I have worked at the University of Leeds since completing my PhD and currently hold the position of Professor of Economics and Political Economy. I am also Head of the Economics Division, Leeds University Business School.
Background
My research lies in labour economics and political economy. I adopt an interdisciplinary approach in both research and teaching and engage with ideas from the history of economic thought. My research focuses on the conception of work within economics and other disciplines. I am eager to explore the nature and limits of economics as a way to understand the world as it exists now and how it might exist in the future.
Research interests
- The conception of work
- Automation and the future of work
- Political economy and the history of economic thought
Recent publications
Journal articles
A Four-Day Working Week: its Role in a Politics of Work
David A. Spencer (2022)
Wage Theft and the Struggle over the Working Day in Hospitality Work: A Typology of Unpaid Labour Time
Matthew Cole, Mark Stuart, Kate Hardy and David Spencer (2022), Work, Employment and Society
Furloughing and COVID-19: assessing regulatory reform of the state
David A. Spencer, Mark Stuart, Chris Forde and Christopher J. McLachlan (2022), Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society
Automation and Well-Being: Bridging the Gap between Economics and Business Ethics
David A. Spencer (2022), Journal of Business Ethics
COVID-19 and the uncertain future of HRM: furlough, job retention and reform
Stuart, M., Spencer, David A., McLachlan, C, J., Forde, C. (2021), Human Resource Management Journal
Research articles
Economics and ‘bad’ management: the limits to performativity, Cambridge Journal of Economics, forthcoming
Fear and hope in an age of mass automation: debating the future of work, (2018), New Technology, Work and Employment, 33(1): 1-12.
Work in and beyond the Second Machine Age: the politics of production and digital technologies, Work, Employment and Society, 31(1): 142-152.
Policy publications
Digital automation and the future of work (with Mark Stuart, Matt Cole, Simon Joyce, Xanthe Whittaker) at the request of the Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA) and managed by the Scientific Foresight Unit, within the Directorate-General for Parliamentary Research Services (EPRS) of the Secretariat of the European Parliament. January 2021
Planned Research working papers and delivery date
The future of work, European Parliament (Oct 2019-Jan 2020)