We are delighted to announce that for the second year Warwick’s Department of Economics has been ranked 25th in the 2021 edition of the QS World University Ranking for Economics and Econometrics, published on 3 March 2021.

We have been placed in the top 5 of the UK based Universities after LSE, Oxford, Cambridge and UCL. The rankings, compiled by global higher education analysts QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) examined over 14,000 individual university programmes, taken by students at 1,452 universities across the world.

Commenting on the news, Professor Jeremy Smith, Head of Department of Economics, said:

“I am very pleased to hear the news which shows that the Department has been consistently achieving high rankings in subject league tables. This is a great achievement for us all as it recognises the hard work, passion and dedication of our staff and students. I would like to thank them all for their contribution to this collective success.

I would also like to add that, despite a very challenging year, we have been able to adapt successfully to a blended approach to teaching and learning. We will be continuing to develop strengths in research and teaching, attracting high calibre students and staff to the Department.”

Useful links:

• QS World University Rankings for Economics and Econometrics, published 2021.
• 2021 QS World University Rankings ranks University of Warwick in world’s top 100 for 16 subjects.
• About the Department of Economics, University of Warwick
  • Find out more about Our Reputation
  • Learn about Our Community Values
  • Study with us
  • Work with us

We caught up with Aneesah Sarwar (BSc Economics, 2019), who currently works as a graduate analyst at Barclays UK. We heard that Aneesah had started, with five other graduates, a new podcast and we wanted to ask her a few questions about this enterprise and about her life and work since graduating.

Can you tell us what you have been up to since graduating from Warwick?

I graduated from Warwick in 2019 with a BSc degree in economics. After completing an internship at Barclays at the end of my second year, I was offered a place on their graduate programme and have been working there ever since graduating. Whilst at Barclays I took part in a social intrapreneurship challenge which was all about being an entrepreneur within a large organisation to tackle a social problem in a way that benefits the consumer, the company and society at large. Through this challenge, I met five other recent graduates that were also passionate about solving the problem identified by The Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship. One in three entrepreneurs in the UK are female, which represents £250 billion of new value that could be added to the UK economy if women started and scaled new businesses at the same rate as men. The review has identified ways of unlocking this untapped talent and the team and I took it upon ourselves to help close this gap and in doing so, the podcast and online community Her Own Boss was born.

How is Her Own Boss helping young professional women?

In order to bridge the early careers confidence gap, Her Own Boss is a podcast and online community designed to help young women find their inner entrepreneur, by exposing them to inspirational role models and providing practical advice for personal and professional development. The episodes explore the stories and experiences of female entrepreneurs from a wide range of industries, covering aspects of entrepreneurship like side hustles, venture capital and start-ups. Listeners can also hear useful tips and tricks in the minisodes where the expert mentors share advice in a bite-sized format. You can listen to the podcast on Anchor, Spotify and Apple Podcasts and all other major podcast platforms. Be sure to subscribe and follow Her Own Boss on Instagram and LinkedIn to hear the latest episodes as soon as they come out.

Explain to us the process of creating and publishing new episodes?

As the team’s Content Lead, I plan the main episodes and minisodes for the podcast. One of my key roles is researching different topics and industries and putting together the plans for each episode to ensure we have a wide variety of content across each season. In order to add value to our audience, it’s important for me to understand listeners’ interests and habits, as well as the early-careers and entrepreneurship space. This helps me identify topics and potential guests that would be perfect for the podcast. Then it’s all about reaching out and inviting people onto the podcast, followed by engaging in content discussions with them. As a team, we then record, edit and distribute the episodes across all our channels for our listeners to enjoy.

What are your favourite episodes?

It’s incredibly hard to choose my favourite episodes because I enjoy every single one. However, one of my favourites is definitely ‘Feminism, fast fashion & sustainable entrepreneurship with Josephine Philips’, which covered the green agenda and environmental sustainability – a topic I’m personally very interested in and passionate about. Having recently graduated university, Josephine has recently launched her green start-up and explained how the fast fashion industry impacts sustainability, feminism and human rights, as well as discussing her own journey to make both her business and personal life more sustainable. I personally love hearing from all the amazing women like Josephine that join the podcast; it leaves me feeling inspired and ready to grasp every opportunity life throws my way. Other episodes have covered entrepreneurship within academia, women in gaming and STEM. These are such interesting industries that I might not otherwise have exposure to, so I find it fascinating to learn more about them by listening to the guests’ experiences and insights.

