Dr Joao Sousa

Personal statement

João is a Senior Knowledge Excahnge Fellow and Deputy Director at the Fraser of Allander Institute, where he works on fiscal issues, macroeconomics and business engagement.

João has over 10 years' experience as an applied economist. Previously, he was a Senior Fiscal Analyst at the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), where he led on analysis of long-term sustainability of the UK's public finances and on the effect of economic developments and fiscal policy on the UK's medium-term outlook. At the OBR, he also worked on Brexit-related modelling for the UK's new external tariff, and was the lead forecaster for public spending. João had previously worked at HM Revenue and Customs on tax modelling and tax gap estimation, and has experience in economic consulting.

João has recently concluded his PhD in Economics at Birkbeck, University of London. His research focusses on determining the impact of government spending on economic growth, for which he has collected and used archival data from the UK Parliament.

João's main areas of expertise include econometric analysis, tax and spending modelling, macroeconomic forecasting, government debt sustainability analysis, demand modelling and economic statistics. João is regularly asked to provide expert evidence to Parliament through the Finance and Public Administration Committee, and is a member of the ScotStat Board.