Stephen Gibson is a recognised expert in regulation and competition economics with over thirty years’ experience across a range of regulated utilities as a consultant and from both sides of the regulatory fence – in regulated companies and regulators.
Stephen is Chair of the Government’s Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC) which rates the quality of evidence and analysis used by departments and regulators in their assessments of the economic impact on businesses of regulatory interventions. Stephen was previously a member of the committee since May 2018. Stephen is a director of RegWatchEurope (RWE), the network of European independent regulatory scrutiny bodies.
Stephen is a member of the Bank of England’s Cost Benefit Analysis Panel. The panel reviews the Prudential Regulation Authority and Bank‘s cost benefit analysis of its prudential regulatory policy proposals (measures that are intended to reduce the likelihood and severity of a future financial crisis).
Stephen is a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Business and Government at Harvard University. Stephen is researching the regulatory framework used by Government departments and sectoral regulators to introduce new regulations and how it could be more effective.
Stephen is a Senior Fellow at London School of Economics. Researching into effective regulatory frameworks.
Stephen was a member of the CAA’s Expert Panel, supervising the development of the regulatory regime for Heathrow and NATS, including the regulatory framework for the (now halted) third runway and the H7 and NR23 periodic reviews.
Stephen has been:
- Chief Economist at Ofwat (the economic regulator of water and waste-water in England & Wales),
- Chief Economist and Director of Economic Policy at Postcomm (the economic regulator of postal services in the UK),
- Special Advisor on regulation to the CAA (the economic regulator for the UK aviation sector),
- Special Advisor to ORR (the UK’s economic regulator of rail and road services),
- Principal Economist at Ofcom (the UK’s communications sector regulator),
- Head of Economics at Network Rail (the owner of the rail network in the UK),
- Senior Consultant at NERA Economic Consulting, and
- Economist and Competition Policy Analyst for Royal Mail (the UK’s postal operator).
Stephen set up SLG Economics in 2011 to provide regulatory and competition policy advice to regulators, regulated companies and governments.
Stephen is regularly interviewed on radio and television, discussing topical questions such as the success of Royal Mail privatisation and the changes to rail ticket prices.
Stephen is a lecturer in microeconomics at Birkbeck College, London on their MSc in applied economics and has been a visiting lecturer at City University, London on their MSc in Regulation and Competition. He is a visiting member of faculty at the Indian School of Competition Law and Market Regulation. He was the external supervisor for a PhD in railway economics at the Judge Institute of Management Studies, University of Cambridge.
Stephen has:
- a Degree in Economics and Management Studies from Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge,
- a Post-Graduate Diploma in Accounting and Finance from the ACCA,
- a Diploma in Computer Science from Cambridge University,
- a Diploma in EU Competition Law from Kings College, London,
- a Post-Graduate Diploma in Health Economics from Middlesex University; and
- completed the Corporate Finance evening course at London Business School.
Stephen is the author of articles in leading academic books and journals on: regulatory impact assessments and cost benefit analysis, regulatory evaluation, using real options in regulatory analysis, the postal market study, the universal postal service, railway economics, rail capacity charging and incentivising rail performance.