What have you learnt personally?

I’ve personally found the minisodes so useful for my development. In particular, Vanessa Vallely OBE, founder and CEO of WeAreTheCity, joined us for an episode on how to kickstart your network, which highlighted how to identify who you need to network with, how to approach them and how to keep those relationships thriving. I started using her tips in my professional career and I can see the difference it’s making already! The minisodes have also covered topics like how to overcome imposter syndrome, how to present yourself with confidence, how to create your own career path and much more. Our feedback has shown that our minisodes are not only useful for both students and recent graduates, but also for people wanting to develop in their careers.

How did your experiences at Warwick help you in your career?

Whilst at Warwick I was involved in the Warwick Economics Summit and joined the team in my very first month of starting at Warwick. From starting as a Social Events team member to then leading the Social Events team as a Coordinator in the exec team, I then decided to step it up a notch and take on the role as overall Summit Coordinator. It was a vast amount of responsibility and commitment that challenged me to develop skills such as strategic thinking, communication, time management and leadership, all of which are vital skills in the workplace and beyond. The experience meant that I had both the confidence and ability to seek out and successfully take on additional responsibilities on my graduate programme, which is allowing me to develop further professionally and excel in my career.

What advice would you share with current students and early career professionals?

Focus on yourself and your own goals. You may feel the pressure to conform to what everyone around you is doing but remember that everyone is unique and can create their own path so don’t worry too much about what other people are doing, whether it’s related to studying, societies, socialising or careers. Figure out what works for you and what you want in life and just focus on that.

Her Own Boss - Selection of Episodes and Minisodes

• How to set goals with Niamh Crawford-Walker, 21 December 2020 – Listen now.
• How to succeed in job interviews with Sophie Miller, 14 December 2020 – Listen now.
• How to build your personal brand with Mary Agbesanwa, 30 November 2020 - Listen now.
• Women in gaming: representing the other 50% with Jay & Poornima, 13 November 2020 - Listen now.
• How to overcome imposter syndrome with Sonya Barlow, 9 November 2020 - Listen now.
• How to speak up against micro-aggressions with Hannah Awonuga, 19 October - Listen now.
• How to kickstart your network with Vanessa Vallely OBE, 11 September 2020 - Listen now
• Finding confidence throughout your career with Kate Bache, 3 July 2020 - Listen now.

If you would like to take part in the podcasts, please contact Aneesah via her LinkedIn profile or the Her Own Boss Instagram page.

About Aneesah Sarwar

Aneesah Sarwar is a graduate analyst at Barclays UK. During her time at Warwick, Aneesah volunteered as a WES Summit Coordinator and helped to organise their 18th edition of the Warwick Economics Summit. Aneesah studied BSc Economics between 2016-2019.

A recent report co-authored by Dr Arun Advani, Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics, University of Warwick and Co-chair of the national campaign Discover Economics, has highlighted the need for action to increase levels of diversity of academic economists in the UK, an issue which the Department is committed to addressing.

The report was the outcome of a collaborative project between several organisations: The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), Royal Economic Society (RES), Centre for Competitive Advantage (CAGE) based at Warwick and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

It finds that 24 per cent of academic economists conducting research are from BAME backgrounds and this proportion is increasing with time. However, there are large differences in representation across ethnic groups, with Chinese and Indian ethnicity overrepresented and Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Black individuals significantly under-represented.

The report also finds that diversity is uneven across the HE sector, with Black economists 64 per cent less likely to work in Russell Group institutions than White economists. Ethnic minority economists are also less likely to hold senior academic or managerial positions than their white peers.

Will things be better for the next generation? The study reports good representation of BAME students among undergraduate students (37 per cent in 2018) studying economics. The issue of concern that emerges here is that of gender representation: men are much more likely to choose to study economics than women (1 in 29 British men study economics for their degree compared to 1 in 105 for women).

