Graham Gudgin is Honorary Research Associate at the Centre For Business Research (CBR) in the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge and Chief Economic Advisor at Policy Exchange in London. He was formerly Director of the Northern Ireland Economic Research Centre in Belfast and from 1998-2002 was Special Advisor to First Minister David Trimble in Northern Ireland and is visiting professor at Ulster University. He was previously a fellow in Economics at Selwyn College and a member of the Cambridge Economic Policy Group under the late Wynne Godley. He has published widely on regional economic development, small firms and electoral systems and currently works on macro-economic modelling and analysis of Brexit at the CBR alongside Ken Coutts.
Recent public activities include: advisor to the Cabinet Office 2021/22 on trade data for Northern Ireland in the context of the Northern Ireland Protocol; member of the expert panel on modelling trade 2020/21 at the Department of International Trade, member of the DEXEU Ministerial Commission on Alternative Arrangements for the Irish Border chaired by Steve Barclay MP 2018/19. Contributor to the ProsperityUK Commission on Alternative Arrangements for the Irish Border chaired by Nick Morgan MP and Greg Hands MP 2019. Together with Professor Robert Tombs, he co-edits BriefingsforBritain a pro-Brexit academic website run from Cambridge University. The site has published over 700 articles to date since 2018 which have cumulatively received over 5 million views.
The CBE awarded in the 2003 New Year’s Honours list has the citation ‘For services to Economic Development in Northern Ireland’. Activities in Northern Ireland include: director of the Northern Ireland Economic Research Centre 1985-1998; chairman of the Advisory Board of the Ulster University Economic Policy Centre 2014-2019; member of Management Committee, Northern Ireland Economic Research Centre 2003/5; panel member, Independent Review of Economic Policy in Northern Ireland, 2009-10. He worked with Secretary of State, Owen Paterson and colleagues to secure the devolution of corporation tax to the Northern Ireland. In 2002 he set up a commercial economic forecasting company in Northern Ireland which currently continues as part of Oxford Economics employing 30 graduates.