Departmental news

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of our former colleague Berthold Herrendorf who passed away last week. Berthold held a position of Lecturer in the Department of Economics between 1995 and 2001 and many of our staff remember him with fondness.

Berthold left Warwick in 2001 to take up a position of Assistant Professor at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid in Spain and in 2003 he moved to the Department of Economics at Arizona State University where he became professor of economics in 2014.

Berthold grew up in Germany and studied mathematics and economics at the University of Bonn, the University of California at Berkeley, Indiana University and he received his PhD in Economics from the European University Institute in Italy.

Berthold specialised mainly in macroeconomics and his recent research interests were in growth and development, in particular structural transformation, markups, productivity growth slowdown. He published his research in leading academic journals, including the American Economic Review, the American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, the Journal of The European Economic Association, and the Review of Economic Studies. He was a research fellow of CEPR (UK) and CESifo (Germany).

Here are messages from staff expressing fond memories of Berthold:

From Professor Ben Lockwood:

“I already knew Berthold when I arrived at Warwick in 1999, as we had started collaborating on a paper that was eventually published in the Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking. We also shared a house in Kenilworth for a short period of time – as I recall, he liked cooking Italian food, and was rather good at it! He had strong opinions on economics, and on many other things, but underneath it all, was a kind and thoughtful person. Since moving to Arizona State, his career really took off: he produced a series of well-published and highly cited papers on growth and structural transformation. His early death is a great loss to the profession.”

From Emeritus Professor Marcus Miller

“Berthold was a larger-than-life figure in the department, with a ready smile and an open manner that he combined with deep commitment to the subject of Macroeconomics. Thus when one colleague advised me - as a macroeconomist - that one should subscribe to the Financial Times, Berthold argued one should instead read the latest issues of the top journals – in which he was later to publish with considerable success!

Having sampled academic life in Germany, Italy, England and Spain, he finally settled in the United States where he pursued his academic interests with characteristic vigour and professionalism. Now he has moved on to a higher plane, Berthold is doubtless burnishing his analytical tools for challenges new!”

From Emeritus Professor Mike Waterson:

“Berthold was a valued colleague in the Department of Economics, and we were very sorry to see him leave when he decided to move to Madrid. He was an excellent researcher and a very good teacher. A larger-than-life figure, he was a big man with strong opinions and a very obvious ability in Economics. This meant he sometimes courted controversy and clashed intellectually with colleagues, but he was pleasant and straightforward on a personal level.”

From Professor Sascha Becker:

“Berthold was one of the driving forces behind the annual Christmas Meeting of "German Economists Abroad", a high point of the year, when we all met for two days at a German university on 22+23 December each year, before heading home to parents and family. I will miss Berthold's humour and kindness. He left us far too soon.”

We caught up with Professor Jeremy Smith to ask him a few questions about being Head of Department (HoD), a role he has held since August 2016 and from which he will be stepping down at the end of July 2022.

Q1: You will be stepping down from the role of Head of Department at the end of July, so it's a good opportunity to reflect on the last 6 years. What was your first year like as a HoD?

It was a massive learning curve and one I do not think I was prepared for, despite having been acting as Deputy Head of Department for 4 years previously. I was very reliant on other people - Robin Naylor (as Director of Studies), Sascha Becker (as Deputy Head of Department) and Sarah Duggan (as Department Administrator) were immensely helpful. I have also been greatly assisted by Gill Gudger and the Senior Management Team during my time as HoD.

When I took on the HoD role it was on an interim basis for one year, while the University looked for a permanent replacement, and I didn't mind a short-term challenge. But as we all know 12 months turned into 6 years!

Q2: Could you tell us about one of the highlights of holding the position of HoD?

There have been many highlights and identifying one is very hard for me. However, it was a privilege to have hosted the Royal Economic Society Annual Conference at Warwick in 2019 when we welcomed onto campus more than 700 academic and professional economists from across the globe to present research developments in economics and showcase their real-world applications.

Q3: What has the role of HoD meant to you?

I have been immensely proud of having been Head of Department for the last 6 years. To represent this great Department both within the University and more broadly is something I never imagined myself doing.

I think it is clear to anybody that knows me, that I am not a natural in the role and do not like many of the activities that one might associate with a HoD. But when I look back on my time I think I can look myself in the mirror and honestly say I could not have tried any harder and that is enough for me. When I reflect on whether I was a good or effective HoD that is for others to determine.

Q4: What has been your proudest achievement as HoD?