What action can be taken to increase the diversity of the profession? The report highlights the fact that the economics pipeline starts at school and many of the differences between groups derive from the lack of opportunity to study A level economics.

Dr Arun Advani comments, “Our findings show that without improving access to economics in schools, it is hard to make economists more representative of society”.

Dr Stefania Paredes Fuentes, Associate Professor within the Department of Economics, University of Warwick, has recently been appointed as the Royal Society of Economics’ Diversity Champion. In this role, Stefania will help embed diversity more fully into the RES’s decision-making and promote and monitor diversity across all the Society’s activities.

Widening Participation and Outreach

The Department of Economics is also working hard to increase diversity amongst students and staff at Warwick. In addition to embracing the national Discover Economics campaign as reported in October 2019, the Department contributes to the University's initiatives to increase diversity within economics, including:

• Sutton Trust Summer School
• Pathways to Banking
• Warwick Scholars

The Department of Economics believes that access to a world-leading university should be open to people from all backgrounds. With an aim to raise students' aspirations and increase students' awareness of the benefits of Higher Education, the Department runs a number of initiatives, some of which include:

• Running a Discover Economics Virtual Series for Year 9 and 10 students from the local area.
• New webpage to access Economics academic resources for prospective students.
• Providing access to additional academic and pastoral support for eligible students.

Dr Lory Barile, Widening Participation Co-ordinator in the Department of Economics has said:

"Economics has a diversity problem which is largely affected by a misperception about the subject. Because of this, many talented students from diverse groups and backgrounds do not even consider studying economics.

We are working hard on increasing diversity in our Department by contributing to a number of initiatives at University level and organising our own activities at Departmental level to increase ethnic and gender diversity. We are very proud of our recent achievements on attracting students from under-represented groups and backgrounds, though we recognise the need to continue to work on creating a more inclusive and diverse environment within our discipline."

Find out more

Community Values

As another example of its commitment to diversity, the Department of Economics are also delighted to have recently published a set of community values which outlines key principles that in which all staff and students are expected to embrace.

These values aim to create a community where differences in culture are celebrated, difference of opinion is welcomed and respected and where prejudices and socially unacceptable behaviours of any kind are never tolerated.

Find out more

The eighth edition and the first virtual version of Warwick Economics PhD Conference was held on 6-7 November 2020. The event was organised by PhD students with the help of the Marketing & Communications Team and with financial support from the Department.

This year, the annual conference which is organised by PhD students of the Department of Economics, received over 150 applications from graduate students of leading research institutions across the world. A multi-stage selection process, involving a scientific committee consisting of Warwick faculty members and PhD students, helped in the process of whittling down these high-quality applications to seventeen – 10 seminar presentations and 7 poster presentations.

The conference was due to take place earlier in the year but had to be postponed due to the pandemic. As with most events this year, we decided to host the 2020 edition online, aiming to provide an opportunity for young researchers to present and exchange their work and ideas via a digital platform of MS Teams.

Over two days, conference delegates and speakers engaged in intellectually stimulating presentations by students from Paris School of Economics, New York University, University of Amsterdam, Oxford University, University of California Davis, Toulouse School of Economics, Columbia University, Georgetown University, Erasmus School of Economics, KU Leuven, VU Amsterdam, Stanford GSB, and University of Southern California.

The papers presented covered a broad range of topics and fields, and were organised into four main sessions: Public Economics, Macroeconomics, Applied Economics, and Economic Theory. Each 20-minutes presentation was followed by a discussion and comments from students and faculty members in the audience, providing the authors constructive feedback. Another interesting aspect of the conference were poster presentations which were also well received.

Overall, the event was a great success: it provided a platform to graduate students from different institutions to showcase their work and gave a great opportunity to Warwick students to discuss their research and promote the Department’s program to their peers across the globe.

Learn more about who the participants were and their projects.

The Department is pleased to announce that Economics at Warwick has been ranked 4th in the specialist subject table for Economics in the Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021.

The Good University Guide 2021, published annually by the Times and the Sunday Times at the start of academic year, provides British university rankings based on five categories: teaching quality, student experience, research quality, entry points and graduate prospects. We are particularly pleased to see Economics at Warwick achieving high scores for graduate prospects (95.1%) and a total score of 99.5% placing us 4th behind Oxford, Cambridge and the LSE.

