Departmental news

We are pleased to announce that two members of the Department of Economics have been honoured for their teaching with the Warwick Awards for Teaching Excellence (WATE).

The Awards celebrate exceptional educators in the Warwick teaching community.

The Faculty Awards highlight the significance of understanding disciplinary contexts in achieving educational excellence. In recognition of the role of collaboration in fostering educational communities, WATE introduced the Collaborative Award in 2021 and the Community & Culture Award in 2022.

Additionally, the Award for Postgraduates who Teach, honours Graduate Teaching Assistants for their valuable contributions to student learning and the academic community. Read more about the award categories.

Dr Arthur Galichere received the Social Sciences Faculty Award and Shantanu Chadha was acclaimed with the Postgrads who teach award.

Find out what Arthur and Shantanu said about being honoured in their respective categories:

Dr Arthur Galichere

“I am still very surprised to receive this award, especially as an early career academic. I feel deeply honoured and sincerely grateful to my students for their nomination and for the warm feedback I have received since joining Warwick. It is truly rewarding to know that my teaching has had a meaningful impact on their learning experience.

I am also thankful to the WATE jury for this recognition, and to my colleagues, whose support and inspiration have meant a great deal. I do not think this would have been possible without them.”

Dr Arthur Galichere is a Assistant Professor (Teaching Focussed) within the Department of Economics. View his staff profile.

 

Shantanu Chadha

“My research lies at the intersection of microeconomics and econometrics, with a focus on modelling the role of social and economic networks in shaping behaviour and policy outcomes. Alongside my focus on research, I also teach small-group seminar classes as a Senior Graduate Teaching Assistant. Teaching has always been deeply meaningful to me and is one of the key reasons behind my decision to pursue a PhD.

Just being nominated for the Warwick Awards for Teaching Excellence (WATE) was a surreal feeling and provided immense satisfaction for all the hard-work I try and put in to ensure that my students not only learn but do so in a fun, inclusive and safe environment, and winning the award was just the cherry on top.

This award reaffirms my commitment to creating inclusive, student-centred learning environments where students not only thrive academically but are also empowered to think critically and apply their knowledge to real-world challenges. It is an honour I carry with immense pride and responsibility, and I am deeply grateful to the department, my module lecturers, and—most importantly—my students for recognising my efforts and helping me grow as a tutor.”

Shantanu Chadha is a PhD student and a Senior Graduate Teaching Assistant within the Department of Economics. View his staff profile.

 

Dr Samuel Obeng travelled to Covenant University, Nigeria, last month as an invited panellist for the Covenant University Centre for Economic Policy and Development Research (CEPDeR) 2025 National Budget Roundtable Conference.

Dr Obeng was accompanied by Professor Franklyn Lisk, Warwick University Co-Academic Director for Africa. The Warwick Africa Hub co-organised the conference, which is held annually as a forum for stakeholders to discuss the role of national budgeting in socio-economic development.

The 2025 National Budget Roundtable and Panel Discussion addressed the theme of “National Budgeting as a critical tool for reducing poverty and Inequalities in the era of energy transitions.”

Attendees in-person and online included students, faculty, and policymakers within and outside Africa, including Nigeria’s Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, who delivered the keynote address.

Professor Lisk and Dr. Obeng both spoke at the conference. In his remarks, Dr Obeng argued that the national budget provided a twin opportunity to deal with poverty and inequality through energy transitions. He suggested that a bottom-up incentive model where States that hit energy or poverty reduction targets receive increased funding should be considered.

During the visit Dr. Obeng was inducted as Senior Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy and Development Research (CEPDeR), Covenant University, Nigeria.

Other highlights of the visit included a meeting with Covenant’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Timothy Anake, and executives of Covenant University to discuss areas of possible collaboration, and a meeting with Professor (Mrs.) Augustina Oluwatotin Matthew, Head of the Department of Economics.

Reflecting on the visit, Dr Obeng said: “It was a truly exciting experience to be part of the policy-making conversations in Nigeria. I was especially encouraged when the Federal Minister highlighted my suggestions as valuable and even noted that some current government actions are already in line with them. I’m really looking forward to more opportunities to collaborate in my new role as Senior Research Fellow at CEPDeR.”

