Departmental news
Using photosynthesis for Martian occupation
Researchers are working on sustainable technology to harvest solar power in space – which could supplement life support systems on the Moon and Mars. Read associated Nature Communications articleLink opens in a new window.
Warwick Law School makes Top 10 in the Complete University Guide 2024
Warwick Law School has been ranked 9th in the UK in the latest Complete University Guide (CUG), climbing 1 place since last year and maintaining its position as a Top 10 Law School. This latest result is recognition of the hard work and dedication of all Law School staff to conducting cutting-edge research and delivering high quality education.
Economics ranked 4th in the Complete University Guide 2024
We are very pleased to announce that Warwick’s Department of Economics has retained its 4th position out of 130 UK institutions in the Complete University Guide 2024, published on 7 June 2023.
The annually compiled guide is based on several criteria, including entry standards, academic and research excellence, student satisfaction and graduate prospects. Like in the previous edition of the guide, we have been placed in the 4th position behind Cambridge, Oxford and the LSE overall, with particularly high scores for research quality (92%) and graduate prospects (93%).
Earlier this year Warwick Economics ranked 22nd in the world in the QS World University Rankings 2023Link opens in a new window for Economics and Econometrics.
This achievement follows on from a previous success of being ranked 1st in the Good University Guide 2023Link opens in a new window published in September 2022.
Commenting on the success, Professor Ben Lockwood, Head of Department of Economics said:
“I’m very pleased to see that the Department of Economics is consistently ranked highly in league tables. I strongly believe that this reflects all the hard work and dedication of staff and students of the Department to maintain such high standards of teaching and learning, as well research excellence.
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the staff and students of the Department for their contribution to this success.”
Related articles
Complete University Guide 2024 – Subject League Tables: EconomicsLink opens in a new window
Complete University Guide 2024 – Study Economics, why and how to studyLink opens in a new window
The University of Warwick ranked best in the West Midlands by Complete University GuideLink opens in a new window - press release 7 June 2023
£220m boost to Midlands economy through WMG support programme
WMG at the University of Warwick is celebrating the completion of a major funded programme this week which has helped to add £220m to the Midlands economy.
Over the last five years, WMG’s Digital Innovation for Manufacturing (DI4M) has helped create 660 jobs and digitise 370 businesses – supporting hundreds of small and medium sized manufacturers across the Midlands.
New products have been taken to market through the programme including a novel electric charging point that attaches to lampposts, ultra-high speed 3D printer, and a wall climbing robot to undertake important maintenance work on tall buildings.
DI4M has been a five year, £10m programme supporting SME manufacturers to implement digital innovation. Delivered across the six Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) areas of Coventry and Warwickshire, Greater Birmingham and Solihull, the Black Country, South East Midlands, Leicester and Leicestershire and Worcestershire, it has been led by the SME Group within Warwick Manufacturing Group, part of the University of Warwick. The programme was funded by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the WMG centre High Value Manufacturing Catapult.
Companies that have benefited include Jaltek Systems who were helped to set up a new factory layout using digital twin technology and who also accessed a funded internship to get two major production lines up and running.
Gordon Ellis & Co was also a recipient of the funded programme and they were able to implement sensors and data collection devices around the factory to boost productivity and reduce waste.
Although this project has reached its endpoint, WMG’s SME group are continuing to support manufacturing SMEs through the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, Made Smarter West Midlands and through new schemes such as its Net Zero Innovation Programme and Business Energy Advice Toolkit which helps businesses reduce energy and costs with low-cost technology solutions.
Dr Mark Swift, Director of SME Engagement said: “The DI4M programme has been an important anchor for Midlands SME businesses through a period of unprecedented challenge and disruption. The programme has been a constant effective enabler for introducing new ideas, new technology to boost productivity as well as acting as a springboard to Net Zero and business energy efficiency. The economic impact speaks for itself – adding £220m, or £22 for every £1 invested, to our region is something we are all immensely proud of. We now look forward to further successes from a range of new energy efficiency, digital and productivity programmes.”
Find out more about WMG here https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/wmg/
When fairness is not enough: Study reveals why individuals may need to contribute more than their ‘fair share’ to the common good
A behavioural experiment led by researchers from the University of Warwick and University College London has revealed how poorer people are willing to contribute disproportionately more to the common good than the rich - but what people judge to be a ‘fair’ contribution overall may not be enough to solve collective problems.
The researchers recruited 240 participants to take part in a collective action game to investigate how inequalities, and different causes of inequalities, impact people's behaviour in a situation where individual interests conflict with group goals. The game is known as the ‘collective-risk social dilemma’ and is designed to represent the dynamics of international climate change negotiations.
Participants were randomly assigned to groups of four made up of two ‘richer’ individuals who were each given £20 and two ‘poorer’ individuals who were given £10. Groups were assigned to one of three treatments: in the merit treatment, participants’ wealth was determined by their performance in a task; in the luck treatment it was determined by a lottery; and in the uncertain treatment it was determined by either merit or luck (participants did not know which).
Players then had to decide how much of their fund to contribute towards a group target of £30 in 10 successive rounds. If they achieved the target together and had £30 in the group pot by the end of the 10th round, they were each able to take home any money they had leftover. But if the group failed to achieve the target, players faced the prospect of losing their remaining funds.
The researchers observed that what people judged to be a fair contribution was not enough to meet the target: if they acted according to what they thought was fair, they would fail as a group. The level of an individual’s wealth also influenced what they judged to be a fair contribution towards the group target, but the cause of their wealth did not.
