Departmental news

We are Chemistry (WaC) is a student-staff partnership in Warwick Chemistry that empowers students as genuine partners in educational transformation, creating lasting change that extends far beyond the department. Read about their

Dr Ann Dixon shares her experience of the nurturing of talent in girls and women in stem for International Day of Women and Girls in Science. bit.ly/4hyVnIS

The EDITH trial (‘Early Detection using Information Technology in Health’) is backed by £11 million of government support via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). It is the latest example of how British scientists are transforming cancer care, building on the promising potential of cutting-edge innovations to tackle one of the UK’s biggest killers. Read the full news item here.

After four decades of dedicated service, Professor Wiji Arulampalam, a distinguished member of the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick, is retiring. Renowned for her ground-breaking research and being cited over 11,000 times, Wiji leaves behind a legacy that will resonate for years to come.

Joining the Department in 1984, Wiji has achieved numerous accolades, such as being named among the World's Top 2 percent Scientists by Stanford University, in 2020. Her work has helped shape the academic and practical understanding of economics for the next generation.

Professor Ben Lockwood, Head of Department, said:
"Wiji, thank you for everything you have done for the Department over the past forty years. As well as being an exceptional researcher and valued teacher, you have also given so much to us all over the years with your good humour and kindness. You will be greatly missed."

Wiji's retirement marks the end of a remarkable chapter in the Department’s history, but her legacy will endure through the many students and colleagues she inspired.

Please see our video dedicated to Wiji below:

The recent COP29 discussions in Baku have drawn attention once more to an underlying tension - climate campaigners tend to regard metals and minerals, as well as fossil fuels as negative influences on nature and the climate, while by contrast the many poorer economies richly endowed with such resources see them as vital to their prospects for future growth and greater prosperity.

A new book by Tony Addison and Alan Roe, both former members of the Department of Economics, shines new light on these debates by providing detailed, but critical analysis of the many opportunities which the global transition to net-zero offers to countries rich in those rare metals and minerals, and also natural gas which are essential to a low-carbon technological future.

In Resources Matter: Ending Poverty while Protecting Nature, the authors offer a range of ideas that address concerns around the dominance of fossil fuels and mining in developing countries, and propose strategies which could instead ensure much greater impact from these traditional industries as drivers of economic growth, transformation and poverty reduction.

“The problems that characterize the sector are not unsolvable, and much more can be done to improve the chances of inclusive development and to support the transition to net zero.”

The book is a follow-up to Extractive Industries: The Management of Resources as a Driver of Sustainable Development, published by Oxford University Press in 2018. This first book was an edited set of papers from over 30 authorities that covered all aspects of the role and management of metals, minerals, oil and gas in poorer economies. The new book provides fresh data and insights that connect the previous analysis to the policies needed to address the global climate crisis. It is underpinned by the anxiety that the annual COP discussions fail to adequately recognise the opportunities.

Both books draw on wide-ranging research carried out by the UNU World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER). The new book will once more be on open-access – a factor that enabled the first book to top Oxford’s Scholarship Online rankings of most accessed economics titles.

Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), comments:

“Their earlier seminal book was influential in UN decision making circles, including at the regional level, where a series of roundtables based on its outcomes and policy implications were conducted... I have no doubt that this new contribution to our knowledge will be as influential, as the world is moving fast towards the finishing line of the 2030 SDG Agenda,”

Discussing the book’s key findings, Alan Roe said:

“In climate debates, poorer countries are regarded predominantly as victims of global warming - and of course they are increasingly struggling with challenges including desertification, excess heat, and increased flooding. Hence solutions to their problems focus mainly on finding ever more eye watering sums of climate finance from richer economies. However, the debates neglect the fact that many of these countries also have substantial opportunities, based on their rich endowments of the metals crucial to the energy transition as well as natural gas, These debates need to change the way they think about the extractive industries."

Tony Addison added:

"Resources matter because ending poverty while protecting nature cannot be achieved unless the world invests in the resources necessary for the materials that underpin the transition to net zero.”

Addison and Roe make a strong case for many lower income countries being better supported by international agencies to enable them to exploit responsibly the opportunities for investment, greening and sustainable growth associated with their huge endowments of critical metals, minerals and natural gas.

