Liam Cosgrove is an Analyst at Europe Economics having joined in July 2025.
Liam Cosgrove is an Analyst at Europe Economics having joined in July 2025.
Liam Cosgrove specialises in policy evaluation, developmental and competition economics, applied statistics, and data science. He has experience supporting regulatory and analytical projects for UK regulators, including econometric RCT analysis and desk research for impact assessments of Open Banking and Open Finance for the Financial Conduct Authority, efficiency benchmarking for the Civil Aviation Authority’s H8 price control, and input price inflation modelling for Network Rail on behalf of the Office of Rail and Road. Prior to joining Europe Economics, Liam gathered valuable experience as a macroeconomic data engineer and as an undergraduate tutor of Econometrics and Statistics. Liam holds an MSc in Economics with a specialisation in Public Policy from the University of Amsterdam and a German Chamber of Commerce qualification as a banker.
Providing support on the cost of capital and financeability to regulated firms or regulators in the context of price control reviews (e.g. by providing them with analysis and assisting them in responding to representations from other parties). Our wider price control expertise is presented in more detail here.
Our personnel have been seconded multiple times to Ofwat, and we have carried out various discrete studies analysing the water sector from different perspectives. Some of these have involved cost assessment support for RAPID gate two assessment; advising on important aspects of Ofwat’s approach to the cost of equity for PR24 and; assisting with the investigation of the potential for improving Ofwats’s methodology to mergers’ assessment.
We have conducted several studies for DG CLIMA relating to the European Union’s emissions trading system. For example, we conducted a study looking at the impact of changes in trading activity on the price formation processes in the European carbon market, the access to the market for retail investors, which included also the access via exchange traded funds (ETFs), the hedging strategies of EU emissions trading system (ETS) compliance entities, and the role played by derivatives and financial entities in the EU ETS.
We looked at how a benchmarking model used to help set price controls by the Energistyrelsen on DSOs might affect the Green Transition. We looked at the challenges facing DSOs in the Green Transition and what behaviours should be incentivised. We then looked at how the benchmarking model and wider regulatory framework might affect those incentives. This included developing a number of worked examples to consider how the benchmarking model might affect incentives to invest in network expansion, faster connections or flexibility solutions.
Europe Economics was engaged by Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) to estimate how potential efficiency savings in water and energy are likely to be distributed across firms of different sizes and ownership structures in Scotland. The aim was to inform ZWS policy of where to target resource saving initiatives; in particular whether potential savings were sufficiently concentrated among SMEs to warrant specific effort among these.
We was also engaged by ZWS to estimate the costs and benefits of proposed market restrictions on specific single-use plastic products in Scotland and to analyse the impacts of the restrictions on competition, consumers and Scottish firms.
We were commissioned by Citizens Advice UK to investigate the mechanisms that could be used to limit or share the financial risk for energy bill payers in the context of highly anticipatory energy infrastructure investments in GB.
We developed a compendium of risk-allocation tools and, for each, we analysed: the suitability of the mechanism for different types of investments and projects; the extent (and the type) of risk allocated to consumers; the relative advantages and disadvantages of the tool; and how they affect the cost of capital. Each tool also included a case study of the tool being applied in practice.
As societies and technologies change, it is vital to understand and test the value of medical innovations and new care models. Our expertise in impact assessment and wider understanding of health- and social care markets enable us to advise policy-makers and funders how to prioritise policies and interventions needed to support the delivery of health and medical care. Our work includes:
We understand the importance of protecting intellectual property in pharmaceuticals and incentivising innovation, and the need to provide cost-effective access to medicines and healthcare. We advise on the design and impact of intellectual property policies and payment and reimbursement systems within the challenges and opportunities of a European and global pharmaceuticals market, applying learning from other regulated sectors. Our work includes:
