Jonathan Portes
{{short description|American economist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
File:Jonathan Portes - Brexit and the UK Economy.webm and the UK Economy at the IIEA in 2017]]
Jonathan Daniel Portes (born 18 April 1966) is a professor of Economics and Public Policy at the School of Politics & Economics of King's College, London{{cite web|work=The Guardian|date=January 2017|title=Jonathan Portes|url=https://www.theguardian.com/profile/jonathan-portes}} and a senior fellow at UK in a Changing Europe.{{Cite web|title=About us|url=https://ukandeu.ac.uk/about-us/|access-date=2021-09-30|website=UK in a changing Europe|language=en-GB}}
Early life and education
Portes was born in Oxford{{Cite journal|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/fame-and-fortune-i-gamble-on-politics-not-property-n6hrmfqrcdm|title=Fame and Fortune: I gamble on politics, not property|journal=The Sunday Times|first=Ali|last=Hussain|date=25 March 2012|accessdate=31 October 2024}} and grew up in London,{{Cite journal|url=https://theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/09/is-britain-full-home-truths-about-population-panic|title=Is Britain full? Home truths about the population panic|journal=The Guardian|first=Andy|last=Beckett|date=9 February 2016|accessdate=31 October 2024}} the son of Richard Portes, a Rhodes Scholar from Chicago.{{cite web|last1=Hassan|first1=Mehdi|title=Jonathan Portes, Economist, Says Osborne Told 'Untruths' In Commons To Try And Discredit Him|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/12/04/jonathan-portes-george-osborne-autumn-statement_n_2236720.html|website=Huffington Post Politics UK|date=4 December 2012 |accessdate=22 April 2016}} He earned a degree in mathematics from Balliol College, Oxford, and a master's degree in Public Affairs (Economics and Public Policy) at Princeton University. Jonathan is Jewish{{Cite web|url=https://twitter.com/jdportes/status/790831198763450368|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230526094533/https://twitter.com/jdportes/status/790831198763450368|url-status=dead|archive-date=2023-05-26|title=Twitter Post|accessdate=22 March 2025}}{{Cite web|url=https://ijv.org.uk/signatories/|archive-url=https://archive.today/20160502173935/https://ijv.org.uk/signatories/|url-status=dead|archive-date=2016-05-02|title=Jewish Signatories|accessdate=22 March 2025}}
Career
After joining HM Treasury in 1987, he held increasingly senior positions in the civil service, rising to be the chief economist at the Department for Work and Pensions and then the chief economist at the Cabinet Office under Gordon Brown. He left the civil service in 2011, after the Labour Party lost power to the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government.
Portes was appointed as the director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research in February 2011.{{cite web|author=Gráinne Gilmore |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/business-big-shot-jonathan-portes-z9xhnc2lvl8 |title=Business big shot: Jonathan Portes |work=The Times |date=5 January 2011 |access-date=27 December 2019}} In October 2015, it was announced that Portes would step down as Director of NIESR before the end of that year, following a management review at the organisation.{{cite web|title= U.K. Economist Jonathan Portes Steps Down as Director of NIESR|url= https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-06/u-k-economist-jonathan-portes-steps-down-as-director-of-niesr|website=Bloomberg|date=6 October 2015}}
His areas of interest include fiscal policy, labour markets and immigration.{{cite web|title=Staff: Jonathan Portes|url=http://www.niesr.ac.uk/users/portes-j|website=NIESR|accessdate=22 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160506190707/http://www.niesr.ac.uk/users/portes-j|archive-date=6 May 2016|url-status=dead}} He has a particular interest in the economic effects of Brexit, and was a prominent critic of the 'austerity' policies advocated by George Osborne, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer; Portes has described the Coalition's Incapacity Benefit reassessment programme — a major Whitehall project that was supposed to cut welfare spending by up to seven billion pounds a year — as "the biggest single social policy failure of the last fifteen years".{{cite web|url=http://www.niesr.ac.uk/blog/welfare-savings-and-incapacity-benefits#.VVxfDqZH3x4|title=Welfare savings and incapacity benefits|work=niesr.ac.uk}} He analysed the government's welfare reforms for BBC Radio 4 in 2014.{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04mc1hv |title=BBC Radio 4 – Analysis, Inside Welfare Reform |publisher=bbc.co.uk |date=2 November 2014}}
Portes is a council member of the Royal Economic Society,{{cite web|title=President, Trustees, Governors, and Coram Senior Management Team|url=http://www.coram.org.uk/governors-trustees-and-senior-management-team|website=Coram|accessdate=22 April 2016}} a trustee of the charity Coram,{{cite web|title=RES Council|url=http://www.res.org.uk/view/council.html|website=Royal Economic Society|accessdate=22 April 2016}} a senior fellow at the UK in a Changing Europe.{{Cite web|title=About us|url=https://ukandeu.ac.uk/about-us/|access-date=2021-09-30|website=UK in a changing Europe|language=en-GB}} He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2018.{{cite web |title=Fifty-eight leading social scientists conferred as Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences |url=https://acss.org.uk/news/fifty-eight-leading-social-scientists-conferred-as-fellows-of-the-academy-of-social-sciences/ |website=Academy of Social Sciences |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415232412/https://acss.org.uk/news/fifty-eight-leading-social-scientists-conferred-as-fellows-of-the-academy-of-social-sciences/ |archive-date=April 15, 2021 |date=5 April 2018 |url-status=dead}}
Views
Portes has said that British government policy since 2010 has disproportionately harmed the poor. In 2018, he said "There were a lot of choices, and the government chose to balance the budget on the backs of the poorest."{{cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/nov/28/spending-cuts-uk-human-rights-obligations-report |title=Spending cuts breach UK's human rights obligations, says report |newspaper=The Guardian |location= London |date=28 November 2018 |first=Patrick |last=Butler}} In 2023, Portes lost a bet made in 2018 with Christopher Snowdon, in which Portes had incorrectly predicted that relative child poverty would rise to unprecedented levels.{{cite web | url=https://iea.org.uk/the-portes-snowdon-bet-5-years-on/ | title=The Portes-Snowdon bet: 5 years on | date=23 March 2023 }}{{cite web | url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/jonathan-portes-my-part-in-his-downfall/ | title=Jonathan Portes – my part in his downfall | date=23 March 2023 }}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://niesr.ac.uk/users/portes-j Staff page at NIESR]
- [http://www.niesr.ac.uk/sites/default/files/files/Jonathan_Portes_CV_October%202015.docx Jonathan Portes' Curriculum Vitae] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160327215320/http://www.niesr.ac.uk/sites/default/files/files/Jonathan_Portes_CV_October%202015.docx |date=27 March 2016 }} held at NIESR.
- [https://www.theguardian.com/profile/jonathan-portes Guardian profile]
- [http://www.lrb.co.uk/contributors/jonathan-portes London Review of Books profile]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20130813103101/http://www.independent.co.uk/biography/jonathan-portes Independent profile]
- [https://ukandeu.ac.uk/author/jonathan-portes/ Commentary pieces written for the UK in a Changing Europe]
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Category:Academics from London
Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford
Category:Princeton University alumni
Category:English people of American-Jewish descent
Category:21st-century American economists