About GeeBeeJey

Two types of activity come under the umbrella title of GeeBeeJey: GeeBeeJey Publishing and GeeBeeJey Consultancy:

GeeBeeJey Publishing

This is a newly formed publishing house, currently focussing on the publication of statistical texts.  Inference and Statistics in SPSS, due October 2005, will be our first publication.  Advanced Regression in SPSS will shortly follow (due January 2006) as we hope will other titles.  If you would like to submit a book proposal for publication, email us on g@geebeejey.co.uk for further details. 

GeeBeeJey Consultancy

We offer consultancy services in the areas of statistical and economic analysis, particularly with regard to housing and social science data.  The Director of GeeBeeJey Consultancy is Dr Gwilym Pryce.  Details of his expertise and experience are given below.

About Dr Gwilym Pryce

Dr Gwilym Pryce is the Deputy Director of the Graduate School (Faculty of Social Sciences), the Faculty Senior Lecturer in Social Science Methodology, and a Senior Lecturer in Housing Economics in the Department of Urban Studies, University of Glasgow. He has published widely in the areas of housing and mortgage markets and has conducted research for a large number of funding bodies including:

  • Department of the Environment Transport and the Regions,
  • Council for Mortgage Lenders,
  • Glasgow Solicitors Property Centre,
  • Economic and Social Research Council,
  • National Assembly for Wales,
  • Federal National Mortgage Association,
  • Scottish Homes/Communities Scotland,
  • European Commission,
  • National Housing Federation,
  • Strathclyde Police,
  • North Lanarkshire Council,
  • East Dunbartonshire Council,
  • Monopolies and Mergers Commission
  • Scottish Office
  • Royal Institutue of Chartered Surveyors

He has been an Economic Consultant to the SCOC Learning to Live Theology Program and a member of the Council for Mortgage Lender's Sustainable Home Ownership Panel. He is currently an Associate Researcher for the Scottish Centre for Research on Social Justice and a Consultant Market Analyst for Glasgow Solicitors Property Centre. He is the Economics Adviser to the European Journal of Housing Policy and a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Property Research. He was an Academic Consultant on both Stage I and Stage II of the HM Treasury Barker Review of Housing Supply and is currently a member of the Post-Barker Advisory Group organised by Office of the Deputy Prime Minister / Her Majesty's Treasury. He is also an Associate Member of ImoEconometrics, a Portuguese real estate investment consultancy firm, and the Director of GeeBeeJey Publising and GeeBeeJey Consultancy.

Education

1996 - 1999    University of Glasgow, PhD Economics (Part-Time).
1992 - 1993    University of Warwick, MSc Economics.
1991 - 1992    Covenant College, Certificate Biblical Studies (Distinction).
1988 - 1991    Leeds Business School, Leeds Metropolitan University, BA Hons Economics & Public Policy (First Class).

PhD: In 1999 Gwilym successfully completed a PhD as part of the Scottish Doctoral Programme in Economics (supervisors: Dr Terry Moody, University of Glasgow and Professor Ioannis Theodossiou, University of Aberdeen; external examiners: Professor Christine Whitehead, OBE, London School of Economics, and Professor Moira Munro, Heriot Watt University).  He completed the PhD entirely on a part-time basis after only three and a half years’ registration (he was encouraged to apply for early submission due to ‘exceptional progress’). The PhD made a number of significant innovations (both theoretical and applied) in the fields of unemployment/mortgage insurance and the analysis of perceived risk.

Employment

2003 - 2005  University of Glasgow: Senior Lecturer in Social Science Methodology; & Deputy Director of the Graduate School (60%); 
                 Senior Lecturer in Urban Studies (40%)  

2001 - 2003  University of Glasgow:    
                 Lecturer in Social Science Methodology;  
                 & Deputy Director of the Graduate School (60%);   
                 Lecturer in Urban Studies (40%)  

1996 - 2001  University of Glasgow: Lecturer in Urban Studies 
     
1995 - 1996  University of Glasgow:  ESRC Research Fellow 
     
1993 - 1995  University of Aberdeen:  Research Assistant  

Consultancy Experience

Gwilym has carried out consultancy work for the following organisations:

  • Glasgow Solicitors Property Centre;
  • National Housing Federation;
  • East Dunbartonshire Local Authority;
  • North Lanarkshire Local Authority;
  • Federal National Mortgage Association (USA);
  • Scottish Churches Open College.

