Richard Blundell is the Research Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, where he is also Director of the ESRC Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy. He also holds the David Ricardo Chair of Political Economy at University College London and has held visiting professor positions at UBC, MIT and Berkeley. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland in 2003. He was awarded a CBE in the Queen's New Year's Honours List 2006.

He is Fellow of the Econometric Society, 1991; Fellow of the British Academy, 1996; Honorary Fellow of the American Economic Association, 2001; Honorary Member American Academy of Arts and Science, 2002; and Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries 2003. He was President of the European Economic Association in 2004 and President of the Econometric Society in 2006. He currently President Elect of the Royal Economic Society.

In 1995 he was awarded the Yjrö Jahnsson Prize for his work in microeconometrics, labour supply and consumer behaviour. The paper 'Estimating Labour Supply Responses using Tax Reforms' was awarded the Econometric Society Frisch Prize in 2000. He was also the 4th recipient of the Jean-Jacques Laffont Prize in 2008. He was editor of the Journal of Econometrics from 1992 to 1997, and co-editor of Econometrica 1997-2001. He is currently one of the editors of the Mirrlees Review of Tax Reform, which expects to report in Autumn 2009.

Blundell received his B.Sc. in Economics from the University of Bristol in 1973 and his M.Sc. in Econometrics from the London School of Economics in 1975.