Miles was born in 1959, and was educated at the Bishop Gore School in Swansea, University College, Oxford, Nuffield College, Oxford, and the London School of Economics.^[5]

In 2003 Miles produced a report for the British Chancellor of the Exchequer to examine why the long-term fixed rate mortgage market is not as popular a product in Britain as in other countries. His report states: "A great many borrowers focus on the initial cost of debt and do not seem to consider carefully how those payments might change relative to their incomes". Much of Miles's academic research has focused on housing, pensions, monetary policy, asset pricing and ways to make the financial system more stable.

From 2004 to 2009 Miles was Chief UK Economist of Morgan Stanley bank.^{[citation needed]}

Miles predicted a substantial fall in real house prices in November 2006.^[6]

In 2009 he was asked, along with Gerald Holtham and Professor Berndt Spahn, to serve on a Commission established by the Welsh Assembly Government to investigate the scope for the Welsh Assembly to have greater fiscal autonomy. The Holtham Commission reported in July 2010.^{[citation needed]}

From June 2009 to August 2015 Miles served on the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee. In 2011 he published a detailed study of the appropriate balance sheet structure of banks to avoid a repeat of the financial crisis ("Optimal Bank Capital").^[7] He concluded that the Basel III agreements on capital requirements for banks set the standard for equity at only about half its appropriate level. In 2012 he began a second term with the Monetary Policy Committee.

He was President of the economics section of the British Science Association (BSA) for 2015. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to monetary policy.^[8]

In 2016 he was appointed by Her Majesty's Treasury to advise on the measurement and reporting of yields on UK government debt. His report was completed in October 2016 and is being implemented. He was Chair of the board of trustees of the Institute for Fiscal Studies until December 2021 when he took up his position at the OBR. He is a trustee of the Centre for Economic Policy Research.^{[citation needed]}

• Miles, David (1994). Housing, Financial Markets and the Wider Economy. Chichester England New York: Wiley. ISBN 9780471952107.
• Miles, David; Myles, Gareth D.; Preston, Ian (2003). The Economics of Public Spending. Oxford New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199260331.
• Miles, David; Scott, Andrew (2005). Macroeconomics: Understanding the Wealth of Nations (2nd ed.). Chichester, England: Wiley. ISBN 9780470012437.
• Miles, David; Scott, Andrew; Breedon, Francis (2012). Macroeconomics: Understanding the Global Economy (3rd ed.). Chicester, West Sussex: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. ISBN 9781119995715.

• Miles Report: Part 1
• Miles Report: Part 2
• Miles Report: Part 3
• Call for more long-term mortgages BBC News, 9 December 2003