Other Advisory Roles and Indicators of Esteem

  1. Gwilym has been an invited member of the Council for Mortgage 
     Lenders’ Sustainable Home Ownership Panel; 
  2. Gwilym was invited to be an Academic Consultant on both Stage I 
     and Stage II of the HM Treasury Barker Review of Housing Supply 
     and am currently a member of the Post-Barker Advisory Group 
     organised by The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister / Her 
     Majesty's Treasury; 
  3. Gwilym's research has been influential in major policy discussions, 
     and cited in major policy documents including the Barker Review of 
     Housing Supply (HM Treasury) and reports by the House of 
     Commons Social Security Select Committee; Office of the Deputy 
     Prime Minister; and Scottish Executive.   
  4. Gwilym has been successful in obtaining non-UK funding: he was a 
     a co-applicant on a successful bid to the European Commission and 
     has done consultancy work for the Federal National Mortgage 
     Association (USA). 
  5. Gwilym is a member of the editorial board of two international social 
     science journals (European Journal of Housing Policy, and Journal 
     of Property Research), and is regularly asked to review articles for 
     a wide range of international journals, including the very best 
     journals in his field edited both in the USA (such as Real Estate 
     Economics, and Regional Science and Urban Economics) and in 
     mainland Europe (such as European Journal of Housing Policy and 
     Journal of Housing and the Built Environment).  
  6. Gwilym has been invited to examine an overseas PhD (Murdoch 
     University) and to review major ODPM and ESRC research 
     applications. He was invited to be an Economic Consultant to the 
     SCOC Learning to Live Theology Programme.   
  7. Gwilym has sustained publication output of international quality (see 
     list above).    

Media

Gwilym is regularly contacted by the Scottish media, usually in relation to the Scottish housing market (e.g. he was recently interviewed BBC Reporting Scotland regarding house price inflation in Scotland vs England), and occasionally by the national media (e.g. he was recently interviewed by Jonty Bloom for Radio 4’s World Tonight programme regarding growing inequality in housing equity).

Quantitative Expertise

Gwilym has over 12 years of experience of using and developing quantitative methods.  He has used a wide range of statistical techniques (including logit, probit, ordered logit, two-stage least squares, fractional logit, Log-logistic/Weibull/Cox time-to-event models, Klein and Moeschberger kernel smoothed hazard functions, and fixed and random effects panel models) and has been at the cutting edge of applying techniques in an innovative way (he is one of the first in the UK to apply the following techniques to socio-economic data: Fractional Logit, Multiple Fractional Polynomial estimation, bootstrapped-Cox-Proportional-Hazards with sample selection correction).

Gwilym has also been innovative in developing new techniques, such as the development of a 5 step approach to estimating tax penalty impacts, estimation of time-varying location value signature models and the development of a grid-search algorithm that tests for structural breaks across space in socio-economic relationships).


He has also been particularly innovative in making statistical techniques accessible to non-specialists:  

  • He has written an extensive series of macros in SPSS that allows users to run basic statistical tests in SPSS based on summary information; 
  • He has integrated these macros into mind-mapping software that allows users to locate the appropriate techniques and syntax by clicking on a series of mind-map branches; 
  • He has added new features to SPSS that allow users to run proper regression diagnostics without having to turn to advanced software.

Gwilym has extensive experience of using a wide range of large datasets including:

  • British Household Panel Survey,
  • Family Resources Survey,
  • General Household Survey,
  • Survey of English Housing,
  • Scottish House Condition Survey,
  • SASINES,
  • Land Registry,
  • CML Survey of Mortgage Lenders,
  • NOMIS,
  • World Bank Data,
  • Ordinance Survey Landline and Meridian data,
  • Post Code Address File data,
  • ESRC Beliefs and Behaviour data.

