Departmental news

A project led by Professor Thiemo Fetzer has won one of this year’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) Research Excellence Awards.

The awards recognise excellent and innovative research carried out using the secure data held within ONS Trusted Research Environments, and highlight the ways in which statistical research has been of benefit to wider society.

Around 300 projects a year are given approval to access these granular data, and awards are made to 6 of them.

Professor Fetzer, Dr Christina Palmou (ONS) and Dr Jakob Schneebacher (CMA) won the Impact of Analysis Award – Collaboration with Government which recognises successful collaboration between researchers and at least one UK government department or devolved administration.

Their project, How do firms cope with economic shocks in real time? illustrates the power of good quality, real-time, linked microdata in enabling better, less costly policy decisions, and in challenging over-simplified lobbying narratives.

Speaking at the awards ceremony, Dr Palmou said: “Policymakers often need to quickly respond to unexpected shocks - such as financial crises, natural disasters or the economic and humanitarian consequences of war - but traditional data collection methods and research takes months or years."

Professor Fetzer explains: "Without accurate data, policymakers may be forced to rely on economic narratives provided by the media, interest groups or financial markets to guide them. These narratives may be oversimplified or biased.

“To close this gap, we have built a new toolbox, consisting of high-frequency linked microdata, a pre-registered analysis plan, and a flexible empirical strategy to estimate firm responses to shocks in near real-time."

Dr Palmou added: “We used these tools to examine how firms respond to the energy price shock triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine along output, price, input, process and survival margins.”

Professor Fetzer commented: “Our project is a type of proof of concept of how rapid evidence could be created with an agile and responsive public data infrastructure that could also be used for narrative testing.

“But this is a bit further down the line. Most importantly, we sketched out how, with public data infrastructure, real time evaluations of shocks like the energy crisis can be carried out in an agile way.

“This has the potential to change the way governments respond to crises and enable more targeted policy responses that can have much higher impact and lower cost to taxpayers.”

Professor Ben Lockwood, Head of the Department of Economics at Warwick, said: “Many congratulations to Thiemo, Christina and Jakob on this award. Their project is an outstanding demonstration of how good data, empirical research, and advanced techniques of analysis can come together to inform better policy decisions, and an excellent example of how academic research can be applied to real-world policy challenges.”

• How do firms cope with economic shocks in real time? Thiemo Fetzer, Christina Palmou and Jakob Schneebacher ESCoE Discussion Paper No. 2024-16 November 2024 is available here.
• Read a blog about the project by the researchers: Evidence for policymakers in real time: a blueprint - ESCoE.

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.

Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury James Murray MP was the keynote speaker at a Parliamentary reception held on 11 November 2024 to officially launch the new Centre for the Analysis of Taxation (CenTax).

MPs, peers, invited guests from tax and business think tanks, research groups and the media, and guests from the University of Warwick and the LSE gathered in the Attlee Suite in Portcullis House for the event, which was co-hosted by the APPG on Anti-Corruption and Responsible Tax. Among the University of Warwick guests were Vice-Chancellor Professor Stuart Croft, Provost Professor Emma Flynn and Head of the Department of Economics Professor Ben Lockwood.

Mr Murray said: “Rigorous, quantitative and qualitative research is critical to this government’s decision-making process and its tax administration policies.

“We greatly value the contribution made by external academics and researchers and we are keen to see more, which is why I am here today, which is why I want to have a vote of confidence in the work that CenTax will do, and why I want to make sure that collaboration between CenTax, Treasury and HMRC continues for many years into the future.”

Mr Murray also set out some of the goals the new Government has to improve how tax is administered in the UK, including implementing a digital strategy to enable more people to organise their tax affairs online; taking action to close the tax gap; and modernising, digitising and reforming HMRC services.

The launch of CenTax marks the next stage of an ambitious research and policy agenda which began six years ago when CenTax Directors Dr Arun Advani and Dr Andy Summers first started working together.

