astronomy

Richard Blundell

Richard Blundell is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Richard Blundell rather than just read about it. In short: Sir Richard William Blundell CBE FBA (born 1 May 1952 in Shoreham-by-Sea) is a British economist and econometrician. Blundell is the David Ricardo Professor of Political Economy at the Department of Economics of University College London and the Co-Director of the ESRC Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy at the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Key takeaways

Richard Blundell belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Richard Blundell to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Richard Blundell from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sir Richard William Blundell CBE FBA (born 1 May 1952 in Shoreham-by-Sea) is a British economist and econometrician. Blundell is the David Ricardo Professor of Political Economy at the Department of Economics of University College London and the Co-Director of the ESRC Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy at the Institute for Fiscal Studies. He is also Associate Faculty Member, TSE, Toulouse. He was the Research Director at the Institute for Fiscal Studies between 1986 and 2016. He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society (1991), Fellow of the British Academy (1996), Honorary Member of the American Economic Association (2001), Honorary Member American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2002), Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries (2003), Fellow of the Society of Labor Economists (2005), and Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences (2019). Blundell has received honorary doctorates from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland in 2003; the University of Mannheim in 2011; the Norwegian School of Economics NHH in 2011; the Università della Svizzera italiana in 2016; the University of Bristol in 2017; the Ca' Foscari University of Venice in 2018; and the Athens School of Economics, AUEB in 2022. He was knighted in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to economics and social science.

Career Blundell received his B.Sc. in economics with statistics from University of Bristol in 1973 before he graduated with a master's degree in econometrics and mathematical economics from the London School of Economics in 1975. He held a position as lecturer in econometrics at the University of Manchester from 1975 to 1984. He was appointed Professor of Economics at University College London in 1984 and research director of the IFS in 1986, before establishing the ESRC Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Fiscal Policy at IFS in 1991. He was visiting professor of economics at UBC in 1980, at MIT in 1993, at Berkeley in 2000 and at Northwestern University in 2017. He was co-editor of Econometrica from 1997 to 2001 and co-editor of the Journal of Econometrics from 1992 to 1997. He currently edits Microeconomic Insights. In 2004, Blundell became president of the European Economic Association, in 2006, president of the Econometric Society in 2010, president of The Society of Labor Economics in 2010 and served as president of the Royal Economic Society (2011–2013).

Awards In 1995, Blundell received the Yrjö Jahnsson Award, given by the European Economic Association every two years to the best young economist in Europe (aged under 45), for his work in microeconometrics and the analysis of labour supply, welfare reform and consumer behaviour. In 2000, he was awarded the Econometric Society's Frisch Medal, awarded every two years for empirical or theoretical applied research published in Econometrica during the previous five years. In 2008, he was recipient of the Jean-Jacques Laffont Prize 2008 given by the Toulouse School of Economics to an international high level economist whose research combines both the theoretical and applied aspects of economics. He was the 2010 Distinguished Center for Economic Studies Fellow, an annual prize given by the CES of LMU Munich to an outstanding economist who has greatly contributed to the understanding of economic policy problems. In 2012, he was recipient of the IZA Prize in Labor Economics awarded by IZA for outstanding academic achievements in the field of labour economics. In 2014, Blundell received, with David Card, the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Economics, Finance and Management for "their contributions to empirical microeconomics," in the words of the jury's citation. "Motivated by important empirical questions, they developed and estimated appropriate econometric models, making significant methodological contributions in the process. Both are known for their attention to institutional detail, careful and innovative research design, rigorous application of econometric tools, and dispassionate reporting of results." In 2016, Blundell received the Nemmers Prize in Economics at Northwestern University for "his important contributions to labor economics, public finance and applied econometrics". He was elected a foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences in April 2019. In 2020, he was awarded the Jacob Mincer Prize for lifetime contributions to the field of Labor Economics.

Publications He has published six books and many articles on econometrics, microeconomics, consumer behaviour, public economics, applied economics, economic theory, inequality and labour economics. He is an editor and panel member of the IFS Mirrlees Review and editor and panel member of the IFS-Deaton Review: Inequality in the 21st Century. Among his six books, Labor Supply and Taxation is Blundell's most distinguished book, in which he presents research on the behaviour of individuals on the labour market respond to social policy influence and taxation, and on the modern labour markets and public policy reforms.

Books Labor Supply and Taxation, 2016. The Determinants and Effects of Work-Related Training in Britain, 1996. Higher education, employment and earnings in Britain, 1997. Mirrlees Review: Vol II: Tax by Design, 1997.

Personal life His brother is the biochemist Tom Blundell. Blundell is a jazz and folk fan, and plays guitar and saxophone, playing in a band when a student at the University of Bristol.

References

External links UCL webpage IFS website RePEc website (list of papers) IFS-Deaton Review: Inequality in the 21st Century IFS Mirrlees Review Microeconomic Insights

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Richard Blundell

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Richard Blundell claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Richard Blundell before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Richard Blundell ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Richard Blundell

In research: Richard Blundell appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Richard Blundell in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Richard Blundell is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1952 births, 20th-century British economists, 21st-century British economists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Richard Blundell outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Richard Blundell” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Richard Blundell in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Richard Blundell means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Richard Blundell out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Richard Blundell in simple terms?

Why does Richard Blundell matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Richard Blundell?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Richard Blundell.