Dr Ruth Dixon (PhD)

Post: Leverhulme Trust Postdoctoral Researcher

Introduction

After studying Chemistry at Cambridge and Warwick Universities, and working in the Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Oxford, I was from 1992 to 2001 a senior (non-clinical) scientist at the MRC Biochemical and Clinical Magnetic Resonance Unit, University of Oxford. My work on the biochemistry of human disease resulted in about 40 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters etc.

A career change brought me to the Department of Politics and International Relations in 2006 to work on the ESRC's Public Services Programme.

Research Areas and Interests

Since 2010 I have been working with Professor Christopher Hood http://www.christopherhood.net on a study of changes in executive government over the past 35 years, funded by the Leverhulme Trust.  For more details, see http://xgov.politics.ox.ac.uk

Publications

Since joining the Department of Politics and International Relations:

Ruth Dixon, Christopher Hood and Lawrence Jones. Editorial: Ratings and Rankings of Public Service Performance. Introduction to the Special Issue. International Public Management Journal 11(3) September 2008 253-255 http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=g901676334

Christopher Hood, Ruth Dixon and Craig Beeston. Rating the Rankings: Assessing International Rankings of Public Service Performance. International Public Management Journal 11(3) September 2008 298-358 [Winner of the June Pallot Award for best article in the IPMJ 2008] http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=g901676334

Christopher Hood, Will Jennings, Ruth Dixon, Brian Hogwood and Craig Beeston. Testing Times: exploring staged responses and the impact of blame management strategies in two exam fiasco cases. European Journal of Political Research, 2009 48(6) 695-722 http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122604624/issue

Christopher Hood and Ruth Dixon.  The Political Payoff from Performance Target Systems: No-Brainer or No-gainer? Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 20 (Suppl. 2): i281-i298, July 2010

Christopher Hood, Carl Emmerson and Ruth Dixon. Public Spending in Hard Times. Briefing paper presented at the Institute for Government, 1 June 2009. Pub: ESRC Public Services Programme. http://www.publicservices.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/public-spending-in-hard-times.pdf

Christopher Hood, Ruth Dixon and Deborah Wilson. Managing by Numbers: the Way to Make Public Services Better? Briefing paper. Pub: ESRC Public Services Programme.

Ruth Dixon, Christopher Hood and Deborah Wilson. Keeping Up the Standards? School Leadership Today March 2010 http://www.publicservices.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/keeping-up-the-standards.pdf

Ruth Dixon and Martin Lodge (editors) Explorations in Governance: a collection of papers in honour of Christopher Hood. March 2012. http://xgov.politics.ox.ac.uk/index.php/publications-and-datasets.html

Christopher Hood and Ruth Dixon, A Model of Cost-Cutting in Government? The Great Management Revolution in UK Central Government Reconsidered, forthcoming.