Over the past 25 years, sustainable finance has grown from a visionary concept discussed at UN climate conferences to a multi-billion dollar market. It’s an umbrella term used to refer to an investment approach that takes environmental, social and governance factors into account when deciding where to invest.

One of the biggest names in sustainable finance today is Warwick alumna Caroline Escott. Regularly cited in lists and surveys of the industry’s most influential figures, she’s taken a range of interesting and exciting roles since graduating in the class of 2006, and is now Senior Investment Manager for one of the UK's largest pension schemes, Railpen.

We caught up with Caroline to hear about her career choices, the skills she believes are essential to make a success in the financial markets, and why she believes sustainable investment is one of the most effective ways to achieve both good outcomes for pension savers and positive change in the world.

Caroline, you have been named as one of the Top 50 Most Influential in Sustainable Finance by FinancialNews - can you explain what sustainable finance is?

Sustainable investors are responsible for allocating capital to companies where they are either doing well on environmental, social and governance issues or where they can be influenced to do better. Sustainable finance can also help drive flows of capital to those companies and sectors that are most important for the ongoing sustainability and viability of the world around us, such as new carbon emission abatement technologies or low-carbon infrastructure projects. As investors, we can – and do – try to influence individual companies, but it can be especially powerful to help shape the regulatory environment that governs how these companies behave. This is particularly the case when it comes to big, system-wide issues like climate change, biodiversity or labour rights.

Over the last few years, you have come to specialise in sustainable finance, especially within the area of pension schemes. What has brought you to this focus? What impact would you like to have within this?

If you are interested in influence and effecting positive change, then you need to be at an organisation where the decisions which are made matter to people’s lives. Pension schemes are perfect for this in two main ways. Firstly, they have a privileged role as large capital allocators, sitting at the top of the investment chain. Secondly, people rely on their pension schemes for their retirement income. In the UK, there are huge numbers of people at risk of an inadequate income in retirement, making this one of the biggest challenges we face as a country – and a vital field to work in.

I hope that the contributions I make to this work – including setting up and leading large global initiatives like the Investor Coalition for Equal Votes (ICEV) and the Workforce Directors Coalition (WDC) – will help bring about much-needed change in the best interest of pension scheme members.

You have made a few different career changes, from Parliamentary political research to finance and investment, all within the general theme of public policy. What made you want to make these changes, and what gave you the confidence to do so?

Moving between different sectors has happened in large part because of my work to build industry networks. I enjoy meeting new people and learning new things. This has helped me build a high-quality and wide network of experts and I’ve been fortunate to have been recommended to interview for well over half of my roles by people who I’d worked with on projects in the past – even where I was, on paper, the ‘wildcard’ candidate. I’ve now moved sectors enough that I recognise for myself the huge importance of transferable skills and the right attitude in being able to adapt to, and then thrive in, a new role.

Public policy and advocacy have always been at least part of the roles I’ve taken up. While at Warwick, my studies quickly helped me understand the huge influence that flows of capital as well as the regulatory and policy framework can have on the world around us – and that the real potential for effecting change lies where these two intersect. Even now, heading up the investment stewardship programme at Railpen, I’m a keen advocate of investors learning about how to effect policy and regulatory change.

What skills did you learn during your degree at Warwick that you still use in your role at Railpen now?

Studying economics changed how I see the world and taught me to take time to consider and understand the assumptions underlying anything from a substantive piece of research to the way in which a question in a meeting has been structured. Being able to understand and then potentially question the assumptions used is fundamental to the critical thinking that has become even more important as I take on more senior and leadership positions in my career.

What is your best memory of the University of Warwick and the Department of Economics?

It’s hard to choose just one! When I think of Warwick, I think of all the times I spent sitting and chatting with my friends – or people watching, reading a book, or getting ready to go to Top Banana.

I also remember the keen thrill of anticipation at the sheer number of modules I could choose to take as part of my degree. I ended up plumping for Italian language and translation, and a few economic history modules during my time.

You were involved in a few different societies during your time at Warwick, including Latin and Ballroom Society, and Warwick Economics Society. How did your time with these societies impact you, and what skills did they develop?