When it came to contributions within the game, poorer individuals consistently contributed a higher proportion of their wealth (40.4% on average) than richer participants (37.5% on average), which further increased inequality within groups – particularly successful ones. This was true across all three treatments, indicating that the poor contributed disproportionately more regardless of the cause of wealth.
The researchers highlight that the findings are relevant to many real-world societal challenges, where what is judged to be a fair contribution at an individual level may ultimately be insufficient to overcome the problem.
Professor Daniel Sgroi said: “Many of society’s most pressing challenges, from combating climate change to dealing with pandemics, are collective action problems: situations in which individual and collective interests conflict with each other.”
“For example, since the Paris Agreement countries have outlined national targets to contribute to the reduction of global emissions, but they fall far short of the estimated 45% reduction required to limit global warming to 1.5°C. Similarly, individuals may face a dilemma about whether to alter their own behaviours to reduce emissions – weighing up the benefits to the common good with factors such as convenience and cost. Understanding which factors influence people’s willingness to make contributions is vital for the design of policies that support the attainment of collective goals.”
Read the full paper
‘When Fairness is Not Enough: The Disproportionate Contributions of the Poor in a Collective Action Problem’, by Eugene Malthouse, Charlie Pilgrim, Thomas Hills, and Daniel Sgroi is forthcoming in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. It is currently available as an Institute of Labor Economics discussion paper.
The paper is the first in a series that now involves more than 70 researchers across 37 countries. The series aims to explore the effect of different types of inequality in collective action problems.
Daniel Sgroi is Professor of Economics at Warwick. View his staff profile.
Call For Papers - Forms and Feelings of Kinship in the Contemporary World
To participate as a speaker, please submit an abstract of 250-300 words for a fifteen-minute paper, along with a short bio (100 words max), to kinshipconference2024@gmail.com by 30th November 2023.
Please use this email address for any further question and see updates on our Twitter page: @kinshipconference2024.
Roberta Bivins and Mathew Thomson to give the Ben Pimlott Memorial Lecture 2023
Professor Roberta Bivins and Professor Mathew Thomson will present this year's Ben Pimlott Memorial Lecture 2023 on an NHS theme in July.
Anniversary Fever? History and the Culture of Celebrating the Age of the NHS will take place on Thursday 6th July 2023, 6pm-8.30pm BST at Anatomy Theatre & Museum, Strand London, WC2R 2LS
For tickets and more information, please visit the event page.
About the Ben Pimlott Memorial Lecture
The Ben Pimlott Lecture is hosted by Twentieth Century British History, OUP Journals and King's Contemporary British History. This lecture series was established in 2006 in honour of the late Ben Pimlott and in association with the Institute of Contemporary British History, with which Ben had close ties. Each lecture is published in the journal and is available free online.
Dennis Novy appointed to the new Economic Advisory Council of the British Chambers of Commerce
The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) is launching a new Economic Advisory Council (EAC) to build on its Quarterly Economic Survey and to develop policies to get the economy and business growing.
Dennis Novy, CAGE Impact Director and Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick, has been appointed as a member of the board.
The Council will bring together respected national and international economists and business leaders to provide expert advice and feedback to the BCC. Its work will be focused on supporting the BCC's long-standing and renowned programme of business research.
Shevaun Haviland, Director General of the BCC, said, 'We're a year out on a General Election and now is a pivotal moment for business. That is why we have set up an Economic Advisory Council to help shape and guide our economic policies to boost the UK's growth and prosperity.
'...I'm thrilled to have such a diverse range of prominent economic and business experts join us at the BCC. These people are national and global leaders in their fields and they will help guide and shape our economic priorities and focus into the future. Our aim is to fuse the practical acumen of entrepreneurs with the technical expertise of economists to help produce policy that will make a real difference to the UK's growth prospects.'
In response to his appointment, Dennis Novy said, 'I am delighted to be joining the Economic Advisory Council. The British Chambers of Commerce play a key role in helping businesses and their employees up and down the country to succeed in a challenging economic environment. These links also contribute to the public debate on economic policy.'
Membership of the EAC:
Vicky Pryce Former Head of Government Economics Service
Ben Allen Proposition Leader, Financial Sponsors and Executives, Coutts Bank
Steven Gray UK Export Finance Representative, West & Central Africa
Martin Shelford Start-up founder and business strategist
Adam Uszpolewicz Former CEO of Aviva Poland
Dame Teresa Graham Former Deputy Chair of the Better Regulation Commission, Chair of the Administrative Burdens Advisory Board (HMRC), Chair of the UK Finance SME Advisory Group
Professor Mairi Spowage Director, Fraser of Allander Institute
Professor Dennis Novy Professor of Economics, Warwick University
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine Post Doctoral Prize Awarded
Congratulations to Dr Menglin Xu who has been awarded the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine Post Doctoral Prize in Physics. Menglin was awarded this for their research on “First measurement of the Z→μ+μ− angular coefficients in the forward region of pp collisions at √s=13 TeV.
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine Post Doctoral Prize Awarded
Congratulations to Dr Dmitrii Kolotkov who has been awarded the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine Post Doctoral Prize in Physics. Dmitrii was awarded this for his work on 'Coronal seismology by slow waves in non-adiabatic conditions', doi: 10.3389/fspas.2022.1073664