Bowman Lecture 2025

Speaker: Paul Johnson, Provost, Queen’s College Oxford

Date/Time: Monday, 29th September 2025, 6:30pm

Location: Sir Charles Wilson Building, The University of Glasgow

Issues of inequality sit at the forefront of much public and policy debate. The Institute of Fiscal Studies is the UK’s leading independent economics research institute and, as Director of the IFS from 2011 until 2025, Paul Johnson is uniquely placed to speak to these issues. The IFS has recently conducted a major review of inequalities, chaired by the Nobel Laureate Sir Angus Deaton.

On most measures income inequality in the UK has barely changed in 35 years. Indeed, it has fallen since the financial crisis. Yet public concern about inequality is higher than ever. In this talk Paul Johnson will draw on the IFS Deaton review of inequalities to help understand this conundrum, and will also look at the sorts of areas - beyond tax and welfare - that policymakers ought to be exploring. He will show that, while income inequality may not be increasing, a combination of stagnant income growth, growing importance of wealth, increased intergenerational inequalities, and labour market inequalities which go well beyond inequalities in headline earnings, are all crucial to understanding inequalities as a whole. He will look at what this analysis might tell us about principles for action.

About the speaker

Paul Johnson has held many different senior roles throughout his career, including Chief Economist at the Department for Education and Director of Public Spending at HM Treasury, where he also served as Deputy Head of the Government Economic Service. From 2011 until 2025 he was Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies whose research aims to understand the impact that policy decisions have on individuals, households and businesses. The Guardian recently described Paul as 'the longstanding head of Britain’s most influential economics think-tank and one of the most influential figures in Westminster politics'. He is a columnist for The Times and a regular contributor to other broadcast and print media. In 2023 he published the Sunday Times bestseller 'Follow the Money'. In 2025, he became Provost of Queen’s College Oxford.

About the Bowman lecture series

The aim of the annual Bowman Lecture is to highlight the crucial importance of statistics in addressing issues of public importance.