First – and perhaps most importantly – I met great people, some of whom are still close friends today. However, I also found the leadership roles I took on in these societies vital to helping me get my first job without much ‘proper’ work experience. I had both learnt and was able to demonstrate an ability to think more strategically, to organise my time effectively and to motivate a diverse group of individuals to achieve a particular outcome.

Caroline Escott (BSc Economics, Politics and International Studies, 2006)

You can find Caroline's op-ed on sustainable finance in The Times here.

67% of Warwick Economics graduates choose careers in finance, consulting, technology and government*. But a degree in economics opens the door to a wide variety of professions, both traditional and non-traditional. We caught up with alumnus Alan Tang to discuss his fascinating career changes, how his degree at Warwick equipped him with the confidence and skills to work in multiple fields, and his new role as Co-Founder of educational social impact business Collaboration Laboratory.

Alan Tang graduated from BSc Economics at Warwick in 2010, heading straight into a Senior Audit Associate role at Grant Thornton UK. After working for 6 years in corporate finance, Alan took a two-year sabbatical to train as a chef, working in some of the top restaurants in London.

Alan then went on to create his own consultancy company to develop new startups, taking the role of Director of Special Projects for different businesses such as Tailify and Eaten Alive. In July 2023, Alan set his sights on a new project, founding a social impact business to teach children key social and soft skills: Collaboration Laboratory (CoLab). We spoke to Alan about his fascinating career journey.

After graduating from Warwick, you began working in the corporate finance sector, following an internship with Grant Thornton. What made you want to enter this sector?

I chose to go into finance as it was a career that opened many doors. I remember being inspired by my Principles of Finance lecturer Peter Corvi. His lectures were always practical and fascinating and he played a big part in my decision to go into corporate finance.

After your time in finance, you then decided to take a sabbatical and train as a chef. This is a huge career change – what gave you the confidence to decide and initiate that change?

I had a good amount of savings built up, I had a strong enough CV to act as a backup plan and I had spent time doing my due diligence (working in restaurants part time, volunteering at food pop ups) to know what I was throwing myself into. I loved those 2 years as a chef and I don't regret it for a moment! This mindset shift of believing that I could change has helped me in so many parts of my life and I wholly recommend it to anyone.

You then decided to step into consultancy and set up your own business. After already experiencing two major industries, what made you want to try consulting?

I love the variety involved in consultancy. You're often presented with a problem that no-one else has solved and it's up to you to figure out and build what the MVP (minimum viable product) solution looks like! I recently had to help an employer brand agency build an employer brand sentiment tracker and did everything from finding vendors, analysing the data, building the dashboard and selling the service line!

How has your degree in Economics at Warwick equipped you for your professional life and the major career changes that you have made?

My economics degree gave me the qualitative and quantitative skills I've needed in each of my start-up and corporate roles and I'm thankful for that. The biggest value added, however, came from the curiosity that was instilled into me by my tutors and also the friendship groups that I made at Warwick. I'm still very close to my economics group and rely on them frequently when I have challenging situations to deal with.

The biggest takeaway from my economics degree has been an ability to articulate fairly complex ideas and frameworks in an easy to understand manner. I often have to explain quite complex ideas to a range of audiences and the ability to do this with a sprinkling of storytelling makes life much, much easier as a consultant.

Alan’s latest venture is CoLab. Co-founded in July 2023, this project aims to teach school children different social and soft skills needed in the modern workplace, through a variety of online games, discussions and escape rooms. CoLab currently reaches 11 countries, and encourages its 170 students to work across their various language barriers and cultural differences to problem-solve. The business also works to reduce educational gaps and has given over $10,000 of scholarships to children from less privileged backgrounds.

Alan, when did you become interested in social impact work and the focus on children’s education?

My family have a history of supporting schools in rural China but it wasn't until I started working at Synthesis that I realised the true impact education could have on the world. After working 10+ years in for-profit organisations I wanted to put my time and effort towards a project that made a difference.

In my experience, soft skills (especially emotional intelligence and communication) are crucial to succeeding at work and in your personal life and they're skills that become increasingly difficult to learn as you grow older. When I interview graduates who are looking to join the start-ups I advise, many of them sadly struggle to break down a problem if it's slightly outside of their comfort zone. I don't doubt that they have the ability to solve the problem but I think that many graduates are so focussed on learning exam technique to pass exams that they've forgotten the real purpose of learning. I suspect a fear of failure also plays a part in this. We started CoLab to help kids develop a toolbox of skills that they can apply across a variety of situations and scenarios - all via experience-based learning.

