Department News

Economics Observatory piece on tax rises and public spending cuts

Professor Roger Farmer writes for the Economics Observatory on should the government be planning tax rises and public spending cuts in the wake of Covid-19? A big rise in government borrowing has been an essential policy response to the health and economic effects of Covid-19. History indicates the importance of supporting the economic recovery rather than worrying about what is a temporary shock to the public finances.

Read the full article here.

Increasing Ethnic and Gender Diversity in Economics

A recent report co-authored by Dr Arun Advani and Co-chair of the national campaign Discover Economics, has highlighted the need for action to increase levels of diversity of academic economists in the UK, an issue which the Department is committed to addressing.

Read the news release here.

Covid 19 Staff Support Survey

You will be invited to take part in the second Covid-19 staff support survey via People Insite this week. With the introduction of the second lockdown, all staff are continuing to face change and uncertainty. Please complete the second survey so we can build on the learnings of the first and continue to find out more about how Covid-19 is affecting you, your colleagues and your working lives. It is important that we understand the ongoing impact of Covid-19 on our workforce, the issues and challenges being encountered and where support is required. The survey will remain live until 13/12/2020.

Further information can be found here.

New Starters

A very warm welcome to the following two new members of staff who have recently joined the Department:

Samuel Obeng – Teaching Fellow, Samuel joins us from the University of East Anglia

Maxine Haddleton – Communications Officer (Research Impact) and joins us from the Physics Department.

Maxine will cover Communication Manager Claire Gerard’s maternity leave. We are delighted to announce that Claire Gerard gave birth to a baby girl, Freya Ivy Emery-Gerard on 24 November. Freya weighed 6.1 lb, both Mother and baby are doing well:

Report and Support Scheme

The University's Report and Support' scheme is in operation and can be accessed by clicking on the link below. The scheme is open to all staff and students who may wish to report incidents of hate crime, sexual misconduct, discrimination and bullying and harassment.

There are two ways to report incidents either anonymously or you can ask to speak to an Advisor.

Academic Promotions

The University have issued the following guidance in relation to academic promotions in regard to the global pandemic. Please click on the link for further information.

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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Daniel Sgroi presented "Self-awareness and dishonesty” at the Leicester Business School virtual seminar series on 18th November.

Arun Advani has the following updates:

• Presented wealth tax modelling research to HMRC on 16/11
• Presented capital gains tax research to Labour shadow treasury team [for impact capture: key contact - Spencer Thompson, head of research for shadow chancellor) on 17/11
• Appeared at Treasury Select Committee "Tax after COVID" inquiry on 18/11
• Presented draft of final report of WTC to HMRC and Treasury on 19/11
• Delivered a presentation to Home Office of migration research (key contact Chistophe Lynch, Thomas Fischer) on 25/11
• Delivered a presentation to HMRC Valuation Office of valuation parts of final report of WTC on 25/11

Working Papers

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

Thiemo Fetzer's working paper ( with Thomas Graeber) 'Does Contact Tracing Work? Quasi-Experimental Evidence from an Excel Error in England ' has been released as part of the Warwick Economics Research working paper series.

Media Coverage

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'UK's restaurant scheme increased COVID-19 infections, study finds ' - Thiemo Fetzer's study mentioned - CGTN - 13 November 2020.

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

'Wealth tax risks worsening defective CGT system' - Arun Advani's research mentioned - Financial Time - 20 Novemberr 2020.

'Could a UK wealth tax work? MPs question experts' - Arun Advani quoted - Chartered Institute of Taxation - 25 November 2020.

Dates For Your Diary

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