Margaret Cuthbert has lectured in economics at several Scottish universities, but spent most of her career as an economics and business consultant. Her major area of research has been public expenditure in Scotland. She edited and contributed to Public Expenditure in Scotland, one of the few economics texts on Scotland written in the period after the first Devolution referendum. Specific interests include improvement of the data and analysis relating to government expenditure and revenues in Scotland, critiques of the private finance initiative, the analysis of devolved and reserved spending, and research into the basis of the costings of the policy of free care for the elderly.