Lecturer in Economics

Address: Room 3.4, Wadham College
Email: michael.hatcher@wadh.ox.ac.uk
Personal website: www.michael-hatcher.co.uk
Courses taught at Wadham: Core Economics Finals
 
About me
 
After graduating with an honours degree in economics in 2006 (Cardiff), I went on to study for an MSc and PhD (also at Cardiff) under the supervision of Professor Patrick Minford. My interest in economics stems primarily from its ability to provide specific conclusions that can be used to inform policy. I am particularly interested in the optimal design of monetary policy and held internship positions at the Bank of England and the Office for National Statistics during my PhD. At Wadham I will be teaching tutorials for all three Core Economics Finals courses: Microeconomics, Macroeconomics and Quantitative Economics. 
 
Research interests
 
My research aims to improve the conduct of monetary policy by investigating the performance of alternative policies using simulated models of the economy. For example, in my PhD thesis I compared the long-term performance of inflation targeting and price-level targeting, thus contributing to the debate on whether central banks should attempt to stabilise the level of consumer prices rather than the rate of inflation. A current research topic that interests me is the 'zero lower bound' on nominal interest rates. In particular, I am interested in whether modifications to monetary policy could improve social welfare given that episodes of near-zero interest rates (as currently) are historically quite rare. 

Selected papers
 
Hatcher, M., 2011.  Time-varying volatility, precautionary saving and monetary policy.  Bank of England Working Paper No. 440.

Hatcher, M., 2011.  Inflation versus price-level targeting and the zero lower bound: Stochastic simulations from the Smets-Wouters US model. Cardiff Economics Working Paper E2011/24. 

Hatcher, M., 2011. Comparing inflation and price-level targeting: a comprehensive review of the literature. Cardiff Economics Working Paper E2011/22.
 
Evans, P., Hatcher, M. and Whittard, D. 2008. The preliminary R&D satellite account: a sensitivity analysis. Economic and Labour Market Review 2(8), pp. 37-43.