CoLab is an incredibly diverse project and allows its pupils to learn about and share cultures. What impact does diversity have on a child’s development?

CoLab is intentionally global because we want kids from around the world to meet. The idea is that this will lead to diversity of thought, sharing of cultures and will also help to remove any unconscious biases that they may have previously had. We recently had a student share about Diwali and how it's celebrated in India and that was a really lovely moment to witness. Many parents have also said that they want their child to develop their confidence in the English language and CoLab provides this opportunity in a fun, low pressure environment.

CoLab also aims to make education and development more accessible for children, and will have made a huge impact to children’s lives through the scholarships that you have offered. What is the value of accessibility for education?

Having seen how hard my parents had to work to support me through university, I strongly believe that wealth shouldn't be a barrier to good education. I think that there's enough literature out there to show that education is core to escaping the poverty cycle and I hope the work we're doing at CoLab can help towards this.

Corporate finance, cheffing, consulting and social impact – what’s next?

I'm focussing on growing CoLab and also supporting other social impact/food businesses that interest me. I want to help CoLab become a sustainable business that does even more good. Ideally we get to 250 students and then have an internal reset to think about how we could make CoLab even better.

Right now, I'm fundraising for a kimchi manufacturer, coaching the founder of an ethical debt collection business and investing in a variety of environmental startups. I want to do my bit to help the world and hopefully inspire others to do the same.

Alan Tang, BSc Economics 2010

*based off the Economics Undergraduate Destinations Report 2022.

Class of 2016 MSc Economics alumna Ankita Pathak got in touch with the exciting news that her book on Macroeconomics is a best-seller in India.

Since graduating, Ankita has been working as an economist in the Indian capital markets. The questions she encountered every day from clients, colleagues and managers inspired her to write The Macro Faire, which introduces macroeconomics in simple language with a specific focus on the Indian economy.

Ankita says:

“While textbooks are great, they never offer a practical perspective. Additionally, very few books cover the Indian economy in particular. I felt the urge to write what I know as an answer to those questions. It also turned out to be a great learning exercise for me.”

 

After 7 years in the capital markets Ankita has returned to study and has been accepted onto the MBA programme at INSEAD.

We asked Ankita to tell us more about her publishing success, her reflections on being a Commonwealth Scholar at Warwick, and her plans for the future.

What were your first career steps after graduating?

I was a Commonwealth Scholar at the University of Warwick. Staying true to this mission, I chose to contribute to India and its economy. I came back right after graduation and started working as Senior Economist at an institutional equity broking firm. I also worked very closely with organizations that contributed towards the education of teenage girls.

Can you tell us more about what being a Commonwealth Scholar meant for you?

The scholarship was an instrumental step in me finding the resources to study in the UK. I felt its mission, imbibed it and - to my best abilities - delivered it.

Warwick has insightful modules in Public Policy and Development Economics. Taking them as my electives made me realize the importance of the mission of the Commonwealth Commission even further, and I was further inspired by the opportunity to interact with Mark Carney, then Governor of the Bank of England, on our farewell dinner.

Being a commonwealth scholar at Warwick was something which changed the course of my life - it accelerated it in the right direction.

What’s the focus of your book?

The focus of my book is macroeconomics and very specifically, the many indicators in the subject such as growth, inflation, trade, balance of payments and many more. The book effectively simplifies these complex topics and tailors their understanding for investing in asset classes- equity, debt, commodity and currency. While the examples are from an Indian context the theory is pretty universal. Also, the book is a toolkit and application of the concepts can still be very individualistic.

How long did it take to write it?

I think it’s fair to say that it took two years of planning and 6 months of actual sitting down to write regime for me to make sure the book sees the light of day.

How did you keep yourself motivated to finish it?

It was something I was genuinely interested in so motivation was an easy find. In fact, finding time was the harder bit but I had the most supportive ecosystem at home and at work which made this an easier journey.

What do reviewers say about it?