Earlier this year we were also ranked 4th in the Complete University Guide and 6th in the Guardian’s league table. In the QS World University Ranking for Economics and Econometrics we are currently ranked 25th.

Professor Jeremy Smith, Head of Department of Economics, said:

“I am pleased to see the Department consistently achieving high rankings in subject league tables as it recognises the hard work, passion and dedication of our staff and students. I would like to thank them all for their contribution to this collective success.

It is also important for me to stress that we are never complacent and we will continue to develop our strengths in research and teaching, attracting high calibre of students and staff to the Department.”

Find out more:

• The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021 (The Times subscription is required to view it).
• The Complete University Guide 2021 ranked Warwick Economics 4th.
• We are currently ranked 25th in the QS World University Rankings for Economics and Econometrics, published in 2020.

We are pleased to report that the Sutton Trust Summer School (STSS) which ran between 27-31 July was a great success. The programme, offered to Year 12 high achieving students from disadvantaged backgrounds, attracted 120 participants from across the UK.

Since 2016, Warwick has been one of 13 partner universities in the Sutton Trust's UK Summer School Programme, organised by the University's Widening Participation and Outreach Team and supported by academic departments, including the Department of Economics. The aim of the programme is to enable the participants to experience what being a student at Warwick is like. They attend taster lectures in a subject of their choice and learn about the UCAS process as well as attend social events.

Virtual delivery

This year, the challenge was to organise and deliver the STSS programme entirely in a virtual environment, via the Sutton Trust Online Platform. As in previous year, we supported the initiative by delivering academic content as part of the Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) stream, alongside our colleagues from the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Politics and International Studies. As we are all getting used to more digital communications since the beginning of the pandemic, the presenters, facilitators and the participants found it relatively easy to adjust to a virtual delivery of the programme.

Behavioural Economics

The Economics session was delivered by Dr Lory Barile, Associate Professor and the Widening Participation Coordinator in the Department of Economics, who engaged a group of 28 PPE stream participants in playing a simplified version of the public good game with punishments as described in Fehr and Gatcher (2000). The idea was to link the experiment with the concept of altruistic punishment and individuals' behaviour during the pandemic. For the online game, students were put into eight groups of four and in each round they had to make individual decisions which had brought different levels of benefit to them individually and to their group. In break-out rooms, after the game, they had an opportunity to answer some questions and reflect on the nature of the game they played, the strategy they had adopted during the game, the reasons for their contributions to the common project, and the relevance of the game for economists.

Dr Lory Barile said:

"I really enjoy working with the young students to open their eyes to the exciting subject of economics. I think that experiential learning is an excellent way to introduce and discuss complex economic concepts! "

Before starting the game, students were also asked in an online survey, to describe in three words what economics is and what economists do. The results can be seen in the word clouds below.

What is economics?

What do economists do?

The answers to these questions as well as those that guided discussion in the break-out rooms survey were used to conduct some data analysis that was presented in a Q&A session the following day. During this session, the link between the reading material suggested prior to the live session and the experiment was made clear, and with clear reference to the pandemic. The results of the experiment, its relevance for economists and any misconception about what economics is and what economists do were also discussed and the winning group was announced.

During the experiment, Dr Barile was assisted by a group of colleagues from the Department of Economics (Atisha Gosh, Cecilia Lanata-Briones and Bozena Beauclair), one Economics student (Elakiya Ananthakrishnan ) and members of the wider WP and Outreach team, who acted as facilitators in the virtual break-out rooms.

Feedback from the participants

Here is what the participants posted in the anonymous online poll, which shows that they did enjoy the session:

"The experiment in the economics lecture was super accessible whilst opening up some really interesting discussions afterwards."

"The experiment in the economics seminar was very engaging."

"The experiment that had taken place in economics was engaging as we were challenged to think outside the box and come up with what we thought the aim of it was - the conversations that followed were also really engaging."

