Sam Warner is a Research Associate at The Productivity Institute (TPI) and the Department of Politics, University of Manchester. He is currently part of the TPI ‘Institutions and Governance’ theme, exploring the extent to successive governments have in part been constrained in attempts to address regional disparities and stagnant productivity growth by the UK’s centralised institutional landscape.

Sam’s research to date has been at the intersection between British politics, public policy and political economy. This has produced a series of publications in renowned academic journals, covering a range of case studies and policy areas.

Sam is currently working on a co-authored book (with David Richards, Diane Coyle and Martin Smith), drawing on his time as a Research Associate on the Nuffield Foundation funded project ‘Public Expenditure Planning and Control in Complex Times‘ (2020 – 2023). The book explores the adaptability and effectiveness of the Treasury’s approach to public expenditure planning and control in the context of an increasingly complex and fragmented governance landscape. The book is under contract with Oxford University Press.

Previously, Sam worked as an Associate Lecturer at the University of York (2019-20) and Teaching Fellow at the University of Birmingham (2017-19). Sam completed a PhD in Political Science at the University of Birmingham in 2018, exploring the failure of the Industrial Relations Act 1971 as an attempt to regulate industrial relations and depoliticise trade union activities. This research culminated in Sam’s first monograph, Who Governs Britain? Trade Unions, the Conservative Party and the Failure of the Industrial Relations Act 1971. Sam also holds an MA Political Science (British Politics and the State) from Birmingham (2014) and a BSc Politics with Law from Aston University (2011).

My research to date is at the intersection between British politics, public policy and political economy. In addition to my role as Research Officer, I am working on an article on the framing of fiscal credibility through fiscal rules and the Office for Budgetary Responsibility. 

Title of Project: Public Expenditure Planning and Control in Complex Times:  A Study of Whitehall Departments’ Relationship to the Treasury (1993-Present)

 Awarding Body: Nuffield Foundation

People Involved: P.I. David Richards, Co-Is Diand Coyle [Cambridge] and Martin Smith [York] and R.O. Sam Warner [Manchester]. 

Duration: March 2020-April 2023

Total Award: £324,488