While I await professional reviews, this is typical of what I’m hearing from actual people who have read it:

“The Macro Faire is a perfect bridge between the world of Academics and its practical application as far as Macro Economics goes. I wish I would have had the privilege of something like this when I started out my career in Equities. Needless to say it’s a useful read even for professionals who often in the day to day work schedule overlook the basics in search for the complex. And this book is uniquely Indian!”

I feel very grateful that I could contribute to people’s understanding and add some value to my peers.

What were your highlights from studying at Warwick?

I remember it being the most amazing time of my life - so much greenery, clean air, endless opportunities of knowledge enhancement and a fantastic peer set. Warwick still feels like home. It brings a very warm sense of nostalgia.

Among other things, the curriculum was amazing. The choice of electives were relevant. It was a very enriching time of my life. It is impossible to believe the amount of work and travel I was able to fit in one year.

What was your favourite module and why?

I think it was Public Policy. At that time, I was very keenly interested in the differences in public policy in emerging and developed economies. Coming from India, some cases and class discussions were not just engaging but also eye opening. They made me have a very different lens and perspective to the world- something that I did not have before.

Do you keep in touch with your fellow students from Warwick?

Yes, we did an all-girls trip 3 years after graduation. However, then covid-19 interrupted us. I have been to their countries and I have hosted 4 of my Warwick friends in India. We talk almost every week and we keep sharing Instagram stories/other trivia to keep it going. It doesn’t feel like it’s been many years, it always feels like we just were together last week or something.

And finally, what are your next steps now that the book is published?

In my last job, I was the lead economist with DSP Asset Managers in Mumbai. As of today, I’m enrolled in the MBA programme at INSEAD.

This is turning out to be another gruelling but exciting experience! I think some of us just always want to learn and I’m beginning to recognize myself as someone who’s always curious. I’m learning a lot every day and I hope to use the knowledge to advance myself and my country someday.

Here is a link to more information about Ankita's book The Macro-Faire: An Investor's Guide to MacroeconomicsLink opens in a new window

We all recognise that what we learn at university can have a long-lasting effect on our lives, shape our careers and have a wider impact on society. But it can also teach us a range of practical skills beyond our expectation, skills that can empower us to make different choices and apply them successfully to problem solving in a business context.

Meet Shishir Garg, Warwick Economics graduate of class 2018 and second-generation entrepreneur based in India, who reflects on how his degree course in economics transformed him and his ability to apply economic knowledge in real life situations. After graduating with a BSc in Economics from Warwick, with an Examiners’ Prize for Best Performance in Research in Applied Economics, Shishir stayed on at Warwick as a Research Assistant for Professor Thiemo Fetzer who had been his personal tutor and dissertation supervisor. Before moving back to India, Shishir undertook an MPhil in Economics and Finance at Cambridge and then became a consultant at the World Bank.

Now Shishir runs R.P Poly Plast Ltd, a leading manufacturing company in the city of Kanpur, India. Shishir attributes the success of his business to his ability to implement economic techniques he learnt during his time at Warwick and Cambridge.

We ask Shishir a series of questions about his enterprise and how he perceives the connection between academia and business.

Could you tell us more about your business and the economic impact it is having in Kanpur and the surrounding region?

Our business interests include manufacturing edible oils (such as rice bran oil and soyabean oil), high density Polyethylene based tarpaulin and Polypropylene based woven sacks and fabric. Our most recent venture is to manufacture expanded polyethylene sheets and rolls which are used in mattresses, packaging, furniture, and consumer goods. This new manufacturing unit will provide employment for about a hundred people who come from rural backgrounds and live under extreme poverty.

How is it possible for an economics graduate to run a manufacturing business without a scientific or science technology background?

I strongly believe that if you are provided with the right skills or tools, you can solve any problem that comes your way. I have come to observe and appreciate how my experience, at world class universities under top professors, equipped me to handle problems, implement novel techniques and put theories into practice. These skills are especially hard to come by in my part of the world, so I can truly say that my university education has had a huge positive influence on my life.

What were the most important lessons you learned during your time at Warwick?

My undergraduate tutor at Warwick, Professor Thiemo Fetzer, always taught me to think differently and to approach the unique challenges that each research paper brings in a structured way. The challenge can be anything: from considering how proxies can be used if there is not enough data available to deciding which economic technique would be most suitable to apply.