Dr Summers spoke briefly to thank the centre’s supporters, and highlight the unique strengths of CenTax, saying: “We wanted to highlight three things that make us distinctive. The first is that we are a team of economists and lawyers. We think this is essential for effective tax policy analysis.

“The second is that we are able to work on policy development from end to end – we’re not just aiming to evaluate existing policies.

“Finally, we think that government needs input from academic researchers and that the public interest is best served by the independent scrutiny that academic research can provide. With the best will in the world, government analysts don’t always have time to follow the latest advances in econometric methods or the vast international literature. We are here to help.”

Dr Summers also highlighted that CenTax was committed to political independence and full academic transparency.

Dr Advani gave some insights into how CenTax chooses its research projects: “It’s about producing research that really matters for policymaking, and looking for the questions that we don’t yet have the answers to.

“One thing you can expect from our work is that it will be agenda-setting, not just responsive. A major part of where we think we can add value is in setting out the issues and the evidence in areas that people are not already talking about.

“It’s a really exciting time to be launching a new centre focused on tax. Clearly there’s a lot of demand out there for it, which is wonderful. While recognising the huge amounts of work that already go on in this space, I hope we’ve highlighted that we have something genuinely distinctive to offer, and we look forward to working with you all to deliver it.”

Dr Advani concluded by inviting all present to engage with the new centre, whether by speaking to the research team in the room, visiting the website, signing up to CenTax’s newsletter, or getting in touch by email.

13 November 2024

Professor Sonia Bhalotra organized a two-day workshop bringing together economists from the UK, Europe, America and India to share ongoing research and its implications for policy designed to address violence against women.

Eighteen research papers were presented at the workshop on 18 and 19 October in the University of Warwick’s Radcliffe Conference Centre. They covered domestic violence, sexual harassment in public spaces and workplace sexual harassment. Topics also included the impact of addiction and financial distress on intimate partner violence, law enforcement, safer public transport, and the role of culture and information biases in addressing violence against women.

Professor Bhalotra said: “My goal for the workshop was to provide a space for the collaborative exploration of new strategies for addressing violence against women, through offering a platform for participants to share their current work and their findings on the effectiveness of interventions to address violence against women; and to create the opportunity for informal knowledge exchange and networking.

“A range of speakers at different stages of their careers – including PhD students - joined us in Warwick from a wide range of institutions including Stockholm, Chicago, the World Bank, Yale, LSE, Kings, Imperial College, Exeter, Royal Holloway, Northeastern, Bocconi, and Trinity College Dublin.

“The research discussed examined the issue of violence against women in developed and developing countries, including the US, UK, Sweden, India, Bangladesh, Chile, Brazil, Pakistan, Turkey, and Mozambique.”

Insights from the presentations included:-

• The current risk assessment procedure used by the UK police forces to predict cases of domestic abuse does not do well. Professor Jeff Grogger presented evidence that algorithms based on administrative data outperform current protocols.
• Even deeply ingrained attitudes and beliefs critical to effective policing can be positively influenced. Girija Borker presented findings from a study in Bihar, India which tested whether an arts-based training could increase police officers’ empathy towards victims of gender-based-violence.
• Policies should be rigorously evaluated before being scaled up to avoid unexpected outcomes. This was one of the key messages of Dr Bilge Erten’s work on opioid policy reforms in the U.S. Her study revealed that while reformulating opioids like OxyContin reduced intimate partner violence in some states, others saw a spike in violence due to substitution effects leading to an increased reliance on illicit drugs.

One of the goals of the workshop was to be inclusive of researchers at all career stages. Warwick PhD student Anisha Garg, who presented her work exploring the effects of investment in mass transit in Delhi on crimes against women, said: “As an early-career researcher, attending and presenting at the workshop on Violence Against Women was an invaluable experience, and I am grateful to Sonia for this opportunity.

“It not only allowed me to learn about ongoing research in the field but also provided constructive feedback from some of the expert academics in the field, guiding me on how to advance my own research."

