Department News

PSS Training Day

All professional services staff (PSS) in the Economics Department will be engaged in a training day on Wednesday 24 March 2021, and will be unavailable to academic staff throughout the day except for emergencies. If you have an emergency and need to contact a member of PSS on the day, please contact either Robert or Kelly in the first instance, who will be able to ensure the relevant member of staff gets in touch with you as soon as possible.

Epidemic disease and real wages during the British Industrial Revolution

Nowadays, the conquest of epidemic disease through vaccination is unambiguously good news. But before the Industrial Revolution it would have been more of a mixed blessing; lower mortality rates threatened falls in real wages.

Read the full article by Nick Crafts.

Appointments and nomination

Congratulations to the following members of staff:

• Steffie Paredes Fuente has been appointed an Associate Fellow of WIE, the new Warwick Institute of Engagement.
• Caroline Elliott has been appointed a Fellow of the Warwick International Higher Education Academy (WIHEA).
• Lory Barile has been appointed an Associate at The Economics Network. Lory has also been nominated Discover Economics Champion at Warwick, this feeds into the Discover Economics Campaign led by the Royal Economic Society.

360 Lecture with Allie Renison

The Department of Economics is pleased to announce its second online guest lecture on 17th February, 6-7pm by Allie Renison, as part of the 360 Guest Lecture Series 2020/21 for this academic year.

Allie Renison is Head of EU and Trade Policy at the Institute of Directors (IoD) and leads on devising recommendations and representing the voice of members on EU policy matters both to Westminster and Whitehall and with European institutions.

This event is for staff and students only and registration is required in order to attend. We hope to see many of you there.

Warwick Economics Summit 2021 - Summary

The entirely student-led Warwick Economics Summit drew to a close last Sunday, after an exciting weekend of talks, seminars and workshops for students around the world. The event was held virtually for the first time, with free tickets to widen access to the field of economics and the social sciences as a whole. For its 20th anniversary, the Warwick Economics Summit featured talks from the likes of Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, Queen Rania of Jordan, David Davis, Former Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union and Antoinette Sayeh, Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund amongst 40+ speakers.

Seminars were held with the Summit’s partners and sponsors including the Bank of England, Bloomberg and Schroders Personal Wealth amongst others. The success of this Summit was the culmination of 60+ students’ effort. You can view posts during the event on the Summit's Facebook page.

Departmental HR Update

---

Health and Wellbeing

Good health and wellbeing is paramount for staff at all times, but more especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. The University offers a range of remote sessions dedicated to improving our wellbeing. We encourage as many of you as possible to explore any one of these opportunities. Click the link below for more information:

Online Resources

---

Library Update - Helen Riley, Economics Librarian

• Main Library study spaces are currently closed, but postgraduates can use the Postgraduate Hub and undergraduates can use the Learning Grid Rootes. Additional spaces have recently been made available in the Rootes Building and been advertised to students: https://studyspaces.warwick.ac.uk/
• Two accessible study rooms in the Library have been re-opened for students with disabilities - they should book a room in advance.
• Check the Library website for more service updates - "Click and Collect" book borrowing and the "Scan and Deliver" service are proving popular!
• The Eikon and Datastream PCs are available near the Library entrance, and they should be booked in advance. Students and staff can access them any day between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. and I am advertising this as widely as possible. Datastream has not yet been withdrawn - I am waiting for confirmation from my colleague in Acquisitions and I will update you as soon as possible. Eikon provides the same data as Datastream, and more on mergers and acquisitions. We hope to provide two Eikon PCs eventually.

Please contact Helen dot Riley at Warwick dot ac dot uk any time if you have any questions or Library issues.

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

---

Stefano Caria's paper (joint with Girum Abebe and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina) on "The Selection of Talent. Experimental and Structural Evidence from Ethiopia" was recently accepted at the AER.

Abstract

We study how search frictions in the labour market affect firms’ ability to recruit talented workers. In a field experiment in Ethiopia, we show that an employer can attract more talented applicants by offering a small monetary incentive for making a job application. Estimates from a structural model suggest that the intervention is effective because the cost of making a job application is large, and positively correlated with jobseeker ability. We provide evidence that this positive correlation is driven by dynamic selection. In a second experiment, we show that local recruiters underestimate the positive impacts of application incentives.

Mike Waterson provided oral evidence (remotely) to the House of Commons Transport Select Committee on the bus industry on Wednesday 10th February.

Andrew Oswald spoke at the Warwick Economics Summit on Saturday on the topic "Status-Seeking in Modern Society".

Bishnu Gupta took part in the 'The Legacy of Colonialism' Panel event at the Warwick Economics Summit. The panel consisted of Farish Ahmad Noor, Maria Fernanda Espinosa and Tsitsi Dangarembga.

Arun Advani has the following updates:

• Presented work on wealth tax at a public lecture to the Society of Trust and Estate Practicioners (193 ppl in attendence on webex presentation) on 8/2/21
• Recorded video on wealth tax with Centre for Study of Financial Innovation on 10/02/21
• Call with Osama Rahman (Chief Economist, Dept for Education) to discuss my work on diversity on 10/02/21
• Presentation at Oxford on wealth tax commission work with reference to his work on 11/2/21

Working Papers

---

Dan Bernhardt's working paper ( with Kostas Koufopoulos and Giulio Trigilia) 'Separating equilibria, under-pricing and security design' has been released as part of the Warwick Economics Research working paper series.

Dan Bernhardt's working paper ( with Kostas Koufopoulos and Giulio Trigilia) 'Profiting from the poor in competitive lending markets with adverse selection' has been released as part of the Warwick Economics Research working paper series.

Media Coverage

---

'Why have other high-income countries dropped wealth taxes' - Arun Advani's research mentioned - BBN Times - 02 February 2021.

'It's the economy, Cupid' - Arun Advani's interviewed - BBC Radio 5 live - Wake up to Money - 12 February 2021.

'Queen calls for global vaccine equity during virtual Warwick Economics Summit' - WES2021 mentioned - The Jordan Times - 6 February 2021.

'UK to avoid double dip despite £250bn hit to economy' - WES2021 mentioned - The Telegraph - 6 February 2021.

'EU vaccine debacle: Von der Leyen compares Covid rollout to Cold War space race' - WES2021 mentioned - The Express - 7 February 2021.

Dates For Your Diary

---