Department of Economics hosts the fifth annual Warwick Economics PhD Conference

This year we hosted the fifth annual Warwick Economics PhD Conference on 26-27 April 2017. The event was organised by PhD students with the help of the Events Team and with financial support from the Department.

The two-month application process started in the beginning of December 2016, and yielded approximately 230 applications from top institutions in the United States, Europe and Asia. This impressive level of interest provided a challenging task for the selection committee, consisting of Warwick PhD students and faculty. In the end, the 230 applications were narrowed down to a mere 12 invitations to present and 6 poster session slots, with selections made on the basis of novelty and methodological rigour.

The final set of delegates consisted of PhD students from leading institutions of economics research in the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel and Europe (including Brown, Columbia, Princeton, Yale, London School of Economics, Oxford, Warwick, Hebrew University, Paris School of Economics and Pompeu Fabra).

Topics came from a wide range of fields and covered issues such as identity and discrimination, manufacturing sector wages and trade costs, optimal information acquisition, the effect of commercial television on voter behaviour, and many others. Presenters received feedback from PhD students and faculty in the Department and all talks were followed by extensive discussions.

On the social side, lunch and dinner events gave plenty of opportunities for networking among researchers and contributed to the relaxed atmosphere of the conference.

Feedback received from delegates suggests that the event was successful in its objective of providing a forum for constructive comments on ongoing research and for learning about projects pursued by peers in other academic institutions. Moreover, it gave an opportunity for Warwick students to informally discuss their own work and to promote the Department’s PhD programme to students in similar programmes across the globe.

More information on the participants and their projects can be found here.