Gwilym is also familiar with a range of statistical and GIS software packages, including:

  • Stata,
  • SPSS,
  • MapInfo,
  • Vertical Mapper,
  • Matlab,
  • Excel.

He has particular expertise in writing advanced programs in Stata and SPSS.

Other Areas of Expertise:

(A) Social Inequality

Gwilym is an Associate Researcher for the Scottish Centre for Research on Social Justice and a member of the Centre for Neighbourhood Research, University of Glasgow.  Both of these research centres are concerned with issues surrounding social inequality.  He has been involved in research on the development of measures of social deprivation (Bailey et al 2003), and much of his current research on the definition of neighbourhoods is closely related to this (a critical factor in creating deprivation indices is the spatial unit used to compute them).  His current and proposed research on measuring and analysing the growing inequality in housing equity is also central to future research on social inequality (growth in housing wealth inequality has far outstripped the growth in income inequality – see Thomas and Dorling 2004).  He has also begun work on analysing the role that house price inequality plays in creating inequities in access to quality secondary education in Strathclyde.  Furthermore, a large part of his research over the past six years has been examining inequalities in risk exposure among mortgage borrowers (not only are those at the lower end of the income schedule more likely to experience trigger events that make mortgage repayment difficult, but they are also more likely to be excluded from Mortgage Payment Protection cover – Pryce and Keoghan 2001; Kemp and Pryce 2001; Pryce 2002).

(B) Labour Markets

Much of Gwilym’s work has strong links with the labour market. Inequality in exposure to redundancy risk is  a crucial determinant of the pattern of mortgage default and a number of his research projects have been related to this and the broader issue of the apparent conflict between globalisation/flexible labour markets and the inexorable growth of owner occupation (Maclennan and Pryce 1996; Maclennan and Pryce 1998; Pryce and Keoghan 2002).  His work on analysing the take-up of Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance involved constructing models of unemployment risk and of the Income Support benefits system (Pryce 2002).  He has a long-standing interest in the connections between labour supply and the housing market (eg his undergraduate dissertation was on labour supply; he developed the first UK econometric estimates of the unemployment-trap effects of Housing Benefit [Pryce 1999]; he is currently supervising a PhD that looks at the links between mortgage repayment difficulties and household labour supply adjustment).  Moreover, a crucial factor in Gwilym’s current research for ODPM on the determinants of frequency of sale of residential dwellings is the pattern of employment and unemployment.  He is also involved in a SEPA project with Beaumont and Pates examining the determinants of employee loyalty in business organisations.

(C) Crime

Gwilym has worked with K. Goodhall, Faculty of Law on a project funded by Strathclyde Police analysing racist incidents before and after September 11th.     

(D) Socio-Linguistics

Gwilym has been working with Timmins and Stuart-Smith, Dept of English Language, funded by ESRC on The Determination of Vowel and Consonant Pronunciation by Socio-Economic and Media Factors;·  

(E) Theology

Gwilym has been working with Dr E. Stoddart, Department of Theology, University of St. Andrews on the Aversion to Raising Hell in Pastoral Situations.  Gwilym also has interests in a range of theological topics including the doctrine of tithing and Christian economics (he is a member of the Association of Christian Economists). See the Beliefs page of his personal website -- www.gwilympryce.co.uk -- for more details.

Teaching Experience

Gwilym’s main teaching responsibilities at present are primarily concerned with providing research training courses for ESRC recognised 1+3 Post Graduate courses across the Faculty.  He is responsible for the coordination of the MSc Social Science Research (a cross-department interdisciplinary Masters degree in research methods); coordination of the Faculty Graduate Training Programme (c90 students each year); coordination and teaching on Quantitative Methods Modules I and II; Masters dissertation supervision and PhD supervision.  Recent teaching initiatives which he has launched include: the development of a 40 hour Induction Programme for new Post Graduate students, and the development of a 16 hour Professional and Employability Skills training course in response to the Roberts Report and associated funding. 