The REF 2021 we obtained earlier this year, where we came 2nd in the UK for research excellence, is my proudest achievement, but not because of what I did, which was minimal. Credit is really due to Ben Lockwood, Carlo Perroni, Claire Gerard, Liz Davies and Sarah Duggan for putting together a fantastic submission. The REF 2021 made a difference to how people see Warwick Economics within the University and I hope within the country (and maybe even more widely). The outcome of the REF is with us for the next 7 years or so and therefore the returns to this achievement are high.

Q5: What was the toughest challenge you had to deal with?

Undoubtedly it was the first 12 months of the Covid pandemic. Adjusting to online exams, trying to move teaching over into an online environment, and thinking about how that might look for economics and what we needed to do to support the students who would naturally find it challenging to adapt to this way of teaching and learning. I think we as a department did as good a job as we could have hoped for, and I was immensely proud of what we managed to achieve during that time, due to commitment and effort put in by Module Leaders/Lecturers, Programme Managers, all teaching staff and all PSS staff. It has been a time of intensive work for all of us in the Department and I know that colleagues spent innumerable hours helping to design and deliver teaching and other activities (e.g. virtual open days, webinars, extra webpages and communications to students) during the pandemic. However, praise needs to go especially to: Lory Barile, Caroline Elliott, Robert Horton, Elizabeth Jones, Robin Naylor, Jennifer Smith and Kelly Taylor. I am eternally grateful to these people for supporting me and spending extra hours helping design a way through the pandemic.

The last 12 months have also been a challenging time, but where we have faced different challenges from the previous academic year. Again, the Department came together to help us get through the year.

Q6: Despite having a busy schedule as HoD, you have continued to teach EC124 (Statistical Techniques B), EC125 (Computing and Data Analysis) and EC226 (Econometrics). What has been your experience of balancing teaching and management responsibilities?

To be honest the only thing that has kept me sane at times has been the teaching as it forced me to think about something else for at least a few hours every week. What was more of a problem was preparing asynchronous lectures at a time when there were many other things going on and time was rather limited.

Q7: How do you combat stress and maintain a good work-life balance in a busy role?

I love sport. Unfortunately, I am not very good at it, but playing football against the MSc students on a Sunday, volleyball on a Wednesday and ultimate frisbee on a Friday means that, if time permits, I get out from in front of a computer sometime over the course of the week.

Q8: Do you think that the pandemic has changed the higher education landscape forever, or would we go back to the pre-pandemic environment for teaching and learning?

I do not think we will go back to education as it was before Covid. I am not sure what education will look like two years down the line, never mind about 10 years hence. I think the way students interact with education has changed over the pandemic, although some of this has not been in a way which I believe is good for cohesion of the cohort or even for the existence of a community. I believe this will be a challenge going forward.

Q9: The Department has continued to be ranked highly in league tables, which recognises the high quality of research and teaching within the Department. How do you motivate staff to give their best?

I think staff motivate themselves. I work hard and try to get involved in all activities and hope that staff follow suit. What is important for me is getting the right staff in place and then everything else will be relatively straightforward. We have a great set of colleagues in the Department and that should mean that we'll be able to maintain the high quality of research and teaching in the Department.

Q10: You have encouraged new initiatives to make the discipline of economics more diverse and inclusive, for example, the Department's Athena Swan Charter application which was successful in 2021. How important is it for you to receive this recognition?

Achieving Athena Swan award is very important for the Department and is recognition of our commitment to gender equality and the time and effort that colleagues have invested in trying to make the Department more inclusive. I'm grateful to all colleagues who have contributed, in particular Michela Redoano, Lisa Hayes, Robert Horton and members of the Department's Wellbeing, Equality, Diversity and Gender Group (WEDGG) who led the submission. The application presented evidence of how we have embedded the principles of gender balance and equality into key areas of our work, including student and staff recruitment, opportunities for professional development and progression, and improving the quality of the working environment. While we have come a long way, our work in this area will continue to progress further in the coming months and years as part of our detailed Athena Swan Action Plan.

Q11: You encouraged the Department to develop and commit to a set of values (respect, integrity and accountability). Why was it important to do that?

I was taught by my parents to be respectful of others and to accept people for who they are and try to see the good in people. I have tried to live by the example set by my parents.

We aim to foster an open and inclusive environment in the Department where everyone is treated with respect and dignity. We all have a personal responsibility to commit to these values and hold ourselves accountable.

Q12: What advice would you give to your successor?

It is essential to have good people around you and recruit well into positions in the Department. Then I would encourage my successor to delegate, something that doesn't come easily for me, but is essential in this role.

The second piece of advice is not to take things personally when things don't go according to plan. I wish Ben every good fortune - he will be surrounded by a great team who will support him.

Q13: What is next for you personally?

