Warwick Economics Alumni Event October 2022

On Monday 10 October 2022, the Department of Economics was delighted to host a hybrid event for our Warwick Economics alumni. Our guest speaker was Andy Haldane (MA Economics, 1989), Chief Executive Officer, Royal Society of Arts (RSA), formerly Chief Economist at the Bank of England and a member of the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee. Andy has authored around 200 articles and 4 books; he is Founder and President of the charity Pro Bono Economics, Vice-Chair of the charity National Numeracy, Co-Chair of the City of London Task-Force on Social Mobility and Chair of the National Numeracy Leadership Council. Andrew was the Permanent Secretary for Levelling Up at the Cabinet Office from September 2021 to March 2022, and as of June 2022, chairs the Levelling Up Advisory Council.

Full recording

If you've missed the event you can now watch the full recording

Event Highlights

The event was chaired by Ben Chu, a journalist, broadcaster and editor of BBC's programme Newsnight who led the discussion around the topical economic issues: inflation, growth, cost of living, levelling up in the UK and the future of education.

Held at the Shard and attended by around a hundred of guests, former students of Warwick Economics, and members of staff from the Department, the event was a great opportunity for networking with our guests and fellow alumni. It also gave everyone a chance to enjoy the spectacular views of London from the 17th floor of the building.

Professor Robin Naylor welcomed everyone and introduced our guest speaker, commenting on the importance of our alumni community to the work of the Department.

Andy Haldane talked about lots of important economic issues, including:

The power and importance of institutions, like the Bank of England or the Office for Budget Responsibility, why they matter when you deal with issues of uncertainty, and what's needed to make them function better.

The task of levelling up in the UK in, as part of addressing social justice, but also linking it up with the ideas of unlocking potential with economic efficiency and achieving economic growth.
The importance of addressing skills shortages and increasing productivity of the work force
How to address the cost of living crisis by making a plan for growth.

Some quotes...

"One of the reasons why the world, including the UK, has done somewhat better with dealing with more recent crises, from Covid right through to the most recent energy shock, is because some institutional memory had been built up as a result of the global financial crisis."

"We face in the UK, and in many western economies right now, a long-lived and deeply entrenched very acute skills and staff shortage."

"At the RSA we practically do things to grow skills, to inspire entrepreneurship and innovation."

Photo Gallery

All the photos from the event can be viewed in the Photo GalleryLink opens in a new window.