If done properly, they argue, this would contribute to progress on several of the SDGs, reduce harmful emissions, improve rather than impair already stressed fiscal positions, and take the pressure off the search for the huge sums of global “climate finance” that are proving ever more difficult to raise.

• Resources Matter: Ending Poverty While Protecting Nature was published on 19 December 2024. If you would like to contact the authors, please write to economics.alumni@warwick.ac.uk and we'll forward your email to Alan and Tony.

LINKS:

• Addison A, Roe A. R. (2024) Resources matter: ending poverty while protecting nature , Oxford University Press. 2024
• Addison A, Roe A. R. (2018) Extractive Industries: The Management of Resources as a Driver of Sustainable Development (2018)
• Roe, A. R. (2024). Climate change and poorer economies: some reflections after COPs 27 and 28. Mineral Economics, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13563-024-00476-5

Dr Ludovica Gazze, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick, has been awarded a significant research grant by the Nuffield Foundation to investigate links between air quality and children’s welfare.

The “Clear Skies, Clear Minds” research project will investigate the impact of air pollution on children’s health and educational outcomes in England since the early 2000s.

Understanding the impact of pollution exposure on children’s wellbeing and academic performance is vital if children are to be supported in achieving their full potential.

Air pollution has severe implications for physical health and the brain. Children are at higher risk of ill-effects due to their smaller developing respiratory tracts, higher relative air intake, and greater amount of time spent outdoors.

Dr Gazze explains:

“Poor physical health resulting from air pollution can affect cognitive functioning and academic performance, which in turn may affect a child’s mental health.

“And poor mental health could in turn have repercussions for physical health, for example if children become less active, giving rise to a downward spiral.”

The Clear Skies, Clear Minds project aims to produce the first robust nationwide evidence on how changes in economic activity and transport networks affect children’s physical and mental health.

Using a variety of data sources, the team will show how social transformations such as the work-from-home revolution, budget air travel and the net-zero agenda are affecting the life chances of UK children.

The project team also includes Dr Lorenzo Neri from the University of St Andrews and Dr Titir Bhattacharya from the University of Warwick.

The team hope to produce implementable policy recommendations and a suite of resources to help parents, local authorities and government understand what actions they can take to mitigate the risks from exposure to pollution.

Commenting on the award, Dr Gazze said:

“We are really excited to receive support from Nuffield Foundation for this work.

“With this project, we aim to clearly demonstrate how the multi-faceted impacts of air pollution on children in England compound, resulting in poor physical and mental health, as well as worse education outcomes.

"Our goal is for this evidence to feed into policymaking that will ensure every child in the UK can develop to their full potential.”

Notes for Editors

• The Nuffield Foundation is an independent charitable trust with a mission to advance social well-being. It funds research that informs social policy, primarily in Education, Welfare and Justice. The Nuffield Foundation is the founder and co-funder of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, the Ada Lovelace Institute and the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory. Visit www.nuffieldfoundation.org @nuffieldfound
• For further information on the project, including the research aims and methodology, please visit Clear Skies, Clear Minds: Air quality and children's welfare - Nuffield Foundation
• Further details of Dr Gazze’s work is available here.

Professor Giovanni Ricco has been nominated to the Euro Area Business Cycle Dating Committee (EABCD). Founded in 2003, the committee works to map and date recessions in the euro area, providing important insights into the euro area business cycle.

The committee also provides authoritative comment in spring and autumn on the current state of economic activity in the euro area, and carries out research projects to better understand these issues.

Professor Ricco explains: “The committee is tasked with establishing the chronology of recessions and expansions in the euro area. We meet and look at data to understand what is happening to the economy.

“The equivalent for the US would be the NBER business cycle committee, while in the UK this work is done by NIESR.

“Our work is of interest both for policy-making and academic studies.”

Professor Ben Lockwood, Head of Department, said: “This is a great honour and a very exciting appointment for Giovanni. Warmest congratulations from us all in the Department.”

The Committee’s five members are chosen by the President of CEPR, the EADBC chair, and the chair and vice-chair of the Euro Area Business Cycle Network (EABCN) Scientific Committee.

• About Professor Ricco: Giovani Ricco is Professor of Economics at the Ecole Polytechnique and at the University of Warwick, a Chercheur Associa at OFCE-SciencesPo, and a CEPR Research Fellow. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the London Business School and a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Pisa. His main research interests lie in the fields of empirical macroeconomics and time-series econometrics.

