Jacob Kenny graduated with an Economics and Politics undergraduate degree from the University of Reading.
Given the flexibility of doing a joint-honours degree, Jacob chose to concentrate more on the Economics side of the course and enjoyed the area of Public Economics in particular. His dissertation looked at the labour market impacts of immigration in the UK.
After graduating, he chose to remain at the University and pursued a master’s in Public Policy. Again, he focused on the Economics side of the course, and his dissertation used econometric techniques to examine the impact of immigration on UK labour productivity.
Following his graduation, he went on to work as an Assistant Economist for the UK Home Office. He was assigned to the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) Secretariat, an independent body that advises the government on migration issues.
In this role, Jacob was given the opportunity to work on the influential ‘EEA Migrants in the UK’ report, a report which advised the Government on the post-EU Exit migration system. He was able to apply all the skills and knowledge he had learnt from his studies at the University to his work in the MAC, including carrying out econometric analysis of large datasets, working with industry leading experts on labour market economics, and taking part in a secondment to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs to carry out analysis of self-employed data, published for the first time in this report.
Given Jacob’s interest in Migration Economics, as shown in his two Dissertation topics, he really enjoyed his time in the MAC and decided a career as a Government Economist was for him.
He secured a place on the Civil Service Fast Stream as an Economist. He has worked on International Trade and EU Exit in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. He is really enjoying this challenging and rewarding role and is looking forward to what lies ahead in his career as a Government Economist.
"I am grateful to the University of Reading for the fantastic time studying here. Particularly to Professor Giovanni Razzu for providing me with advice and outstanding support throughout my studies".