Further information

For further information about different aspects of this article, please visit:

• our Outreach in Economics page to see how the Department is involved in various outreach initiatives and who to contact;
• Dr Lory Barile's profile and how she describes her research in behavioural economics
• Experimental and Behavioural Economics research group page - to find out more about the Department's research in this area.

We are delighted to announce that two of our postgraduate research students have been recognised in the 2020 Warwick Awards for Teaching Excellence for Postgraduates who Teach (WATE PGR): Cora Neumann (winner) and Riccardo Degasperi (commendee).

Research students can carry out a range of teaching activities including facilitating seminars, lecturing and project supervision, and the WATE PGR programme aims to recognise the best teachers from postgraduate research students at Warwick, nominated by students, fellow postgraduates, and the Department.

Cora Neumann is a PhD candidate in the Department with research interests in economic history, labour economics and gender economics and she teaches first and second year undergraduate modules in economics for business and economics for strategy. Riccardo Degasperi is also a PhD candidate in Economics and his research interests are in applied macroeconomics and time series econometrics. He contributes to teaching on econometrics and advanced econometric theory modules.

Here is what they said about their WATE PGR recognition:

It means so very much! Since I am relatively new to teaching it still takes a lot of work to prepare for good seminars, and it is very gratifying and humbling to be recognised for what I consider an integral part of my PhD. Being recognised through this award is also a motivation to become an ever better teacher and to continuously develop and improve.

Read the full interview with Cora here to find out about how she adapted her teaching during Covid-19 and what she has learnt from the experience.

It is a huge honour. I try my best with my students. Knowing that they appreciate this and that the University acknowledges it is extremely rewarding.

Read the full interview with Riccardo here and find out what he enjoys most about teaching and what his recipe for the perfect inspiring teacher is.

Further information:

• Find out more about the 2020 Warwick Awards for Teaching Excellence for Postgraduate Research Students.

Congratulations Class of 2020!

As many of you are receiving your final year results today and with this summer's ceremonies postponed, we would like to celebrate your achievements in a virtual way.

We have created for you a Virtual Yearbook which records the thoughts and reflections of the 2020 cohort of graduating students from the Department of Economics, with special messages from staff who supported them and from our alumni community.

Please visit the Economics Virtual Year Book 2020 where you will be able to read the messages, watch the videos, and view photographs from several events from your time at Warwick. You can still add your own memories of your time with us via an online form until 31 July 2020.

We hope we will have a chance to celebrate your achievements in person when we can, as we work to reschedule ceremonies for 2021. In the meantime, we will be arranging to post your certificates to you.

Professor Jeremy Smith, Head of Department has sent this message:

"We in the Department want to congratulate you on your achievements, both academic and non-academic, over your time at Warwick and hope that your graduation is reward for all the hard work and devotion you have shown towards your studies.

We wish you all the best for the future as you move beyond Warwick and look forward to hearing about your future endeavours and successes. Please keep in touch."

Let's celebrate today

We would like to celebrate the publication of your final results and invite you today to join in celebrations via social media platforms:

• Facebook

• Instagram

• Twitter

As you begin to celebrate, be sure to tag us or use the hashtags: #WarwickGrad and #WarwickEcon2020

How to keep in touch

Please remember to register on the warwickgrad.net portal so that we can access your contact details to send our alumni newsletter.

• Join our Economics Alumni LinkedIn Group
• email us at economics.alumni@warwick.ac.uk

We are delighted to report that in the National Student Survey (NSS) 2020, 91.4 per cent of our students in the Department of Economics said that they were satisfied with the course as a whole which is 2.9 percentage points up on last year. This places Warwick as the top-ranked Economics department for student satisfaction among Russell Group.

This year’s survey closed on 30 April 2020 and the response rate from final year undergraduates in the Department was 85%.

The highest satisfaction scores were achieved in key areas of Teaching, Learning, Student Voice and Careers:

• 93.2 per cent of undergraduate agreed that: “staff are good at explaining things” and 94.1 per cent agreed that ‘the course is intellectually stimulating.”
• 92.2 per cent of students agreed that: “I have been able to access course-specific resources (e.g. equipment, facilities, software) when I needed to.”
• 91.1 per cent of undergraduates agreed that: “I have been able to contact staff when I needed to.”
• 91.1 per cent of students agreed that: “I have had the right opportunities to provide feedback on my course.”
• 91.2 per cent of students agreed that: “As a result of my course, I believe that I have improved my career prospects.”