Fellow Warwick PhD researcher Sarthak Joshi, who presented findings from his work exploring male backlash against female empowerment in rural India, said “The VAW workshop had an amazing lineup of speakers and was very well organized. For an early career researcher like me, interacting with so many experts working on the cutting edge of such an important topic was inspirational."

Reflecting on the event, Professor Bhalotra added: “The workshop provided a rich tapestry of insights and fostered collaborative exchanges among researchers, sparking ideas for future studies.”

“The consensus among participants was clear: by integrating cutting-edge research and rigorous data analysis, the field can advance both preventive and responsive solutions to violence against women.

“I will hold another workshop in 12-18 months as this is a rapidly advancing field of research and I want to build upon the momentum generated by this event.”

ENDS 

The workshop was part of a project that has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 885698).

The full programme (Warwick attendees in bold):

Friday, 18 October 2024

• Presentation 1: Debiasing Law Enforcement Officers: Evidence from an Expressive Arts Intervention in India Speaker: Girija Borker, World Bank. Discussant: Priyama Majumder
• Presentation 2: Explaining Poor Police Predictions of Domestic Abuse Speaker: Jeff Grogger, University of Chicago. Discussant: Matteo Sandi
• Presentation 3: Sexual Harassment and the Leaky Pipeline in Academia Speaker: Johanna Rickne, University of Stockholm. Discussant: Lea Nassal
• Presentation 4: Firm responses to legislation on workplace sexual harassment Speaker: Sonia Bhalotra, University of Warwick. Discussant: Nina Buchmann
• Presentation 5: Keeping the Peace while getting your way: Information, Persuasion & Intimate Partner Violence Speaker: Dan Anderberg, Royal Holloway University of London. Discussant: Vahid Moghani
• Presentation 6: Income & IPV: Signal of Strength or Struggle? Evidence from Edutainment in Bangladesh Speaker: Nina Buchmann, Yale University
• Presentation 7: From Addiction to Aggression: The Spillover effect of Opioid policies on Intimate Partner Violence Speaker: Bilge Erten, Northeastern University. Discussant: Elaheh F Pour
• Presentation 8: Alcohol Availability and Violence Against Women Speaker: Susan Niknami, Stockholm University
• Presentation 9: Overstretched: Financial Distress & Intimate Partner Violence in the U.S Speaker: Olivia Masi, University of Bocconi. Discussant: Sevinc Bermek

Saturday, 19 October 2024

• Presentation 1: Anti-Sexual Harassment Amenities at Work Speaker: Karmini Sharma, Imperial College London
• Presentation 2: When Do People Condone Sexual Harassment? A Cross-Cultural Study of Trade-offs Speaker: Mateusz Stalinski, University of Warwick. Discussant: Johanna Rickne
• Presentation 3: Perceptions of workplace sexual harassment and support for policy action Speaker: Matthew Ridley, University of Warwick. Discussant: Jeff Grogger
• Presentation 4: Victim-blaming Norms and Violence Against Women: Correcting Misperceptions or Morality Drive Policy and Behaviour Change? Speaker: Sevinc Bermek, King's College London. Discussant: Anisha Garg
• Presentation 5: Schools as Safety Nets: Break-downs & Recovery in Reporting Violence Against Children Speaker: Damian Clarke, Universidad de Chile. Discussant: Alex Zhou
• Presentation 6: Gender-based Violence in Schools & Girls’ Education: Experimental Evidence from Mozambique Speaker: Selim Gulesci, Trinity College Dublin. Discussant: Rui Costa
• Presentation 7: Female Empowerment & Male Backlash: Experimental Evidence from India Speaker: Sarthak Joshi, University of Warwick. Discussant: Bilge Erten
• Presentation 8: Safe Travels: Transport Advancement and Women's Safety in India Speaker: Anisha Garg, University of Warwick. Discussant: Selim Gulesci
• Presentation 9: Sentencing Severity and Domestic Violence Speaker: Matteo Sandi, London School of Economics. Discussant: Sebastien Montpetit

Professor Paola Profeta, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Inclusion and Sustainability at Bocconi University, visited Warwick at the invitation of the Quantitative and Analytical Political Economy Research Centre (QAPEC) and the Wellbeing, Equality, Diversity, and Gender Group (WEDGG).

