I am a Research Fellow, Co-Investigator (Project Co-Lead) and Strategic Theme Lead for the "Welfare, work and economy" theme at ADR Scotland, a partnership between the Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research (SCADR) and the Scottish Government that promotes access to and the use of administrative data for public benefit. The partnership is part of UKRI ESRC's strategic investment in the national Administrative Data Research UK (ADR UK) infrastructure. I am based within the Division of Urban Studies and Social Policy and am affiliated with the School of Health and Wellbeing and the Centre for Public Policy at the University of Glasgow.

My research focuses on several key areas involving the analysis of linked administrative data from the benefits, tax and health systems, including:

• Health and employment support needs among Scotland's working-age population (Project Co-Lead)
• Evaluating the labour market impacts of welfare benefits in Scotland and the UK (Project Lead)
• Assessing the effects of the Scottish Child Payment on parental employment using administrative data (Project Lead)
• Using RAPID data to estimate household and child poverty (Project Co-Lead)
• Socioeconomic, household and environmental risk factors for COVID-19 in Scotland (Project Lead)
• Assessing the causal effects of benefit sanctions on health (Project Co-Lead)

I hold a DPhil from Nuffield College at the University of Oxford where my doctoral research examined women’s employment instability and fertility dynamics, using advanced survival modelling techniques applied to cross-national retrospective life history data from the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).

Before joining the University of Glasgow, I was a post-doctoral research scientist at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and, prior to that, at the ESRC Centre for Population Change at the University of Southampton. During this period, my work focused on fertility postponement and recuperation, analysing microdata from two major British cohort studies: the 1958 National Child Development Studies and and the 1970 British Cohort Study.

Profiles:

• Google Scholar
• ResearchGate

• Social and health inequalities
• Labour market dynamics
• Unemployment
• Economic inactivity
• Disability
• Social security benefits
• Natural policy experiments
• Quasi-experimental designs
• Mental health and wellbeing
• Benefit sanctions
• Welfare reform
• Household poverty
• Child poverty
• COVID-19
• Economic recovery
• Disadvantaged groups
• Gender inequalities
• Population dynamics
• Fertility transition
• Mortality
• Life-course transitions
• Cross-national comparative research
• Quantitative research methods
• Survival analysis
• Causal inference
• Data visualization
• Large and complex longitudinal survey data
• Linked administrative data
• Cross-sectoral data linkage

Research groups

• Socio-Environmental Action
• Urban Analytics
• Social & Urban Policy
• Just Cities & Societies

List by: Type | Date

• 2026-2031: UK Research Innovation (UKRI) Economic and Social Resarch Council (ESRC) - "ADR Scotland: 2026-2031 (University of Edinburgh led)". Grant reference: UKRI3324.  (UofG share: £2.6M; total award: £17.1M). Role: Co-Investigator (Project Co-Lead).
• 2022-2026: UK Research Innovation (UKRI) Economic and Social Resarch Council (ESRC) - "University of Edinburgh 2022-2026 ADR UK Programme". Grant reference: ES/W010321/1 (UofG share: £1.1M; total award: £6.9M). Role: Co-Investigator.
• 2021-2022: UK Research Innovation (UKRI) Economic and Social Resarch Council (ESRC)  - "Administrative Data Research Centres 2018". Grant reference: ES/S007407/1 (UofG share: £140K; total award: £4.1M). Role: Co-Investigator.
• 2018-2021: UKRI ESRC Secondary Data Analysis Initiative - "Assessing the impacts of benefit sanctions on health". Grant reference: ES/R005729/1 (UofG led: £158K). Role: Co-Investigator.
• 2021: UKRI Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) - UKRI COVID-19 Grant Extension Allocation scheme - "Assessing the impacts of benefit sanctions on health". Grant reference: ES/R005729/1 (UofG led: £12K). Role: Co-Investigator.

I am interested in supervising both postgraduate dissertations and PhD theses in the following areas:

• Social and health inequalities
• Social security benefit policies
• Labour market dynamics, unemployment and economic inactivity
• Disability
• Welfare reform
• Housheold poverty and child poverty
• School-to-work transitions
• Mental health and wellbeing
• Gender inequalities
• Life-course transitions, fertility and family dynamics
• Family policies
• Cross-national comparative research
• Quantitative research methods

Current PhD students:

• Elizabeth Strang:

“Exploring transitions to early adulthood using data from Growing Up in Scotland”, funded by the College of Social Sciences, University of Glasgow

• Mridhula Gopalan

"Studying work, welfare and health through linked administrative data”, funded by the College of Social Sciences, University of Glasgow

• Yusuff A. Adebisi

“Living with disabilities, household conditions and COVID-19: a Scottish population-based study using linked administrative data”, funded by the UKRI ESRC through the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science (SGSSS)

New PhD studentship:

• "Disability and school-to-work transitions in Scotland", funded by the College of Social Sciences, University of Glasgow (from October 2026)

• Adebisi, Yusuff Adebayo
  Living with disabilities, household conditions and COVID-19: a Scottish population-based study using linked administrative data

• Advanced approaches for policy evaluation (new postgraduate taught course, Semester 2), Convenor, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow (from 2026/2027)
• Quantitative Data Analysis (Postgraduate Taught course, Semester 1), Convenor, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow (2022/2023-2024/2025)
• Social and Public Policy 2A (Undergraduate course, Semester 1), Contributing lecturer, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow (2017/2018-current)
• Introduction to administrative data research and analysis (IADRA) (Postgraduate training course, Semesters 1 and 2) Contributing lecturer, Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research (SCADR), University of Edinburgh, and the Scottish Longitudinal Study (SLS) Development Support Unit (2017-current)

Editorial activity

• Editorial board member, Journal of Social Policy (2021-2024; re-appointed 2026-present)
• Editorial board member, Social Policy and Society (2021-2024)

Reviewing for external funding bodies and research infrastructures

• Member, UKRI ESRC Peer Review College (2025-present)
• Expert reviewer and panellist, ADR UK Expert Assessor Directory (2025-present)
  

Membership of professional or learned societies

• Fellow, Royal Statistical Society (2017-present)
• Member, Social Policy Association (2017-present)
• Member, European Network for Social Policy Analysis (ESPAnet) (2019-present)

Chairing and convening academic and policy events

• Co-Chair, joint ADR Scotland and the University of Glasgow Workshop "Evidencing the wider impacts of the Scottish Child Payment: challenges and opportunities for data, research and practice", 12 March 2026, Edinburgh Climate Change Institute (ECCI), University of Edinburgh
• Chair, ADR UK PhD Student Gathering, 27-28 January, Edinburgh Futures Institute, University of Edinburgh
• Chair, Thematic Roundtable Discussion (Health), WiMPLE: Responding to findings and developing recommendations, 1 March 2024, Advanced Research Centre, University of Glasgow
• Chair, Session on Children and families, DWP Areas of Research Interest Workshop, 4 October 2023, Advanced Research Centre, University of Glasgow
• Chair, Parallel Session C: Research using real-world data, International Population Data Linkage Network Conference, 7-9 September 2022, University of Edinburgh
• Chair, Parallel Session 4C: Social Mobility, Administrative Data Research Network (ADRN) Annual Research Conference, 1-2 June 2017, Royal College of Surgeons, University of Edinburgh

Policy-facing activities and outcomes

• Co-chair of the Workshop "Evidencing the wider impacts of the Scottish Child Payment: challenges and opportunities for data, research and practice", co-hosted by ADR Scotland and the University of Glasgow, 12 March 2026, Edinburgh Climate Change Institute (ECCI), University of Edinburgh
• Invited keynote "Using RAPID data to investigate the relationship between work, welfare and health", Scottish Government-led Work, Welfare and Economy Workshop, 7 May 2025, Edinburgh
• Evidence cited in UK COVID-19 Inquiry, Module 2A (Core UK decision-making and political governance – Scotland), based on the findings of the study "Occupational differences in COVID-19 hospital admission and mortality risks between women and men in Scotland: a population-based study using linked administrative data" by Pattaro et al. (2025), 16 January 2024 (pp. 145-146)
• Oral evidence to the House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee, "Effectiveness of benefit sanctions" (HC 1308), 10 May 2023, Palace of Westminster
• Correspondence from Sir Stephen Timms MP, Chair of the Work & Pensions Select Committee, addressed to Mel Stride MP, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, 24 May 2023
• Response from Mel Stride MP, Secretary of State for Work and Pension, 7 June 2023
• Co-chair of the DWP Areas of Research Interest Workshop, co-hosted by DWP, the Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research (SCADR), and the University of Glasgow College of Social Sciences (CoSS), 4 October 2023, Advanced Research Centre (ARC), University of Glasgow
• Scottish Parliament debate on "Impacts of benefit sanctions" (S6M-03259) led by Kaukab Stewart MSP, based on the findings of the study "The impacts of benefit sanctions: a scoping review of the quantitative research evidence" by Pattaro et al. (2022), 31 March 2022, The Scottish Parliament, Edinbrugh
• Open letter signed by 30 MSPs addressed to Therese Coffey MP, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, 31 March 2022
• Parliamentary Question "Social security benefits: disqualification" (UIN 49671), tabled by Jonathan Ashworth MP, 8 September 2022
• Invited talk “Using longitudinal administrative data on benefits and earnings histories to identify social disadvantage” at the Department for Work and Pensions policy meeting, 19 February 2020, Caxton House, London
• Co-organiser and presenter at the DWP policy workshop "The impacts of welfare reform", 10 October 2019, University of Glasgow