This was especially liberating as sometimes in undergraduate study things are structured in such a way that you have to find answers in quite a defined and rigid manner. But in practice, you get a lot of curveballs and there are no set answers. Professor Fetzer really taught me how textbook economics is deployed in real life through his work and the research I did for him.

I especially learnt a lot from him while I was working on my undergraduate dissertation, under his tutelage, for which I was awarded the Department prize. During that time, I got a good grasp of what a research paper looks like and the importance of finding the mechanisms through which changes are taking place. Previously my understanding of research was based on preconceived notions such as finding a result by running regressions in Stata and finding the significance of a variable by looking at the p-value, rather than considering the wider context and economic theory.

How have you applied your economics skills to improve your business practices?

After I graduated I worked as a research assistant for Professor Fetzer for four years. I got to work on some amazing projects and learn about the best research methods and economic techniques. The skills I learnt have helped me immensely to transform the business. For instance, there are lot a of manufacturing steps involved in refining edible oils. A small change in temperature or pressure at any step may lead to a huge change in the yield and quality of oil. Virtually no data on this was being documented before. However, since I joined the business, we have implemented a variety of novel data collection techniques using various instruments and field experiments to isolate how a change in one variable affects the final product.

Through such techniques, we have developed an unparalleled understanding of the mechanisms and variables which alter the composition of oil. This, in turn, has significantly reduced our costs while enhancing the quality of our oils. These changes would certainly not have been possible without the knowledge of economic techniques gained during my time at university.

Could you tell us more about the sustainability initiatives that your business invests in?

Our new manufacturing unit is unique due to a plethora of factors. Foremost, half of the energy consumption will come from the grid-connected 250 KW Solar rooftop installed on our plant (pictured above). It was installed in collaboration with Tata Power, the premier solar manufacturer in India. This is especially important given that India meets most of its power needs by burning fossil fuels such as coal. Given the fact that heatwaves are becoming common in India, this will help tackle climate change in a small way. This programme is just the tip of the iceberg as we plan to generate 1 MW of solar energy in house at our manufacturing units.

Secondly, all the waste generated in the manufacturing process will be recycled through a first-of-its-kind recycling machine whereby the recycled product can again be reused to make the sheets and rolls. Moreover, there will be zero water discharge as water used in the manufacturing process will be recycled and reused again.

Shishir Garg, BSc Economics 2018

Warwick Economics alumnus Andy Haldane has been made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the King’s Birthday Honours 2023.

Andy Haldane graduated from Warwick with an MA in Economics in 1989 and joined the Bank of England the same year, where he went on to become Chief Economist. He stepped down from his role at the Bank of England in July 2021 to become Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA).

Haldane co-founded Pro Bono Economics in 2009 following the global financial crisis, with the aim of using economics to help charities and social enterprises improve the impact of their work. In 2014 he was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME magazine.

Haldane has returned to the University to speak at events hosted by the Department of Economics and CAGE Research Centre throughout recent years, including the Warwick Economics Alumni Event in October 2022 and CAGE’s public policy event 'Bold Policies for Uncertain Times' in February 2023.

He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Warwick in 2019.

Meet Elisabeth Prager, Warwick Economics alumna and co-founder of money advice company Aila. Elisabeth graduated from Warwick in 2009 with a first-class degree in Economics and Economic History and worked in a variety of roles in the financial services industry before establishing her own management consultancy in 2019. She has worked with multinational for-profit and non-profit organisations to help them solve strategic challenges.

Elisabeth (pictured above left) recently launched Aila Money with her close friend Nitika Vyas (above right), a Warwick alumna from the class of 2008. Here she tells us about the aims of Aila and how she has used learning from her economics degree throughout her career.

Why did you establish Aila?

Nitika and I met after university and bonded because we both worked in finance, as well as both being Warwick graduates! Working in the finance sector, it struck us how much financial advice was available to people who had money.

But at the same time, our friends were coming to us for guidance on investing. Questions like ‘How does investing work and what kind of product or fund might be right for me?’ or ‘What is ESG (Environmental Social and Governance) investing and how do I know my money is doing good?’ kept cropping up.

