Economics & Analytics Group
The work of the Economics and Analytics group is crucial to making sure Ofcom’s decisions are based on robust research and analysis. Ofcom’s economists and analysts apply innovative conceptual thinking and a wide range of quantitative methods to drive policy-making and thought leadership.
The Economics and Analytics group is one of the largest competition and regulatory economics and finance teams in the UK. With more than 80 colleagues, we provide the analysis that underpins everything Ofcom does. We work on interesting and important sectors including TV, radio, telecoms, postal services, and spectrum. And we are increasingly helping to drive the agenda in new areas of responsibility including online safety and digital markets. For example, we are playing a key role in recent projects including Ofcom’s market study in cloud services, media plurality and online news, and preparation of online safety regulation. We also regularly publish discussion papers to contribute to the economics debate related to the communications sectors.
As part of the Economics and Analytics group you will get opportunities to use your analytical skills straight away. You will work within our multi-disciplinary teams, helping to formulate policy options and making a positive difference to society. The range of our work is truly diverse. For example, you might be working on projects that:
- use behavioural economics to understand how to make it easier for people to switch telecoms provider;
- apply innovative conceptual thinking and quantitative methods to understand the potential harms to society from news consumption online;
- assess the impact on the media sector of BBC services such as new TV channels and apps;
- analyse competition in new digital markets such as cloud services and home connected devices using applied industrial organisation theory,
- identify ways to promote competition in the investment of fibre broadband networks;
- provide financial insight and economic modelling to help ensure the provision of the universal postal service;
- use game theory and auction theory to inform the best ways to allocate spectrum; and
- apply expertise in accounting and corporate finance to ensure we have the financial information we need to make informed decisions across all the sectors we regulate
Our economists and analysts have a diverse set of skills, experience and backgrounds. The group includes people with specialisms in competition and regulatory economics, policy appraisal, financial analysis, econometric analysis, modelling and behavioural economics,. We support graduate and apprenticeship programmes and invest heavily in developing our staff.