May is a Research Advisor in the Monetary Analysis (MA) Directorate of the Bank of England. Previously, she served as head of macro-modelling, leading the team that providing modelling expertise that guide monetary policy discussions on the UK macroeconomy, including developing a range of structural and time-series models on all aspects of the macroeconomy. May also worked in the International Directorate—where she led team responsible for producing the Bank’s Global Outlook forecast. May started her Bank of England career as a Senior Economist in Structural Economic Analysis in MA and subsequently in Financial Stability, where her work in both those areas shaped the Bank’s understanding of UK household indebtedness and the consumption response in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis.
May’s area of research is in household finance and bank lending behaviour. In particular, she is interested in how consumers make decisions, and in uncovering patterns of consumption and debt behaviours. May has also worked on labour markets, including how firms’ outcomes respond in a credit crunch. She holds a PhD in Economics from University College London.
May is a member the Centre for Macroeconomics, the Central Bank Research Association; and is a Research Affiliate at UCL's Centre for Finance.
Bomadland: How the Bank of Mum and Dad helps kids buy homes - July 2023
Household debt and consumption revisited - September 2021
When banks say ‘No’: how the credit crunch lowered UK productivity - February 2016
A lifecycle story of housing debt in Blighty - September 2015
Identification and Estimation of a Search Model with Heterogeneous Consumers and Firms with M Mysliwski, F Sanches, D Silva Jr, and S Srisuma. Journal of Econometrics (2025)
Consumption Response to Aggregate Shocks and the Role of Leverage with A Kovacs, and P Bunn. Manchester School (2025)
The Banks that Said No: the Impact of Credit Supply on Productivity and Wages with J Franklin and G Thwaites, Journal of Financial Services Research (2020)
The Determinants of Credit Union Failure: Insights from the United Kingdom with J Coen and B Francis, International Journal of Central Banking (2019)
