James Sefton is a Professor of Economics at Imperial Business School. Currently Head of the Finance Department and a member of the School Management Board. Previously, as Co-Director of the MSc Finance programmes from 2012 to 2023, I grew student numbers from under 300 to over 600.

James is the Principal Investigator on the ESRC funded project ‘Changes in the Distribution of Resources across Generations in both the UK and the US’ and a Consortium Member of Horizon Europe project, ‘SUSTAINWELL: Long-term socio-economic impact of population ageing on European society’. 

James has over 25 years' experience spanning academic research, quantitative investment management, and pension and public-policy advisory work. Previously Head of Global Quantitative Research at UBS (consistently top-3 in the Extel and Institutional Investor surveys) and Principal Scientist at Winton Capital Management.

Long-standing adviser to UK pension and government bodies — including RPMI/Railpen (where I helped establish a quantitative team managing over $10bn in assets), HM Treasury, the Office for National Statistics, and the Board of Actuarial Standards. Independent expert and due-diligence work for asset managers including Terra Firma Capital Partners and Jupiter Asset Management. 

Research interests: intergenerational equity, pension policy design, long-horizon investment, asset allocation, and the housing market.

Two recent papers - joint work with David Miles - analyse the risk inherent in the Universities pensions scheme (the USS). The first, 'How Much Risk is the USS Taking?' 'measures the risk implicit with the USS scheme and the second, 'The University Pension Scheme – A Way Forward' examines possible approaches to reducing this risk.