معرفی
Graham Stark is a Senior Research Fellow at Northumbria University within the Social Work, Education & Community Wellbeing school. His research focuses on economic analysis, microsimulation, and public policy, particularly examining the health case for basic income and developing the TriplePC (Public Policy Preference Calculator) to assess welfare scheme impacts. He is the creator of TAXBEN—the UK government's leading tax-benefit microsimulation model—and founder of the consultancy Virtual Worlds.
His academic qualifications include:
- PhD in Economics (by Publication), Northumbria University (awarded July 2024)
- MSc in Economics, University of York (1982)
- MA (Hons) in Economics, University of Aberdeen (1980)
Stark's research spans four interconnected themes: means testing methodologies, distributional impacts of tax-welfare reforms, microsimulation model development, and austerity-era poverty interventions. His work leverages big data analysis to evaluate policy impacts across the UK, US, Africa, and Europe, with particular emphasis on income inequality, social care costs, and health-economic linkages. Recent projects examine universal basic income pilots and pandemic policy responses.
His publication trends reveal consistent methodological innovation in microsimulation applied to evolving policy challenges—from 1980s tax reforms to contemporary basic income analysis. Recent 2025 articles address climate policy framing, UK 'red wall' voting behavior, and longitudinal health-income relationships, demonstrating interdisciplinary reach across economics, political science, and public health.
No scientific awards are documented in the provided materials.
Stark actively supervises PhD students and has secured over £500,000 in research funding from Scottish/Welsh governments, the United Nations, and third-sector bodies. His consultancy Virtual Worlds and IFS tenure generated policy-impacting reports for DSS/DWP and rapid budget analysis for media outlets.
- Major funders: Scottish Government, Welsh Assembly, United Nations
- Key projects: Basic income pilots, long-term care funding models, child poverty forecasting
He leads the TriplePC development team at Northumbria and previously directed Virtual Worlds—a specialized microsimulation consultancy. His work integrates academic research with real-world policy design, notably through collaborations with Action for Children, Common Sense Policy Group, and UBI Lab Network.