We became increasingly dissatisfied with how the financial services industry is exacerbating wealth inequalities. There is a huge money advice gap, especially with the younger generation and women. A Royal London report estimated that approximately 75% of the UK population don’t receive independent financial advice, and without this, individuals stand to lose an estimated £48k on average every ten years. In addition, the gender investment gap is substantial, with high-earning women losing out on almost £800k over their careers by not investing (Ellevest 2018).

At the same time, we realised there was a huge inter-generational wealth transfer taking place. In the UK alone, between 2020-2050, £5.5tn is due to be transferred into the Millennials’ and Gen Z’s hands (FT Advisor, 2020). In addition, by 2025, 60% of the UK’s wealth is projected to belong to women (WealthiHer, 2019). For these groups, having access to high-quality independent financial advice is essential.

With the current cost of living crisis, rising interest rates and high inflation, financial stress is also on the rise. These gaps and inequalities seemed worthy issues to tackle.

So, what is Aila Money?

Aila Money is a personal finance coaching solution for people embarking on or in the middle of successful careers, who are looking to be more financially effective and efficient.

Aila comprises three core capabilities:

Aila Assistant is a digital financial assistant that provides users with a complete overview of their finances and gives them personalised prompts and information to help them better plan and manage their money, in line with their life goals and financial situation. The prompts leverage behavioural science principles to nudge people into action. Financial learning modules are also embedded into Aila Assistant.

An example of a prompt might be something along the lines of ‘I notice you don’t have a Lifetime ISA, did you know as a first-time buyer if you save £4,000 a year, the Government will add an additional £1,000?’.

Aila Coach gives users access to an accredited financial coach - a human - to guide their financial journey and hold them to account. When interviewing people about money, we realised that their financial behaviours were often intertwined with emotion. From lacking confidence to invest to feeling a heightened sense of financial responsibility when becoming a parent; emotions and money are inextricably linked. Aila’s accredited financial coaches help users address the emotions and the money side of things.

Aila Advisor connects users to a network of experts and vetted advisors to help with more complex money situations. For example, you might need to speak to a mortgage advisor or lawyer if you want to buy a house - or a pension advisor if you are looking to plan for retirement.

What does the word Aila mean?

In Scottish Gaelic Aila stands for ’bearer of light’ and in Finnish, Aila means ‘from the strong place’. We felt this was fitting, given we are looking to shed a light on people’s financial situation and empower them to better manage their money, so they can find the financial freedom they are seeking. 

Turning more to you, what was your career journey from graduation to setting up Aila?

My career has been an interesting one, so far! After Warwick, I started on a graduate scheme in the life and pensions industry and then moved into private banking. These two jobs provided me with a solid understanding of the financial services industry and good insights into how people manage their money.

Thereafter, I joined a boutique strategy and innovation consulting firm and worked on multiple financial services projects across Europe, America and Africa. These experiences allowed me to see how different countries solve similar customer needs in different ways, especially through leveraging innovative technology solutions. I then moved into the philanthropic, non-governmental and impact investing arena, where I enjoyed exploring how investments and technology can contribute to solving some of the world’s biggest challenges.

This was also the time when I started to think more seriously about my own finances, as I moved countries multiple times, bought a flat, set up as a freelancer and became a mother of two.

Starting Aila seemed like the natural progression; bringing together so many of the things I learned so far and tapping into a personal passion - to shrink some of the gaps I highlighted earlier.

How has learning from your economics degree helped you in your career and in your current role as an entrepreneur?

Warwick was a great springboard to starting my career and continues to be so as an entrepreneur. The learnings from my degree have shaped the way I think and how I approach problems. I’m also grateful that the professors held us to a high bar when it came to using solid sources and data and taught us to think critically and independently.

What were the highlights of your time at Warwick?

What a question! There are so many highlights. To name a few: meeting some of my closest friends in halls, to dressing up for Union evenings, to learning to climb and playing squash, lacrosse and rugby, to debating that econometrics is fundamentally flawed because it assumes that humans are rational with the professor… these were all great and very memorable moments at Warwick!

Elisabeth Prager, BSc Economics and Economic History with study abroad, 2009

View Elisabeth's LinkedIn profile

Artificial intelligence is rarely out of the headlines. This week Microsoft founder Bill Gates declared the development of AI “as fundamental as the creation of the microprocessor, the personal computer, the Internet, and the mobile phone.”

