Dr Pepita Barlow was a Research Associate at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy before joining the London School of Economics as an Assistant Professor of Health Policy. Whilst working at the Bennett Institute Pepita applied quasi-experimental methods to new large-scale datasets to study the health impacts of trade policies and labour market reforms.
In her prior work she also investigated how behavioural economic traits influence the effectiveness of public health interventions targeting the prevention of unhealthy behaviours, such as smoking.
Pepita’s research has been published in leading, international academic outlets, including Demography, Social Science & Medicine, PLOS Medicine, The Lancet Global Health, and International Journal of Epidemiology, among others. Her work has also featured in The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Financial Times, The Guardian, CBC, and El País.
Before joining the Bennett Institute Pepita completed a DPhil (PhD) in Sociology at Nuffield College, University of Oxford, an MSc in Sociology, also at Oxford, and a BSc in Economics with Economic History at the London School of Economics (LSE). She also worked briefly at the Institute for Government and the LSE, and has served as a scientific adviser to the World Health Organization.
She is now an applied economist in tech, where she builds and evaluates new supply chain and retail assortment models.
Selected publications
Trade policy
Barlow, P., Labonte, R., McKee, M., Stuckler, D. 2018. Trade challenges at the World Trade Organization to national noncommunicable disease prevention policies: A thematic document analysis of trade and health policy space. PLOS Medicine, 15(6), e1002590.
Barlow, P. 2018. Does trade liberalization reduce child mortality? Evidence from a synthetic control analysis of 36 policy experiments in low- and middle-income countries, 1963-2005. Social Science & Medicine, 205, p.107-116.
Barlow, P., McKee, M., Basu, S., Stuckler, D. 2017. The impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement on high-fructose corn syrup consumption: a natural experiment using synthetic control methods. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 189(26), p.881-887.
Behavioural economics
Barlow, P., Reeves, A., McKee, M., Galea, G., Stuckler, D. 2016. Unhealthy diets, obesity and time-discounting: a systematic review and network analysis. Obesity Reviews, 17 (9), p. 810-819.
Barlow, P., Reeves, A., McKee, M., Galea, G., Stuckler, D. 2016. Smoking and time-discounting: a systematic review and network analysis. International Journal of Epidemiology, 46(3), p.860-869
Labour market policy
Barlow, P., Reeves, A., McKee, M., Stuckler, D. Employment relations, insecurity, and employment regulations: does dismissal legislation protect workers’ health? Social Policy & Administration. Forthcoming.