He has taught and coordinated courses at all levels (undergraduate; post graduate Diploma; post graduate MSc/MRes/MPhil; PhD) in a range of subjects including economics, social statistics, econometrics, GIS, social policy, and urban studies. In particular, he coordinated and taught on the Social Policy undergraduate degree in the first year it was taught between two departments (Urban Studies and Social Policy), and received an “Excellent” rating from the Teaching Quality Assessment panel.

Gwilym is an innovative an enthusiastic teacher.  He has helped transform the teaching of statistics in the Social Science Graduate School by introducing a number of significant pedagogic innovations including problem based learning and specialised SPSS macros and mindmaps.  He is an able communicator and have an excellent track record of student feedback results. He has adopted an Explicit Contract approach in supervision of research students, making use of best practice and materials developed by University of Western Australia. Gwilym also has experience in developing web sites and distance learning materials.

His professional standing in teaching is evidenced by invitations to teach outside the University (including: guest lectures at the Mackintosh School of Architecture; Positive Action for Training in Housing Post Graduate Training and Scottish Churches Open College undergraduate programme, 2001).  He has been an external examiner on a PhD (Murdock University, Australia), and an external assessor on the development of a new research methods Masters degree at Caledonian University.  He was also invited to participate in the Innovations in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education project (funded by ESRC/HECC) having been recommended to them as ‘someone who has been changing teaching practice by skill integration’. 

A brief summary of Gwilym’s teaching experience since 1995 is as follows (figures in brackets refer to number of students, the abbreviations are defined as follows: D = Housing Studies Programme Diploma; L = Undergraduate Level one or two; PG = Post Graduate):

(i)    Housing Economy and Society[D,25]

(ii)   Housing Economics[D,35]

(iii)  Housing Finance [D,35]

(iv)  Housing Economics [Honours,15]

(v)   Property Markets and Economy [L2, 5]

(vi)  Social Policy / Social Urban Policy [L2, 60]

(vii)  Housing Policy [Honours, 30]

(viii) Inference and Statistics in SPSS  [PG, 60]

(ix)   Advanced Regression in SPSS [PG, 25]

(x)    IT Skills and Resource Discovery: Introduction to GIS [PG, 60]

(xi)   Mackintosh School:  Built Environment [L1, 70]

(xii)  Maths and Statistics Induction [PG, 85]

(xiii) Professional and Employability Skills [PG, 65]

(xiv) Giving and Taxing: Scottish Churches Open College [L1, 8]

(xv)  Diploma Induction [D,35]

Publications

Journal Articles

Bowie-Cairns, H. and Pryce, G. (2005) 'Trends in mortgage borrowers' repayment difficulties', Housing Finance, July, pp. 1-12.  Click here to go to the article.

Stoddart, E. and Pryce, G. (forthcoming 2005) Observed Aversion to Raising Hell in Pastoral Care: the Conflict Between Doctrine and Practice, Journal of Empirical Theology.

Pryce, G. (2003) 'Greening by the Market? Distortions Caused by Fiscal Incentives to Build on Brownfield Land', Housing Studies, 18(4).

Hendershott, P., Pryce, G. and White, M. (2003) 'Household Leverage and the Deductibility of Home Mortgage Interest: Evidence from UK House Purchasers', Journal of Housing Research, 14(1).

Pryce, G. (2003) 'Worst of the Good and Best of the Bad: Adverse Selection Consequences of Risk Pricing', Journal of Property Investment and Finance, 21(6).

Pryce, G. (2002) 'Theory and Estimation of the Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance Decision', Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 49(2).

Pryce, G. and Keoghan, M. (2002) 'Unemployment Insurance for Mortgage Borrowers: is it Viable and does it Cover Those Most in Need?' European Journal of Housing Policy, 2(1).

Pryce, G. and Keoghan, M. (2001) 'Determinants of Mortgage Protection Insurance Take-Up', Housing Studies, 16(2), pp 179-198.

Kemp, P. A. and Pryce, G. (2001) 'Evaluating the Mortgage Safety Net', Housing Finance, 52, November, pp. 32-37.

Pryce, G. (1999) 'Construction Elasticities and Land Availability: A Two Stage Least Squares Model of Housing Supply Using the Variable Elasticity Approach', Urban Studies, 36(13), pp 2283-2304.