Head of Department Professor Jeremy Smith has commented:

“l would like to thank our finalists for rating many aspects of their student experience so highly as this gives me and my colleagues a feeling of enormous satisfaction and pride in what we do. All feedback is important as it gives us ideas on how we can improve our teaching, learning and assessment even further.

I would like to pay a special tribute to all my colleagues in the Department: those with a front-facing role in the delivery of teaching and learning and those who work behind the scenes to make things run smoothly. The high student satisfaction scores are the result of the time, effort and devotion you show every day at work.”

Full NSS data is available on the Office for Students website.

Henry Tse and Avan Tam, two final year students studying BSc Economics were selected to represent the University of Warwick amongst a team of four at the BI International Case Competition (BIICC) in Oslo in February 2020.

Held by the BI Business school, in Oslo, Norway, the BI International Case Competition (BIICC) is an annual competition that is spread over six days with twelve international teams from renowned universities who compete in challenges which involve solving problems and delivering cutting edge solutions to real business case scenarios.

Henry and Avan documented each of the six days at the competition and reflected on how fortunate they were to participate in such an event.

Six Day Overview

Day 1 - The BI International Competition kick started with an opening dinner and party, where we were introduced to the Norwegian culture and business trends within the Nordic commercial world - which set the scene for the cases that we will be working on over the week. It was also a great opportunity to socialise with delegates from all the other eleven teams as well as the BI student buddy of our team, who accompanied us over the entire competition.

Day 2 - We presented our solution for the premier case on the second day. The case was released a week before we flew into Norway which allowed us plenty of time to prepare and rehearse the 10 minute presentation. In the premier round, we were asked to compose a strategy for the Construction City Cluster, a government backed joint venture in sustainable construction, to promote sustainable construction in Norway.

Despite the team’s solid performance, it was unfortunate that we scored second within the group of six and did not make it into the final. We believed that this was a product of our immense hard work and preparation beforehand. Nonetheless, this experience of presenting to the CEO and the senior management of the company was without doubt eye-opening and has also prepared the team’s confidence for the upcoming 24-hour case.

Day 3 - On day 3, we had the chance to tour around Oslo, taking a brief escape from business casing before the 24-hour final round. In the morning, we had the opportunity to visit the Norges Bank - the central bank of Norway, and learned about how the institute manages the country’s national reserve. We then toured around the city of Oslo, visiting local food halls and museums before gathering with all the other teams for dinner and exchanging ideas for the upcoming final round.

Day 4-5 - We were given our final case and 24 hours to solve it before presenting to a panel of judges the next day. This proved to be the most challenging part as the case involved a deep understanding of the electronic recycling services in Norway which pushed us to present innovative solutions on ways to collaborate with the recycling company in a scalable and certifiable way. Given the short amount of time, we have utilised the resources the best we could and complemented each other's strengths when working on the case.

Day 6 -During the presentation day, we put a huge amount of emphasis on the long-term strategy and recommendations on differentiating the recycling company from its rivals. Although our ideas successfully caught the attention of the judges, we did not manage to get qualified for the final round. The feedback given was that they would have preferred if a more comprehensive financials of the business were explained thoroughly. We also went above and beyond in seeking feedback from the CEOs to find out how we could improve in the future. Although we did not win the competition, we reflected on the advice received and took it as a good learning experience. We also realised that merely suggesting creative ideas was not enough, but instead more focus should be put on a strong plan of implementation backed by sound financial knowledge and business acumen in the future competitions.

After the competition, we were invited to a gala dinner, followed by a tour around the city with a “party” bus. We had a great time taking part in this competition.

Final Reflection

Looking back, BICC was an eye-opening experience for us. Firstly, we have made new friends from many universities across the globe and it was such a humbling yet fantastic experience for us to hear different perspectives on issues raised during the competition. Secondly, we have learnt so much in such a short period of time and being able to present our business skills confidently in front of the CEOs was something we are very proud of. Looking back, we think that the whole experience has given us even more confidence to do well in our future careers.