King's College London

The Department of Political Economy (School of Politics & Economics, King’s College London) is pleased to announce that Dr Peter John has begun his position as Professor of Public Policy. He joins us from University College London, where he worked as Professor of Political Science and Public Policy from 2011 – 2017. Professor John has also held positions at the University of Manchester, Birkbeck University of London, the University of Southampton and the University of Keele. Professor John has a BSc. in Economics and Politics from the University of Bath, and an M. Phil and D. Phil in Politics from Nuffield College at the University of Oxford.

Professor John is known for his work on public policy, agenda setting, behavioural interventions and randomised controlled trials. In his book Analyzing Public Policy (2012), he presents the main theories of public policy and the policy process. Also, his book Policy Agendas in British Politics (Palgrave, 2013), co-authored with Anthony Bertelli, recounts empirical research which he has conducted to investigate why governments focus on certain policies.

His current research focuses on how best to involve citizens in public policy and management. More specifically, he aims to investigate what governments and public agencies can do to encourage citizens to carry out acts of collective benefit and civic partnership. Professor John performs this unique research by deploying behavioural interventions in the form of randomised controlled trials, some of which are outlined in Nudge, Nudge, Think, Think: Using Experiments to Change Civic Behaviour (Bloomsbury, 2011).

Furthermore, Professor John serves as an academic advisor to The Behavioural Insights Team, and is involved in many projects that seek to test behavioural insights in situations such as the redesign of tax reminders and channel shifts. He also co-edits the Journal of Public Policy.

Peter John is the most recent addition to the team, and he is preceded by the appointments of five other distinguished academics: Professor Nicola Phillips; Professor Michael Keane; Dr Roberto Fumagalli; Dr David Hope; and Dr Paul Sagar. These new additions to the department contribute to its growing profile, international status and continued expansion since its founding in 2010.

The department is grateful to have gained Professor John’s wealth of knowledge, experience and research in the areas of public policy and civic behaviour, and it looks forward to an exciting future working with its growing number of academic staff across the disciplines of politics and economics.