Pryce, G. (1999) 'Work Incentives and Rent: Evidence from Glasgow Housing Associations', Netherlands Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 14(4), pp 343-362.

Pryce, G. (1998) 'Income Support for Mortgage Interest and the Crowding Out of Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance', Housing Finance, 39, August 1998, pp. 27-31.

Maclennan, D. and Pryce, G. (1996) 'Global Economic Change, Labour Market Adjustment, and the Challenges for Housing Policies', Urban Studies, 33(10), pp 1849-1865.

National Bureau of Economic Research Papers

Hendershott, P.H. and Pryce, G. (2005) The Sensitivity of Homeowner Leverage to the Deductibility of Home Mortgage Interest, NBER Working Paper No. 11489, Cambridge: MA.

Hendershott, P.H., Pryce, G. and White, M. (2002) Household Leverage and the Deductibility of Home Mortgage Interest: Evidence from UK House Purchasers, NBER Working Paper No. 11489, Cambridge: MA.

Research reports

­Pryce, G. and Mason, P. (2005 forthcoming) Which House Price?, London: Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

Pryce, G. (2004) The Micro and Macro Effects of the Location of New Housing Supply, London: Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

Pryce, G. and Gibb, K. (2003) Does residential New Construction Boost or Depress the Adjacent Market for Second-Hand Homes?, York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Bailey, N., Flint, J., Goodlad, R., Shucksmith, M., Fitzpatrick, S. and Pryce, G. (2003) Measuring Deprivation in Scotland: Developing a Long-Term Strategy, Final Report, Scottish Executive, Edinburgh: Scottish Executive Central Statistics Unit.

Pryce, G. and Kasparova, D. (2002) Private Rented Sector Supply: an Analysis of the Scottish House Condition Survey Longitudinal Data-Set, Edinburgh: Scottish Homes.

Pryce, G. and Lynch, E. (2002) Development of a Housing Market Database for Glasgow, Glasgow: GSPC/Communities Scotland.

Kemp, P. and Pryce, G. (2002) Evaluating the Mortgage Safety Net, London: Council for Mortgage Lenders.

Houston, D., Kemp, P. and Pryce, G. (2002) Review of the Private Rented Sector in Wales, Cardiff: National Assembly for Wales.

Lynch, E., Stephens, M. and Pryce, G. (2002) Housing and Social Cohesion in the UK: Report 1, European Commission.

Bramley, G., Pryce, G. and Satsangi, M. (1999) 'The Supply Responsiveness of the Private Rented Sector: An International Comparison', London: Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions.

Pryce, G. and Keoghan, M. (1999) Safety Nets for Mortgage Borrowers, Edinburgh: Scottish Homes.

Maclennan, D. and Pryce, G. (1998) Missing Links: The Economy, Cities and Housing, London: National Housing Federation.

Gibb, K., Kearns, A., Keoghan, M., More, A., and Pryce, G. (1996) Community Ownership Rents: Greater Easterhouse in the Glasgow Context, Glasgow: Greater Easterhouse Community Ownership Forum.

Gibb, K., Jamieson, J., Maclennan, D. and Pryce, G. (1996) The Development of Owner Occupied Housing Markets in Scotland, London: Report to Monopolies and Mergers Commission.

Maclennan, D. and Pryce, G. (1996) ‘Housing’, Public Services Yearbook 1996/97, edited by P. Jackson and M. Lavender, London: Pitman Publishing, pp. 277-284.

Pryce, G. (2005 forthcoming) Inference and Statistics in SPSS, Glasgow: GeeBeeJey Publishing.

Current working papers and projects include: 

1. Hendershott, P. and Pryce, G. The Sensitivity of Homeowner Leverage to the Deductibility of Home Mortgage Interest.

2. Pryce, G. Correcting for Sample Selection Bias in UK House Price Indices: Controlling for Duration Dependence.

3. Pryce, G. Housing Submarkets and the Impact of New Supply.

4. Pryce, G. and Gibb, K. Cox Proportional Hazards Model of Time on the Market.

5. Cairns, H. and Pryce, G. Modelling Probability of Mortgage Arrears Using the BHPS.