Department News

Economics researchers named amongst the best in the world

We are delighted that eight academics from the Department of Economics have been named as among the World’s Top 2 per cent Scientists by Stanford University. The list contains names of the top 2 per cent of the most-cited scientists in various disciplines.

Read the full news article here.

The road to COVID recovery: Weighing up costs, benefits, and intergenerational fairness (25 November 2020)

CAGE Research Centre hosted an online event, chaired by Mirko Draca, CAGE Director, during which Andrew Oswald and Thijs Van Rens discussed the policy design for UK recovery from the pandemic, the ethics of locking down and the problem of intergenerational unfairness.

View the livestream video here or read the CAGE Working paper expanding on the discussion: Age-based policy in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic: How common are multigenerational households?

CAGE Research Day (30 November 2020)

CAGE Research Centre hosted an internal online webinar, chaired by Bishnupriya Gupta, CAGE Research Director, at which the following CAGE associates presented their work:

• Ludovica Gazze: Enforcement and Deterrence with Certain Detection: An Experiment in Water Conservation Policy
• Andreas Stegmann: Building Trust in the State with Information: Evidence from Urban Punjab
• Marta Santamaria: Detour Ahead: Land Market Frictions and Path Dependence in Transportation Networks
• Arun Advani: Scholarship on Race and Ethnicity in the Social Sciences
• Robby Akerlof: Narratives and the Economics of the Family

This led to some interesting discussions enjoyed by all.

Covid-19 Staff Support Survey

The University is keen to understand the challenges faced by colleagues across the University as we adapt to new ways of working due to the effects of Covid-19. Please ensure that you complete the questionnaire so that it can be identified where further support may be required.

The survey will take approximately five minutes to complete and is open until Sunday 13 December 2020.

Economics Book Club

The Economics book club meets every three-four weeks for a lively discussion around a book of choice. We have read all manner of books and make a collective decision on which book to choose. Our current book is ‘Mythos’ by Stephen Fry and we next meet on Thursday 7 January 2021. This is a wellbeing initiative which ensures that you take a break from emails/work related tasks whilst you read. All staff are welcome to join in. If you are interested, please contact Lisa Hayes – HR Officer L.Hayes.2@warwick.ac.uk and Lisa will ensure that you are included in the invitations.

Carers Leave

The University has introduced paid carer’s leave to help people to manage their working responsibilities with caring commitments. Please note that this does not apply for leave to look after children unless they have a long term illness. The University has a number of family friendly policies which are aimed at supporting parents with childcare responsibilities. Please click the link here for further information:

Active Bystander Introduction for all year groups

Sam Parr, Programme Manager for Community Values Education Programme has the following message about the Active Bystander Introduction workshop:

Thanks to your support we have been able to deliver the introductory workshop to first year undergraduates in 19 departments to date. Early feedback has been positive, with 85% of participants stating that they would recommend the workshop to a friend. We recognise that colleagues may find it helpful to experience the workshop; to have an opportunity to familiarise themselves with the content their students will have engaged with, and to identify follow-on opportunities for community values work within departments.

As such, we would like to invite any member of staff with an interest to a session on Thursday 17th December (11-12:30pm), in which colleagues can experience the workshop as it has been delivered to students, followed by an opportunity to ask questions and discuss.

Further information, and the registration form, can be found here.

Departmental HR Update

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Health and Wellbeing

In light of Government advice, remote working has been extended. This decreases the opportunities to connect with colleagues and can be isolating as we preserve the need for social distancing. Being mindful of your health and wellbeing is paramount during this time. Please raise any concerns that you may have relating to this area with your Line Manager or the HR Officer.

