SJ Spencer
SJ is a Senior Economic Evaluation Manager at the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. He is a queer trans man and a Quaker.
Why did you choose to study economics?
I chose to study economics as part of a career change. I did an undergrad in Maths and then a PhD in laser-plasma interactions for nuclear fusion and some post-doctoral research on how we could use machine-learning to avoid having to do many expensive physics simulations. During my time working as a physicist, I realised I am more interested in how we as a society decide what science to fund to achieve human flourishing, and not the precise details of laser-plasma interaction physics! I joined the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research council to work on these science funding questions and realised I needed to re-train as an economist.
How would you describe economics?
Economics can mean a different thing to every economist you ask, and a different thing again to every non-economist you ask! To me, economics is a way of thinking about how we can use the resources we have to achieve human flourishing. It’s about deciding what’s important and how we can work together within constraints to get what we all want (a safe, liveable environment, fulfilling work, community, good health, etc).
If you had a time machine and could meet your 16-year-old self, what advice would you give them?
Try to meet as many different types of people as possible and take a real interest in their lives and experiences. I think this would have helped me understand myself as queer and trans a lot earlier.
What is your favourite part of economics?
In my work, my favourite part of Economics is Economic Appraisal – the process of weighing up costs, benefits, and risks of different ways of achieving government objectives.
In general, my favourite ideas in Economics come from Democratic Economics and Political Economy. I am interested in Multi-Criterial Economics which is a democratic extension of Multicriteria Decision Analysis to the question of whole-economy planning. It’s a way of thinking about how we might make choices between options in an economy not based around maximising GDP or minimising working time.
Is there anything you would do differently if you had the chance?
I think lots of things happen for a reason. I had a bad experience with a bullying supervisor during my post-doctoral research so you might think I would choose not to take that job if I had a chance, but while I was working with them I also got involved in organising the largest strike of academic workers in US history and making real changes for post-doctoral workers who came after me!