You may not be using ChatGPT to help with exam answers, or creating art with Midjourney – but you are very likely to be already interacting with aspects of AI in your everyday life – maybe through the algorithms that select which show to recommend you view next on your streaming media; or which of your friends’ posts you will see on social media; or through applying to a firm which uses AI to assist in hiring decisions. Or perhaps you have had a medical diagnosis backed by AI-assisted computer screening.

Like Bill Gates, many researchers think we are on the horizon of an AI revolution. As well as benefits, there are challenges – are there unethical uses of AI? A machine intelligence could predict whether a person is likely to commit a crime before they do so, tempting authorities to imprison them in advance. Among others, the systems can unintentionally learn to replicate unhelpful stereotypes and bias.

One of the researchers working on ways to ensure the next stage of AI development is helpful, not harmful, is Warwick Economics alumna Charlotte Siegmann (PPE 2021).

Taking recent concerns over inappropriate responses by ChatGPT to users as a starting point, Charlotte explains the challenges:

“ChatGPT was not unexpected - similar base models have existed for a few years now.

“‘Sydney’ was likely a poorly fine-tuned model that never posed a real danger to anyone. However, something very important can be gleaned from observing Sydney and other models: over the next 1, 3, or 10 years, models will become increasingly capable but remain likely unsafe.

“This is because we still do not fully understand current models, and we have not solved the bigger problem of how to ensure that AIs do not do things we do not want them to do. This problem is challenging for several reasons:

• The complexity and difficulty of interpretability.
• AIs can learn incorrect goals unnoticed by humans during the training process - this is called Goal Misgeneralization.
• Humans can’t fully specify what they find desirable - this is known as Reward Misspecification,

“There are many open questions in AI safety and AI governance that researchers and policymakers need to address. What is happening within big models? How can we guide them to elicit latent knowledge that they don’t necessarily reveal through simply prompting? How can we avoid deceptive models?

“Similarly, in AI governance, we need to understand how this technology will develop, how to evaluate its safety, how to incentivize labs to invest in safety and how to mitigate disrupting effects on the epistemic environment, job market or national security.”

Charlotte is about to take up a PhD position at MIT focusing on the safety of transformative AI systems, as well as governance, working together with scholars in both fields. But she has already contributed to the public debate, as co-author (with Markus Anderljung) of The Brussels Effect and Artificial Intelligence: How EU regulation will impact the global AI market.

The report takes a deep dive into the EU’s ambition to set the global standard on AI regulation, following its success in setting the global benchmark for data protection with the GDPR, and explores whether such a “Brussels Effect” is likely.

Charlotte and Markus argue that the EU’s proposed regulations are especially significant in offering the first and most influential operationalisation of what it means to develop and deploy trustworthy or human-centred AI.

“If the EU’s plans are likely to see significant global diffusion, ensuring the regulations are well-designed becomes a matter of global importance,” Charlotte explains.

Reflecting on her time as an undergraduate and how her interest in AI research was sparked, Charlotte says:

“I started thinking about transformative AI in my first year of University and enjoyed discussing the issues with fellow Warwick students. I also attended a summer school on the topic. The economics perspective came later - I first became interested in microtheory in the Game theory course with Costas Cavounidis in my second year.

“During the first wave of the Covid pandemic, I interned with the Future of Life Institute. Together with a policy expert at the institute, I worked on a consultation response to the EU AI Whitepaper, a roadmap laying out the EU’s response to AI technology. Back then, the work on transformative AI or even human-level AI was more speculative - ChatGPT or GPT-4 did not yet exist.

“Since graduating I have been working as an economics predoc at the Global Priorities Institute at the University of Oxford. The Institute combines a philosophy and economic research group and we focus on research that can inform prioritisation efforts of actors wanting to do the most good.

“I did research on the longtermism paradigm, ways of influencing the far future from existential risk reduction to population growth. As a predoc, I organised research workshops, collaborated with others on research projects and shared my research with colleagues both within and outside the institute, among others in Canada and Japan.

“It’s very exciting to work at a young research institute at which we support each other’s work and a lot of collaboration is happening.”

We wish Charlotte every success as she begins her PhD research later this year.

The Department congratulates recent PhD graduate Ozge Demirci, who has won the CESifo Distinguished Affiliate Award for her research in the economics of digitisation.