Next year I'm Director of Undergraduate Studies. I will do my best to fill Elizabeth's very big shoes for one year and then will hope to pass the role back to her.

I hope to also get some time to remember how to do research and have some plans to work on HESA data looking at outcomes of university students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Q14: Finally, how do you wish to be remembered as a HoD?

I would like to hope that during my time people felt they worked in a positive and supportive environment, which encouraged them to do good work, and that their good work was acknowledged.

Professor Jeremy Smith, thank you for the interview.

Congratulations to Professor Sascha Becker who has been appointed as Associate Editor of the American Economic Journal (AEJ): Applied Economics from 1 May 2022.

AEJ: Applied is a journal of the American Economic Association. It publishes papers covering a range of topics in applied economics, including labour economics, behavioural economics, health, education and trade.

Sascha Becker is part-time Professor in the Department of Economics, University of Warwick and Professor of Economics and Xiaokai Yang Chair of Business and Economics at Monash University, Melbourne. He also holds editorial roles at a number of other journals including the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Journal of the European Economic Association and the Journal of Economic History.

Visit Professor Becker's staff profile for further details about his research and publications.

Congratulations to Professor Ben Lockwood who has been appointed to the Council of the Royal Economic Society (RES) for 2022-2027.

The RES aims to promote the study of economic science. It provides resources and support for economists, students and teachers, as well as working to improve public understanding of economics. It publishes two major economics journals and hosts events to provide a forum for research, debate and networking.

The Council supervises and advises on the Society’s activities. It is supported by a series of working committees, which many Council members also serve on.

Professor Lockwood’s appointment will be ratified at the RES Annual General Meeting in May 2022.

Ben Lockwood is Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick, Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research and a Director of Research at the Centre for Business Taxation, University of Oxford.

Visit Professor Lockwood’s staff profile for further details about his research and publications.

We are delighted to announce that the Department of Economics has achieved a Bronze Award from the Athena Swan Charter in recognition of our commitment to gender equality.

The Athena Swan Charter, now part of Advance HE, is a framework which is used across the globe to support and transform gender equality within Higher Education and research. Based on ten key principles removing barriers to equal opportunities, the recognition is awarded to institutions with outstanding work promoting gender equality.

In 2021, the Department of Economics completed a self-assessment, led by Dr Michela Redoano and a small group of members of the Wellbeing, Equality, Diversity, and Gender Group (WEDGG), who undertook the task of gathering evidence of our recent work to embed the principles of gender balance and equality in the key areas of our work: student and staff recruitment, opportunities for professional development and progression and improving the quality of the working environment. The work of the group resulted in an application for the Athena Swan Bronze award submitted in May 2021.

The Athena Swan Submission Document outlined our strengths in some areas and recommended improvements in others, with a detailed action plan to progress our work in ensuring equality of opportunity for all and to achieve those goals outlined in our submission. One of the key priorities for us is to engage in activities to increase the representation of females in the Department which currently stands at 38 per cent of students and 30 per cent of academic staff (2020/21 data). The award is valid for 5 years until December 2026 and marks an important step in the Department’s continuing efforts to address gender equality in the field of economics.

The Department of Economics’ achievements referred to in its applications include:

• A robust action plan that builds on the self-assessment and addresses the criterion outlined in Athena Swan using SMART objectives (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-based).
• Praise for identifying challenges and building on the opportunity to include outreach programmes, wider consultation work, targeted recruitment activities and the role of Advisor to Female Students.
• The development of the Department of Education 'work for us' webpage, signposting applicants to flexible working procedures and University support networks.

Dr Michela Redoano, speaking for the Department of Economics Self-Assessment Team, said:

“We are delighted to have been successful in achieving our Bronze award. This was a team effort which helped us to identify and address some of the barriers we faced when tackling gender equality and it will underpin our future work in implementing the Athena Swan Action Plan. We’ve already started the work on embedding the plan into all of our activities.”

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

“We are very proud of this achievement which marks a significant progress in our work on gender equality in recent years. Thank you to the Self-Assessment Team who have worked extremely hard to make it happen. Our work in this area will continue and progress further in the coming months and years, as part of the Athena Swan Action Plan.”

Related Resources

University of Warwick Athena Swan Silver Award

Athena Swan Charter framework

• New opportunity to read interview with world-leading economist recognized as one of the founders of the indeterminacy school in macroeconomics.
• Professor Roger Farmer serialises interview originally published in Can Heterodox Economics make a Difference?
• The excerpts trace the development of Farmer's thinking on macroeconomics, which has influenced fiscal and monetary policymakers.