We are delighted to announce that Sascha Becker, Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics, has been elected a Fellow of the Econometric Society.

Professor Becker becomes one of the 42 new Fellows from six regions of the world who have been recognised for their contribution to Economics. Since its foundation in 1930, the Econometric Society have appointed 1,187 fellows.

The Econometrics Society is an international society for the advancement of economic theory in its relation to statistics and mathematics. It publishes important economic journals: Econometrica, Quantitative Economics, Theoretical Economics as well as the Monograph Series. It also organises annual scientific meetings in six regions of the world and a World Congress once every five years.

Professor Sascha Becker commented about his achievement:

“I was super happy to receive the news about being elected Fellow of the Econometric Society. The co-founders of the Society, Josef Schumpeter and Ragnar Frisch, in their “Memorandum re the Econometric Society” wrote in 1931: “We are of the opinion that the list of fellows should be very restricted. As a rule, a fellow ought to unite in the same person both the economic, the statistical and the mathematical point of view. “

I am extremely grateful to have been deemed worthy of joining the ranks of such an amazing group of Fellows. Many of them inspired me on my journey as an economist, after having started my studies in mathematics and physics.”

Head of Department, Professor Ben Lockwood said:

“I was very pleased to hear of Sascha’s news and I congratulate him on this achievement. Sascha joins the other Fellows of the Econometric Society in the Department: Bhaskar Dutta, Roger Farmer, Peter Hammond, Motty Perry, Herakles Polemarchakis, Debraj Ray, Eric Renault and Ken Wallis. This means that with nine Fellows, we are in the fourth position in the UK (behind only LSE, Oxford and UCL) in the number of Fellows in Departments of Economics.”

We congratulate Professor Sascha Becker and wish him further successes in the future.

Professor Dennis Novy has delivered a lecture on Economic Security and Geoeconomics to an audience of 100 senior military officers as a guest of the Royal College of Defence Studies (RCDS).

RCDS was created in 1927 to help deliver Winston Churchill’s vision of promoting understanding between senior military officers, diplomats and the civil service.

Members of the armed forces and the civil service from the UK and overseas with the potential to reach the highest ranks are invited to attend RCDS and study political, diplomatic, security, social and economic issues at the strategic level.

Professor Novy delivered his lecture on 26 September, introducing the concepts of economic security and economic resilience and placing them in the context of the emerging field of geoeconomics.

He discussed Western sanctions against Russia following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and their impact on the Russian economy. He also discussed various "China decoupling scenarios" whereby trade barriers might be erected between China and the West at some point in the future due to rising political and military tensions.

Professor Novy also discussed the importance of global supply chains and the UK macroeconomic backdrop, presenting some of his work on the economic impact of Brexit.

The lecture was followed by Q and A and a discussion over lunch. Allied nations represented in the audience included the USA, Ukraine, Estonia, Israel, Norway and Japan.

Lieutenant General Sir George Norton, Commandant of the RCDS, formally thanked Professor Novy for his lecture.

Professor Novy said “It was a great pleasure meeting military officers at the Royal College of Defence Studies. Although they have expertise in different areas, military officers and academic economists have in common that they search for facts and evidence, and both are used to interacting with politicians when it comes to formulating policy.”

26 September 2024

Professor Sascha Becker has been elected to the leadership team of the Society for Institutional and Organisational Economics (SIOE) as Second Vice President.

He will become First Vice President next year, and anticipates taking on the role of President in 2027 when one of his responsibilities will be to host the SIOE Annual Conference at Warwick and give the Presidential Address.

Founded in 1997 as The International Society for New Institutional Economics, SIOE promotes interdisciplinary study of the institutions of social, political and commercial life, aiming to integrate an economic perspective with strategic management, political science, law, and history.

As well as the annual conference, SIOE awards several prizes for outstanding contributions to the field at different career stages.

The Society was co-founded by three Nobel Laureates in Economics - Oliver Williamson, Ronald Coase, and Douglass North. It prides itself on its international outlook and membership.

Commenting on his election, Professor Becker said: “I am delighted that the members of SIOE elected me into the leadership team of SIOE. It will be an honour to host SIOE at Warwick in 2027.”

• SIOE website: https://www.sioe.org/