Department News

Study sheds light on how ethnicity, schooling and family background influence university success

Researchers from Warwick Economics have shed new light on how ethnicity, schooling and family background influence the likelihood of being awarded a first-class degree at university. Read the rest of the article hereLink opens in a new window.

Dennis Novy's paper has been accepted for publication in the Review of Economics and Statistics

Dennis Novy's paper on "Trade, Gravity and Aggregation"Link opens in a new window has been accepted for publication in the Review of Economics and Statistics (with Holger Breinlich and Joao Santos Silva). Abstract: "Gravity equations are an important tool in empirical international trade research. We study to what extent sector-level parameters can be recovered from aggregate gravity equations estimated via Poisson pseudo maximum likelihood. We show that in the leading case where trade cost regressors do not vary at the sector level, estimates obtained with aggregate data have a clear interpretation as a weighted average of sectoral elasticities. Otherwise the estimates are..." read more hereLink opens in a new window.

Federico Rossi's paper has been accepted for publication in the American Economic Review

Federico Rossi's paper (with Tommaso Porzio and Gabriella Santangelo) "The Human Side of Structural TransformationLink opens in a new window" was accepted this week for publication in the American Economic Review. Abstract: "We document that nearly half of the global decline in agricultural employment was driven by new cohorts entering the labor market. A new dataset of policy reforms supports an interpretation of these cohort effects as human capital. Using a model of frictional labor reallocation, we conclude that human capital growth led to a sharp decline in the agricultural labor supply..." read more hereLink opens in a new window.

Natalie Chen’s paper “Markups, quality, and trade costs” (with Luciana Juvenal) has been accepted for publication in the Journal of International Economics

This paper examines how trade costs induced by geographic distance or bilateral tariffs impact the markups of exports differentiated by quality. It relies on a data set that combines Argentinean firm-level wine exports with experts' wine ratings as a measure of quality. Exporters price discriminate across destinations by raising markups in more distant markets, and by lowering them in high-tariff countries. However, the response of markups to changes in trade costs is heterogeneous and weaker for higher quality exports. These empirical patterns can be predicted by trade models featuring demand functions more convex than log-concave, but less than superconvex. They demonstrate that the variation in firm-level export unit values across markets is not only driven by quality differences but also by markup variation conditional on quality.

Lory Barile is leading on the 'Warwick Sustainability Challenge'

The WIHEA ESD learning circleLink opens in a new window is delighted to launch the ‘Warwick Sustainability Challenge’. This is a project that has been developed in partnership with Economics, WMG, WBS, Warwick Enterprise, Estates, our Warwick Alumni, and Coventry City Council. The project will see staff and students across the whole University co-creating sustainable solutions to a particular challenge. Using a design thinking approach, the objective of this project is to provide a more holistic approach to sustainability in HE, linking the teaching and learning provision (Curriculum), to values and ways of working and studying on Campus, and the local Community by engaging with local people and partners (we are naming this ‘CCC approach’). You can find more information about the project hereLink opens in a new window. Join the Challenge. Help us to shape a more sustainable world where to live!

University Undergraduate Open Days 2022 – Save the Dates

The University have confirmed the dates for our upcoming Undergraduate Open Days which are expected to take place on-campus and online. We would kindly ask you to please save the below dates in your diary as we have called for PSS and Academic staff to support the events organised by the Department.

In-Person – No Social Distancing

• Saturday 18 June
• Saturday 25 June
• Saturday 8 October
• Saturday 22 October

Virtual Open Days

• Thursday 22 September
• Friday 23 September
• Saturday 24 September (if in demand)

Please let Charlotte Doughty (charlotte.doughty@warwick.ac.uk) know if you are available to support on these dates. Thank you in advance.

Walk with colleagues

Join us for a short 20 minute walk - Monday to Friday at 12.00pm. If you are in the Department and fancy a breath of fresh air during an early lunch break, come for a walk and a chat along the way. Be at Colin’s office (S2.130) by 12.00pm.

Departmental HR Update

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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.

Report and Support

Since its introduction, the University Report and Support scheme has been utilised by staff and students to report incidences of bullying/harassment, sexual misconduct, hate crime and discrimination. The University has analysed have produced the first Annual Report which shows that there has been significant use of the system by students and a smaller number of staff since the introduction of the scheme.

Conference Support Award

The University has reinstated the Conference Support Award Scheme. The Conference/Training Support Award scheme provides up to £200 to help cover the additional caring costs that individuals incur in order to attend a conference/training session or similar event. Details of the scheme and application form are available here. Applications should be forwarded to Sarah Duggan – Head of Administration, Business and Research in the first instance.

Should you have any queries regarding the scheme, please contact the departmental HR Officer.

Publications, Presentations & Workshops

On June 3, Andrew Oswald was a plenary speaker at an international 4-day wellbeing conference in Luxembourg organized by STATEC (the Luxembourg statistics agency).

Andrew Oswald gave a talk at the Warwick Economics PhD Conference on June 9.

Christian Soegaard attended the Oligo Workshop in Nicosia, Cyprus, and presented joint work with Robin Naylor “Sequential Coordinated Equilibria and Input Price Leadership in Bilateral Oligopoly”.

Dennis Novy has been appointed as an Associate Editor at the European Economic Review.

Arun Advani has been awarded a grant from ADR UK to link the LEO data to additional income and firm data sources.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung published an article (5 June 2022) about Sascha Becker and co-authors' work on forced migration in Poland after WWII.

Working Papers

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Gianna Boero's and Robin Naylor's working paper (with Brian Karanja and Tammy Thiele) Awarding gaps in higher education by ethnicity, schooling and familyLink opens in a new window has been released.

Sascha O Becker's working paper (with Steven Pfaff) Church and State in historical political economyLink opens in a new window has been released.

Mirko Draca's and Giulia Vattuone's working paper (with Emma Duchini, Roland Rathelot and Arthur Turrell) Revolution in Progress? The Rise of Remote Work in the UKLink opens in a new window has been released.

Zeynep O Kurter's working paper How macroeconomic conditions affect systemic risk in the short and longrun?Link opens in a new window has been released.

Media Coverage

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'UK admits it has no idea how much tax is being evaded through offshore assets'Link opens in a new window - Arun Advani quoted - Financial Times

'Putting people at the heart of policy'Link opens in a new window - Andrew Oswald quoted - Delano

'Remote workers are about 20% happier than their office-going peers'Link opens in a new window - Andrew Oswald's research mentioned - The HR Digest

'We smile at an unexpected windfall, and daydream all the harder when times are tough'Link opens in a new window - Andrew Oswald's research mentioned - The Guardian

Dates For Your Diary

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