Online Resources

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Library Update - Helen Riley, Economics Librarian

The Library has obtained access to a number of Kortext electronic textbooks relevant to Economics - the details were released in batches, but now we can confirm that we have online access to:

• Carlin and Soskice, Macroeconomics
• Tadelis, Game theory
• Nechyba, Intermediate microeconomics
• Mas-Colell, Microeconomic theory
• Mankiw and Taylor, Economics, 4th ed.
• de Grauwe, Economics of monetary union
• Verbeek, Guide to modern econometrics
• Tooze, Crashed: how a decade of financial crises changed the world
• Field, Discovering statistics using R

There may be more new e-books which will help your students, so please check the Library catalogue and contact Heln (Helen.Riley@Warwick.ac.uk) if there are any problems. Access to these books is on a very expensive annual subscription basis, but they are in heavy demand at all times. The University and the Library want to improve textbook provision, so please give us your feedback!

IT Support - New Online Systems

Andrew Taylor has created a dedicated webpage on the staff intranet named ‘Working Remotely’, where he has documented the various tools we are using to collaborate with one another, i.e. Microsoft Teams and how to access your email and the H and M drives.

NOTE – this webpage is constantly being updated with new information so please revisit it if you have any questions.

Publications, Presentations & Workshops

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Andrew Oswald spoke at a panel run by Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation, on the topic of Economics and Lockdown 2.0.

Dennis Novy gave a talk at the University College London (UCL) Economics Conference on the future of international trade and Covid-19 on 28 November.

Dennis Novy gave a keynote presentation at the Inteco Workshop in Economic Integration (hosted by the University of Valencia) on November 27th and a seminar presentation at the University of Hull on December 10th. He presented research on "The Brexit Vote, Inflation and UK Living Standards"

Sascha O. Becker was elected as Executive Board Member of the Asian and Australasian Society of Labour Economics (AASLE), for a term running from December 2020 to December 2023.

Sascha O. Becker Becker presented his paper "Persecution and Escape" (joint with Volker Lindenthal, Sharun Mukand, and Fabian Waldinger) at Ridge Virtual Forum Workshop “Towards Sustainable Growth”, Montevideo/Uruguay, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, SoDa Labs Webinar, Melbourne, New Economic School, Moscow, Natural Experiments in History Workshop, Melbourne and Quantitative History Webinar, Hong Kong University.

Stefania Paredes Fuentes has the following updates:

• “Teaching during COVID19: Lessons for the future” presented at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador on 2/Dec 2020
• “Teaching during COVID19: Lessons for the future” as keynote for the Education Committee Lecture for the Spanish Economics Association Conference on Thursday 10 December 2020
• Stefania Paredes Fuentes and Cecilia Lanata Briones participated at the Panel Discussion on “How Should We Teach Economics?” organised by Rethinking Economics at Warwick on 3/Dec/2020

Arun Advani has the following updates:

• Presented “Importing Inequality" at UCL on 1 Dec 2020
• One of the speakers at the launch event of wealth tax commission - view the video.
• Publication of the Final report of Wealth Tax Commission
• Launched the Wealth Tax Commission Tax Simulator:taxsimulator.ukwealth.tax

Working Papers

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Samuel Kwabena Obeng's working paper ( with Christa N. Brunnschweiler ) ''Rewarding Allegiance: Political Alignment and Fiscal Outcomes in Local Government'' has been released as part of the Warwick Economics Research working paper series.

Thijs Van Rens & Andrew J. Oswald's working paper ' Age-Based Policy in the Context of the Covid-19 Pandemic : How Common are Multi Generational Households? ' has been released as part of the Warwick Economics Research working paper series.

Media Coverage

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'A wealth tax packs a powerful fiscal punch' - Arun Advani's research on Wealth Tax Commission mentioned - Financial Times - 10 December 2020.

'Taxing the rich: How a UK wealth tax could work' - Arun Advani's research on Wealth Tax Commission mentioned - Al Jazeera - 9 December 2020.

'Wealth tax too expensive and complex, MPs are warned' - Arun Advani's research mentioned - The Telegraph - 18 Novemberr 2020.

'Covid’s economic carnage also costs lives' - Andrew Oswald's research mentioned - The Telegraph - 28 November 2020.

'Spreading like wildfire: Luther’s network and the early Reformation' - Sascha O Becker authored with others - VOXEU - 27 November 2020.

Dates For Your Diary

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