External reports:

· FG Targets Five Million Nigerians To Access Solar, Wind, Hydro, Coal-based Energy Systems – Independent Newspaper Nigeria

· University of Warwick Seeks Deeper Collaboration with Covenant University

· DIaDeRC-ASMN at Covenant Varsity’s CEPDeR NBR 2025 - DIaDerc

· CEPDeR’s National Budget Roundtable & Panel Discussion (NBR2025): – Center for Economic Policy and Development Research

Professor Roger Farmer, Emeritus Professor Michael Waterson and former Dean of Warwick in London Professor Abhinay Muthoo are among the 58 Founding Fellows announced by the Royal Economic Society this week.

The Fellowship is a new initiative from the Royal Economic Society and recognises economists who have made a significant contribution to the discipline and to society beyond academia, in the judgement of an expert panel. The new Fellows are entitled to use FREcon as a postnomial.

Warwick Economics works closely with RES on several initiatives, including the hosting of their flagship event - RES annual conference at Warwick in 2019. Many of our academics, alumni and current students of the Department engage in the work of RES networks like UK Women in Economics Network, Diversity & Inclusion Network and Discover Economics campaign.

Roger Farmer is Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick, Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Economics at UCLA and a Visiting Scholar at the University of Virginia. His research examines the connection between market psychology and macroeconomics, and the implications for fiscal policy. He said:

“I am honoured to be nominated as a Founding Fellow of the Royal Economic Society and I look forward to contributing to the success of the organization in the years to come.”

Mike Waterson is Emeritus Professor of Economics at Warwick and was Head of Department of Economics at Warwick between 1999 and 2002. He retired from academia in 2020 but maintains close links with the Department through his involvement with the CAGE research centre. Mike commented:

“I am very pleased to be included in the group of founding fellows of the RES. I have always believed that economics should be applied for the good of society and I have been engaged, over the years, in many diverse policy activities alongside my academic career, particularly in the competition sphere.”

Abhinay Muthoo was Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick until 2022 and Head of the Department of Economics between 2008 and 2016. During his time as Head of Department, CAGE Research Centre was established and the Department affirmed its reputation for research quality in the Research Excellence Framework 2014.

Head of Department Professor Jeremy Smith said:

“Many congratulations to Roger, Mike and Abhinay. It is an indication of the standing of the Department that the RES awards fellowships to 3 individuals who are closely tied to the Department. We look forward to building upon our existing relationship with the RES.”

RES President Prof Sir Chris Pissarides, who chaired the judging panel, said:

“The panel was impressed by the depth and breadth of the applications it considered, with representation from academia, the public and private sectors and those working in schools. Through their applications our new Fellows demonstrated the impact they have made not just in their roles, but to the wider economics profession. We congratulate them and look forward to working with them to advance the RES vision: that economics be understood, advanced and applied for the good of society and the world around us.”

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:

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 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/

Tax expert Dr Arun Advani’s ambitious research agenda has been backed by the UK’s national research funding body with the award of a prestigious Future Leaders Fellowship.

Founded in 2018, the FLF scheme aims to provide long-term support to talented researchers investigating complex problems with funding, career development and skills training. Around 500 fellows have been appointed since the scheme began.

Dr Advani will become the University of Warwick’s third Future Leaders Fellow and the first from the Faculty of Social Science.

The award will support new research from Dr Advani into the use of trusts and other ‘split ownership’ structures by the wealthy, the impact of such schemes on inequality, and whether the taxation and regulation of trusts should be reformed.

Dr Advani is widely recognised as an expert on the complex and arcane UK tax system. The award will enable him to bring his skills to bear on this under-researched topic, which is also a feature of wealth management in the USA and in Commonwealth countries.

He explains: “Trusts are a key tool in wealth management and tax planning. While they can offer benefits such as protection for minors or others who are unable to manage their own finances, they can also be exploited as a means of concealing the true ownership of assets and a way of evading tax. They also make it difficult to accurately assess wealth inequality, a key issue for the new UK Government.