In addition to her position as Pro-Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Inclusion and Sustainability and her work as a Full Professor of Public Economics at Bocconi University, Professor Profeta is Founder and Director of the Axa Research Lab on Gender Equality and sits on a range of boards and committees in support of her advocacy for female leadership, and for inclusion and gender equality in education, work, and politics.

During her visit to the Department, Professor Profeta delivered a guest lecture for students and staff, on the theme of “Advancing Equality and Inclusion in a Diverse World.” She began by reminding all present that diversity is a fact, but inclusion is a choice, and one which is not only morally right but also sound business, as a diverse and inclusive workforce is one which can be drawn from a wider talent pool and which brings new perspectives and a richer agenda to any institution.

Drawing on data from her own research and other sources, Professor Profeta showed that:

• At present rates of progress it will take 134 years to close the global gender gap. This is a waste of human capital and also inefficient in economic development terms.
• In all EU countries, a larger proportion of young (25 – 34) women than young men are graduates – though this is discipline-specific and women are still the minority in STEM subjects
• In all EU countries, the female employment rate is lower than the male employment rate
• Barriers to female participation in the labour market include caring responsibilities, discrimination, and harmful stereotypes, for example that men are breadwinners and women are home-makers.

Sharing examples from Bocconi University, Professor Profeta discussed what institutions can do to address these challenges, starting with measuring gender and inclusion gaps; setting strategic targets; and taking actions such as creating scholarships and mentoring schemes.

Warning that “none of this can work if we put it in an empty box” Professor Profeta also argued that institutions must work for an overall culture change so that inclusivity is the norm.

Reflecting on her visit, Professor Profeta said “I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Warwick, where I had the opportunity to engage in research discussions with leading scholars in the field and to exchange knowledge and best practices on diversity, equity, and inclusion in academia.”

• Listen to an interview with Professor Profeta.
• Read Professor Profeta’s articles at The Conversation

The ESRC Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE), based in the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick, has been awarded £7.1 million to deliver its ambitious social science research vision over the next five years. CAGE will also receive support from the Department for Economics.

This is the third funding success for CAGE, which first won support from the UKRI Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in 2010 under the leadership of the late Professor Nick Crafts. It is one of four ESRC centres announced today.

This new award will support CAGE’s research programme for 5 years from January 2025, and recognises both the strong track record of CAGE’s work, and the relevance of its plans for interdisciplinary, challenge-led research using pioneering tools and approaches to address critical UK and global challenges.

The four themes CAGE will address over the next five years are Global Economic History; Designing and Building Better Institutions; Gender, Health and Wellbeing; and Responsive Public Policy.

Professor Stuart Croft, Vice-Chancellor, said: “I am absolutely delighted that CAGE has been successful in its bid for funding.

“The University of Warwick is committed to tackling the multidisciplinary global challenges of today and the future, in the UK and around the world.

“When the Centre was founded in 2010, under the leadership of Professor Nick Crafts, its vision was to understand how countries succeed in the global economy and what barriers hold back progress.

“Under Professor Mirko Draca, CAGE has articulated an impressive interdisciplinary programme of research aimed at integrating the study of history and institutions with a pragmatic, problem-solving focus on evidence-based policy.

“I am particularly excited at the plans to develop the skills of the next generation of researchers and policy practitioners here in the West Midlands, through a variety of training and outreach programmes. This will contribute to our mission of making a real difference in our home region.”

Professor Ben Lockwood said:

“On behalf of all in the Department I welcome today’s announcement of new funding for CAGE.