Media coverage

• The Guardian DWP blocks data for study of whether benefit sanctions linked to suicide, 2 March 2022
• The National Calls for DWP to end cover-up of key benefit sanctions data, 31 March 2022
• The National UK government report on benefit sanctions should be made public, Kaukab Stewart says, 31 March 2022
• The Mirror EXCLUSIVE: Major study on how benefit sanctions hit health is SCRAPPED after DWP pulls out, 10 October 2022
• Health and Care Scotland Health staff mortality rate 'lower in Scotland', 20 January 2022

Other news coverage

• News – A fantastic ADR UK PhD Student Gathering event! SCADR (Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research) news blog, 29 January 2026
• SCADR research featured in the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, SCADR news blog, 29 January 2024
• Review of the DWP Areas of Research Interest Workshop, University of Glasgow Social Sciences Hub, 23 October 2023
• Review of the recent DWP Areas of Research Interest Workshop, SCADR blog, 23 October 2023
• UK Parliament Committee Session on Effectiveness of Benefit Sanctions, University of Glasgow Social Sciences Hub, 1 June 2023
• The impacts of benefit sanctions - review article, School of Social and Political Sciences news blog, University of Glasgow, 27 April 2022

Public-facing activities and outcomes

• Household living arrangements and Covid-19 among disabled people, Joint Research Data Scotland (RDS)/ Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research (SCADR) Scotland Talks Data Public Panel, 23 April 2024, virtual
• Understanding the health and employment support needs of the Sccottish working age population (with Vittal Katikireddi), ADR Scotland Public Panel, 6 February 2023, virtual
• Invited talk Unique Property Reference Numbers (with Chris Dibben), ADR UK Researcher Network Symposium 6 Housing & Communities, 27 September 2022, virtual
• Invited talk Occupational differences in COVID-19 mortality in Scotland, ADR UK Researcher Network Symposium 4 COVID-19, 23 February 2022, virtual
• Invited talk Occupational risk factors for COVID-19 in Scotland, ADR Scotland Partnership event, 22 November 2021, virtual
• Investigating the socioeconomic, household and environmental risk factors for COVID-19 in Scotland, ADR Scotland Public Panel, 30 October 2020, virtual
• Invited talk Investigating te socioeconomic, household and environmental risk factors for COVID-19 in Scotland, ADR UK Researcher Network Symposium 1 Inequalities & Social Inclusion, 23 September 2020, virtual
• Invited panel speaker Why COVID-19 has made data linkage matter more than ever, 31 July 2020, Centre for Homelessness Impact Festival
• Can we use linked administrative data to identify social disadvantage? SCADR Blog, 6 February 2020

Scientific advisory roles

• Advisory Group Member, NIHR - funded project “Evaluating and simulating child poverty reduction policies to improve child and maternal health and reduce health inequalities” (PI: Dr Anna Pearce, University of Glasgow) (2024-present)
• Advisory Group Member, Nuffield Foundation - funded project “Women in multiple low-paid employment: pathways between work, care and health (WiMPLE)” (PI: Dr Louise Lawson, University of Glasgow) (2020-2024)
  • Advisory Group Member, project on employment trajectories of female unpaid carers (under review, Nuffield Foundation)

Peer-review of journal manuscripts:

Revier for: Journal of Social Policy; Social Policy and Administration; Social Forces; Social Policy and Society; International Journal of Social Welfare; Social Indicators Research; Population and Development Review; Cambridge Journal of Education; International Journal Population Data Science; Demographic Research; Population Studies; Vienna Yearbook of Population Research

Professional service

• Member, Unit of Assessment 20 (UoA20) Social Work and Social Policy REF2029 Output Scoring Committe, University of Glasgow (2025-present)
• Member, Consultation Group for the 2025/26 MSc Public Policy and Data Analytics Pathway, MSc programme in Public Policy, Division of Urban Studies and Social Policy, University of Glasgow (June-August 2025)
• Member, Consultation Group for the 2025/26 MSc Programme in Social Sciences Research Methods, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow (August 2024-June 2025)
• Member, Internal Peer Review College, University of Glasgow (2024-present)
• Mentor, Catalyst Leadership and Career Mentoring for Research Staff, University of Glasgow (2023-present)
• Research-Only Staff Lead, CoSS-CoAH Working Group on the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, College of Social Sciences (CoSS), University of Glasgow (2021-2025)

Professional affiliations

• Associate member, School of Health and Wellbeing, College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences (MVLS), University of Glasgow (2023-present)
• Affiliated researcher, Centre for Public Policy, College of Social Sciences (CoSS), University of Glasgow (2025-present)
• Member, UKRI ESRC Research Leadership Network (2024-2025)
• Member, British Academy Early Career Researchers Network (2022-present)
• Associate member, ESRC Centre for Population Change - Connecting Generations, University of Southampton (2012-present)