“We found with our work on non-doms that a major barrier to reform is the lack of real, robust data. Without quantitative evidence it is difficult for policymakers to model the outcome of reforms.

“This project will close the evidence gap in the area of trusts and work up practical, implementable reforms.”

Congratulating Dr Advani on his Fellowship, Head of Department Professor Ben Lockwood said: “Arun is committed to using his research to achieve real-world change. He has been at the forefront of research into UK tax issues for the best part of a decade and has developed an outstanding reputation as analyst and commentator on tax and equality issues.

“This Fellowship award will allow him to lead an entirely new area of study in the understanding of inequality and tax policy, and establish the UK as the global hub of wealth trust research.”

18 July 2024

We congratulate Dr Lory Barile for being part of the winning Designing Together Team who have been recognised for excellence in running a collaborative project which brought together staff and students with expertise in design thinking from across the Higher Education sector to reimagine student roles in academic development.

The winning team consisted of staff and students with expertise in design thinking from across Warwick: Dr Lory Barile (Economics), Dr Bo Kelestyn (WBS), Jess Humphreys (Deputy Director of Warwick International Higher Education Academy), and two former students of Warwick: Inca Hide-Wright (BSc Psychology and MASc Community, Engagement and Belonging) and Nikita Asnani (BSc Economics and MSc Humanitarian Engineering with Sustainability).

In recent Masterclass Designing Together, the team described design thinking as 'a human-centred framework for understanding challenges, generating creative ideas, and developing solutions collaboratively' which forms 'a crucial capability for modern university leadership to embrace new possibilities for enhancing the student experience.'

Working collaboratively with HE colleagues from across the UK and beyond (Service Design in Higher Education Network, University of Lancaster, University of Leeds and University of Hull in the UK, as well as Helsinki Metropolitan University of Applied Sciences), the winning team developed a programme of events including coaching meetings, asynchronous resources and a symposium.

Student voice was key to the success of the project, and the student project officers were instrumental in engaging with the wider group of project participants through a series of focus groups (called facilitated conversations). The key outcomes of the project were:

• Developing resources form the meetings and the symposium.
• Setting up a community of practice on LinkedIn - Designing Together
• A podcast series created by the student officers - Designing Together Diaries
• A deck of cards as a resource to stimulate discussion, ideas and reflections on the design thinking process.

The Collaborative Awards category of the Warwick Awards for Teaching Excellence (WATE) aims to highlight the work of teams and groups of people who create teaching excellence and have a positive impact on student learning and the learning experience, and whose approach to collaborative working as well as their practices, behaviours and values are excellent. The winning Designing Together team were judged the top team in this category based on two criteria: excellence in the team's collaborative approach and excellence in the impact of their collaborative working.

Asked about the award, Dr Lory Barile commented:

"We're very proud of our work and extremely pleased that our project has been recognised by the WATE judges. What I find most valuable about our work is that the project has created a sustainable community of practice and started a series of collaborations between its participants. Together, we were able to critically evaluate design thinking approaches in relation to the learner experience and to highlight the benefits of collaboration within the community of practice. It has also given us a chance to achieve impact beyond Warwick."

We congratulate Dr Lory Barile and her colleagues from the Designing Together Team, and wish then further successes in the future.

Related content

The podcast Designing Together Diaries can be accessed via Spotify via this link

The Designing Together Group can be accessed via LinkedIn Group 

WATE Awards Winners 2024

Professor Caroline Elliott has taken up a prestigious role on the UK’s Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC), an independent body of experts which assesses the quality of evidence and analysis used to inform government regulatory proposals.

Since taking up her appointment in March she has already provided expert review on a range of policy issues including multiple drafts of a white paper, an impact assessment for proposed secondary legislation, and two post-implementation reviews.

Looking towards the future, Caroline said: “I hope that I’ll be able to make a difference by using my applied research knowledge and my academic skills on the impact assessments. We’re also going to start looking at policy options assessments and I’m excited to bring my knowledge to bear on the independent reviews.”