“We have been proud to support CAGE since its foundation in 2010, led by our much-missed colleague Nick Crafts. Under Nick’s guidance the Centre tackled one of the fundamental questions of economics – why are some countries rich and others poor? – with an eclectic, exciting programme of research.

“Mirko will lead CAGE into its next phase of evolution - tackling the question of how to make “what works, work” - but I am pleased to see that CAGE’s commitment to an historical and institutional perspective on current challenges will continue as a key pillar of CAGE’s work for the next 5 years, refreshed by new methods of data collection and analysis.

“Nick would have been absolutely thrilled to see CAGE on a secure financial footing for the next 5 years, as are we all.”

Professor Mirko Draca, Director of CAGE, said: “The focal point of CAGE going forward will be to revamp UK evidence-based policy to make 'what works, work'.

“It's not enough to know the technical solutions to a policy problem – we need to understand how technical solutions relate to social norms and cultural and historical legacies. After all, we live our lives in a society not an economy."

Stian Westlake, ESRC executive chair said:

“Our centres are at the forefront of ground-breaking social science research, pushing the boundaries of knowledge and making a real difference. By supporting these centres, ESRC ensures long-term investment in crucial areas while giving researchers the freedom to explore and innovate.

“Three of these investments build on the work of centres that consistently delivered top-quality research that has positively influenced policy and improved lives. The wholly new centre will expand ESRC’s research portfolio even further, helping us understand the health effects of climate change.”

• Read CAGE's news story about the funding here
• Read the full UKRI announcement here.

NOTES:

• The Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy was established in January 2010 with a £3.7 million grant (CAGE I).
• In 2014 the ESRC awarded a further £3.5 million, for the 5 years from January 2015 (CAGE II)
• In 2018 CAGE received £2.09 million for the 5 years from January 2020 (CAGE Transition)
• Today’s announcement will cover 5 years from January 2025 (CAGE III)

About the Economic and Social Research Council  

The UKRI Economic and Social Research Council (ESRCLink opens in a new window) is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRILink opens in a new window), a non-departmental public body funded by a grant-in-aid from the UK government. We fund world-leading research, data and post-graduate training in the economic, behavioural, social and data sciences to understand people and the world around us. Our work helps raise productivity, address climate change, improve public services and generate a prosperous, inclusive, healthy and secure society. www.ukri.org/esrcLink opens in a new window 

Our most recent Graduate Outcomes Survey results demonstrate strongly that our graduates continue to do well after graduation. The Times & Sunday Times' Good University Guide 2025, placed the Department of Economics in the top position overall for Economics in the UK, and with the Graduate Prospects score of 93.3% securing our spot in the top 10 for the subject of economics in the UK for graduate employability.

Conducted annually and based on the responses of graduates 15 months after their graduation, Graduate Outcomes collects information related to graduate destinations, including further study and employment.

This year's release of this survey relates to the class of 2021/22 graduates, and the key highlights are:

Undergraduate students - 2021/22 cohort

• 95% of UK full-time first-degree Warwick Economics undergraduates were in graduate level work, graduate level of study or both within 15 months of successful course completion in 2021/22 (with response rate of 68%)*.
• £41K was the median salary of UK full-time first-degree Warwick Economics cohort of students whose main employment was full-time work in the UK*.
• 93% of all undergraduate students (UK and international) were in graduate level of work or study (with 43% response rate)*.

Postgraduate taught students - 2021/22 cohort

• 89% of our postgraduate taught graduates went on to graduate level work, graduate level of study or both within 15 months of course completion in 2021/22. (with 24% response rate)*.

Head of Department, Professor Ben Lockwood commented:

"It's very pleasing to see that so many of our students are successful in securing graduate level jobs or graduate level study. We will continue to support our students through a range of career enhancing opportunities organised collaboratively between the Department and the central Careers Team, including advice on career choices, meeting employers at career fairs, giving practical sessions on how to improve job applications and networking with our Warwick Economics alumni."

