlands and the Nordic countries;
• Not just housing but regional and indeed macroeconomic policy;
• The fundamental was accuracy but also
interpretation – he could say the statistics say this
but the actuality would be different, because his
knowledge went far wider than just numbers;
• But the other fundamental was generosity to
others and interest in their work.