In late 2018 Roger Farmer, Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick and Distinguished Emeritus Professor, UCLA, and a world leading economist was invited to be interviewed for a study into whether the discipline of economics would benefit from a greater variety of methodological approaches, both within the profession and within the academic curriculum. In 2020, his interview, along with those of 19 economists were published in an Edward Elgar book, Can Heterodox Economics make a Difference?

The book features a series of in-depth interviews with leading economists from different schools, including Austrian, monetarist, New-Keynesian, Post-Keynesian, Modern Monetary Theory, Marxist and Institutionalist thinkers. With permission from the author, Dr Phil Armstrong, and the publisher, Edward Elgar, Professor Farmer has now serialised his interview in four posts on his personal website, Roger Farmer's Economic Window. The first instalment is available here. The other three can be found by following the links at the end of each post.

Professor Farmer is internationally recognized as one of the founders of the indeterminacy school in macroeconomics. His work on the theory of self-fulfilling prophecies, his concept of the belief function and his insistence on the importance of multiple equilibria are foundational concepts that have not just advanced macroeconomic theory but also influenced the practical operation of fiscal and monetary policy as policy makers have expanded the scope of asset purchases and adopted policies similar to those advocated in his 2016 book Prosperity for All.

In the excerpts, Professor Farmer traces the development of his own thinking on macroeconomics, and argues that the way economists view human beings, how humans interact with others and the way they form preferences, shapes their interactions in markets.

When Dr Armstrong asks how he would classify himself within the different schools of thought discussed in the book, he jokes,

“There are many pluralistic views. I’m not sure why anyone would put a label on themselves, I refuse to be labelled as anything. I’m a Farmerian”

Although Professor Farmer’s research has been very much mainstream for much of his career, in his written work, he has fostered a dialogue between mainstream and heterodox economists.

In Professor Farmer’s words:

"Phil's book is a wonderful opportunity to learn the views of economists outside of the mainstream. If you are studying economics, particularly if you plan to make a career as an economist, this is an opportunity to investigate alternative viewpoints. Perhaps you will be able to make your own contributions by picking the best ideas and synthesising them in your own work with the approach you're learning in class".

Professor Farmer also discusses his work with the Rebuilding Macroeconomics programme funded by the ESRC and argues that the coronavirus crisis will be as transformative for macroeconomic thinking as the Great Depression of the 1930s and the Global Financial Crisis of a decade ago.

Updated 3 December 2020

We are delighted that eight academics from the Department of Economics have been named as among the World’s Top 2 per cent Scientists by Stanford University. The list contains names of the top 2 per cent of the most-cited scientists in various disciplines.

The methodology was developed by Professor John Ioannidis of Stanford University, whose team created and analysed a database of 100,000 top scientists of the world based on standardised citation indications such as information on citations, an individual’s scientific research output, co-authorship, and a composite indicator for career long impact.

The study, published in PLOS Biology, claims to be the first classification that systematically ranks all the most cited scientists in every scientific field, providing one searchable reference tool.

We would like to congratulate the following academics from the Department of Economics who are included in the career-long citation impact list (Table-S6):

• Nick Crafts - Emeritus Professor and former Director of ESRC Research Centre CAGE
• Victor Lavy - Professor of Economics
• Ben Lockwood - Professor of Economics
• Andrew Oswald - Professor of Economics and Behavioural Science

We would also like to congratulate the following researchers from the Department who are included in the single year citation impact list (Table-S7):

• Wiji Arulampalam - Professor of Economics
• Sascha Becker - Professor of Economics
• Roger Farmer - Professor of Economics
• James Fenske - Professor of Economics

Professor Jeremy Smith, Head of Department, said:

“I am very proud of my colleagues who have made the list of best scientists in the world and I’d like to congratulate them all. Their research work, which contributes to a better understanding of global issues and addressing world problems, speaks of excellence and is truly inspiring to us all.”

PLOS Biology link to the article - Updated science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators

The Department of Economics, University of Warwick, has published the first episode in its new podcast series, Warwick Econ Sounds.

With contributions from leading economists, the podcast series will present latest research from the Department and provide academic insight into topical societal and economic issues. It will discuss the nature of the discipline itself, exploring why economics is important for solving global problems as well impacting everyday life.

In the first episode, Dr Michela Redoano discusses how political campaigning on social media - especially Facebook - affected the outcome of the 2016 US presidential election.

The podcast series aims to provide insight relevant to students, members of the research community and wider public interested in finding out more about the issues our researchers investigate and why. New episodes will be published fortnightly and will be available to stream or download via the Departmental website.

Listen to episode one- How does social media influence voting outcomes?