Caroline is continuing a tradition of Warwick economists contributing to the work of the committee – the position became vacant when Dr Jonathan Cave’s term of appointment came to an end. He is delighted that, after a rigorous selection process, the Committee chose to appoint another “proper card-carrying academic economist.”

Caroline said: “Jonathan sent me the advertisement for the role, and when I looked into the work of the committee, I thought it looked amazing. I teach industrial economics, regulation and competition policy and I always try and link my teaching to the real world - I never want to be criticised as being an ivory tower academic. Here was an opportunity to put my work into practice – to not just comment on the work of others, or the work of the government, but to be directly involved.

“As an economist, and as an academic economist, I believe there are two things I bring to the role. The first is my familiarity with academic literature and evidence. The second way in which I feel I’m contributing comes back to my academic training. As an academic, as an applied economist, you’re always looking for data. Sometimes you’re having to pull data together from different sources. And because I come from this background I can assist with this.”

Jonathan is delighted that Caroline has been appointed as his successor. “I think because I kept citing peer-reviewed literature in my Opinions and other interventions, trying to ensure that regulatory analysis made appropriate use of economic empirical methodologies and theoretical tools, including the use of real options analysis - I think they saw the value of having a replacement who is similarly positioned.”

Asked if he had any advice for Caroline, Jonathan said: “Don’t be afraid to challenge people and to be the voice within the committee resisting calls to compromise when that isn’t appropriate, by ensuring that the impacts of whatever regulations ministers wish to propose are rigorously assessed against real problems, but without being drawn into comments about whether the policies themselves are ‘right’ or ‘wrong’.

“I’d encourage her to be very actively engaged with the new government in a partnership based on a culture of evaluation and analysis and a mechanism design view of regulations and the regulatory process of which the RPC is a part. She should strive to remain committed to the concept and values of better regulation and work hard to make those concepts her own – in the committee, in her academic research and teaching and in leaving her mark on the better regulation framework itself.

“If you see how policies are made you can build better regulatory economics models. Regulation is not a matter of feeding a problem into a machine, turning a crank on a machine and ‘solving’ the problem – politics intervenes, economics intervenes, delays intervene, and the things you should be looking for are not always where they should be. For instance, we spent a lot of time worrying about how – or whether – to scrutinise the impacts when government threatens to regulate, business behaviour changes in anticipation and the regulation is abandoned. I think Caroline will find this useful in her academic work, and her teaching.”

Jonathan says that his decade as an RPC member was “fascinating” and saw many changes and developments. He worked hard to encourage the committee to avoid compromising or watering down its opinions for spurious reasons, arguing against “voices that felt we should temporise or give green ratings to things that did not merit them, for the fear that the political cost of refusing would be too high.” Rather than asking if each contested Bill was ‘the right hill to die on’, he tried to sit down with departments to negotiate where possible, and to publish Red opinions where important analytic principles or impacts were not properly acknowledged.

He also became adept at navigating changing political priorities: “I think the biggest lesson I had to learn along the way was how to sail in the direction of better regulation by tacking across a wind blowing from the deregulatory quarter.”

Jonathan also argued strongly for the committee to be allowed to give its opinions at an earlier stage in the policy process: “A few years ago, we only got to look at things when the bills were laid before Parliament, by which time all the decisions had been made. We commented, many times, on impact assessments that were more ex-post rationalisation than a formative influence on the creation of policy – which led to the most tendentious type of data-mining and the temptation to rely on ‘policy-driven evidence.’ Now the RPC is looking at things much earlier in the process, at the options assessment stage.”

In Jonathan’s experience, this particular challenge is not unique to the UK. He said: “I’m very pleased and proud about our international engagement with RegWatch Europe (a network of similar EU scrutiny bodies) our OECD counterpart and OIRA in the United States. I’ve worked closely with them over the years to share best practice and identify common problems, and there has been lot of progress made on this challenge of ex-ante assessment.

“Another challenge is the need to look back and evaluate regulations to see if they have done what they set out to do. I’ve had a long struggle to champion “post-implementation review” and I think we’ve made good progress. The UK is regarded as setting the world standard in this and we’ve been trying to maintain that. That’s been a really good thing.”

ENDS