* Derived from the Graduate Outcomes Survey. Contains HESA data: copyright Jisc 2024. Jisc cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived by third parties from its data.

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.

Warwick Economics alumnus Dr Maurizio Bussolo (PhD, 1997) returned to campus on 17th October at the invitation of Professor Sonia Bhalotra.

Now Deputy Chief Economist for South Asia at the World Bank in Washington DC, Dr Bussolo gave a lecture as part of the Institute for Advanced Studies InReach10x lunchtime seminar series.

In his presentation Dr Bussolo shared key findings from the latest regional economic update for South Asia. These authoritative World Bank reports are published twice a year and combine an overview of macro development trends and growth outlook in each region with a closer look at a specific theme.

The South Asia October 2024 report, Women, Jobs, and Growth, looks at the participation of women in the labour force in South Asian countries. Dr Bussolo explained that South Asia is already the region with the fastest growing economies, but if the untapped potential of women workers could be released, then even more growth could be achieved:-

• raising female labour force participation rates to those of men could increase per capita income by as much as one-half.
• structural changes accompanying development, such as urbanization, tertiarization and opening to trade, create opportunities for work for women in South Asia as shown by the lower wage gaps (vis-à-vis men) for women working in cities, or in the services sector, or in export-oriented industries.
• a common thread among these demand-side opportunities for increased female participation is the higher degree of competition. Firms facing a more competitive economic environment are less discriminatory towards female workers. However, the take up of these opportunities is constrained by several supply-side barriers: women are burdened by household and care tasks, face obstacles in their mobility, and face more insecurity than men.
• measures to further accelerate job creation (through more urbanization, and especially more opening up to trade, another key untapped potential for the region), as well as interventions to remove obstacles to women working and equalize gender rights would be effective if combined with a shift in social norms toward more acceptance of women’s engagement in the economy.

Dr Bussolo said that social norms are not immutable, they are indeed malleable and highlighted the shifts observed in Europe and the USA after World War Two, when women entered the workforce against conservative opposition. Even after the end of the war their participation remained high and was crucial to boosting growth. South Asia could achieve the same shifts, probably even faster.

The research underpinning the report highlighted that the literature on social norms has greatly advanced and we are now able to measure social norms in a much more precise way. Dr Bussolo explained that, for example, recent measurement exercises, undertaken as background research for the report, show that there is a large gap between what individuals believe is the appropriate behaviour in a certain social context, for example whether a women should accept a job for pay outside the house, and what individuals believe society believes about the same behaviour. This gap whereby personal beliefs are always less conservative than social expectations, provides a clear opportunity for change. Correcting this misperception of societal views – which are a key obstacle for women’s participation – and thus making them less restrictive can provide a boost to women’s economic engagement.

Lively discussion after the presentation had to be brought to an end by the need to free up the seminar room, but Dr Bussolo kindly stayed to meet current students and continue the conversation.

Reflecting briefly on the experience of returning to campus after twenty years, Dr Bussolo said that the university had changed a lot, but he was pleased to see that International House, where he had stayed as a postgraduate student, was still a popular hall of residence.

Dr Bussolo also visited the Economics Department where, during his PhD years, he was a tutorial fellow and taught many classes to economics students. He was particularly impressed by the excellence of current PhD students and hopes to remain in touch with some of them. One of the highlights of his visit was getting a pint and bangers and mash at the local Varsity pub with students and faculty. He is sure he will repeat this experience in the future.

Reflecting on the visit, Professor Bhalotra said she was pleased to see a large and innovative programme of research on women’s participation in the economy being led by Maurizio at the World Bank. She lauded the experimental research being done alongside scrutiny of large and often new data sets.

Sonia’s own research has contributed to our understanding of the manner in which social norms, markets, politics, law, technology, and trade influence son preference in fertility, violence against women, gender wage gaps in the labour market and the under-representation of women in leadership.

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.