 Ozge Demirci has been awarded the Distinguished CESifo Affiliate AwardLink opens in a new window in the area of the economics of digitisation by the CESifo Research Network. The award is intended for promising young economists and is granted for the best paper presented at the CESifo Area Conferences. An award committee gives the award to a young economist on the basis of the scientific originality, policy relevance, and quality of exposition in their research. 

Ozge's research is in applied microeconomics with a focus on the economics of digitisation and discrimination. Some of her recent research investigates the impacts of regulations targeting algorithmic bias. She analyzes if anti-discriminatory policies that ban using sensitive information such as race or gender in algorithmic processes are effective or whether algorithms adjust to circumvent the regulations.

In her award-winning paper "Can Gender-Blind Algorithmic Pricing Eliminate the Gender Gap?" Dr Demirci uses a natural experiment to investigate the impact of gender-blind algorithmic pricing on consumers and firms. She focuses on a recent policy regulation that prohibits using gender information in pricing algorithms for automobile insurance in the US. Her research investigates how this policy affects the insurance premiums paid by male and female consumers and the pricing algorithms companies use. 

Ozge's findings show that after the policy was implemented, algorithms started to price features correlated with the riskiest gender group, young males, significantly more. For instance, drivers using specific car models associated with young males started paying more after the ban.

Dr Demirci's findings illustrate the limitations of anti-discrimination policies that impose group-blind pricing and have implications for the design of fairer regulations for algorithms.

Dr Demirci's winning paper will appear in the CESifo Working Paper SeriesLink opens in a new window.

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Ozge Demirci is a PhD graduate in Economics at the University of Warwick. She has received several awards during her graduate studies, including Outstanding Paper Award at Discrimination and Diversity Workshop and the Emerging Scholar Award from the Diversity in Organizations, Communities, and Nations Research Network. Additionally, her research has received several grants, including a research grant from the Royal Economics Society and the Dissertation Fellowship from the University of Warwick.

Find more about Ozge's researchLink opens in a new window

Ten exciting and original dissertations have been published today in the bi-annual Warwick Monash Economics Student Papers (WM-ESP) series.

The online portal showcases the best undergraduate and masters economics research at the two partner universities. The ten papers published today bring the total in the series to 42.

The WM-ESP portal was launched just over 12 months ago with 17 carefully selected papers. A further 15 were added in February 2022. The series aims to provide an insight into the issues which young economists are using their skills to understand and solve. Issues tackled so far include income inequality, obesity, climate change, human capital, boardroom diversity, and livestock vaccination rates in Vietnam.

Member of the WM-ESP Editorial Board Dr Cecilia Lanata-Briones said:

“The Warwick Editorial Board of the WM-ESP is delighted to publish this third collection of original and innovative student research papers.

“Research is at the heart of the Monash Warwick Alliance’s mission and we believe that the work of our undergraduate and masters students fully deserves to be showcased alongside their more experienced research colleagues.

“We hope these dissertations inspire future students at Warwick, Monash and elsewhere with the breadth of topics tackled and the high quality of the work.”

Five of the students who were invited to submit their dissertations to the portal are studying at the University of Warwick.

Harry Beaven looked at the economics of the music industry, with a paper titled “Do songs become more popular after being sampled?” He said:

“It’s a real honour to have been selected for publication, especially considering that my research regards the largely overlooked field of cultural economics. I believe that the study of economics is not, and should not be, limited to just growth and game theory; in this regard I am so grateful to have received recognition for my efforts in proving the limitless potential of economics. I hope that my paper inspires more research outside of the bounds of traditional applications of theory, and that it can act as a step towards free creative expression within the market for recorded music.

Matthew Darke investigated how the risk of job automation in the UK has changed over time. He said:

“I am very grateful and proud to have had my project recognised and published as part of this paper series. The final year Research in Applied Economics project for me was an enjoyable and extremely rewarding experience. I greatly valued the opportunity to apply my econometric toolkit to the field of technology and AI in particular, which I am really interested in.”

Jack Kemp’s dissertation looks at the educational impact of weakening teachers’ unions using evidence from Wisconsin. He said:

“I am very proud to be selected for the Warwick Monash Economics Student Paper Series. I worked hard on my project and it is rewarding to have my work noticed. I think that it is important to disseminate student research and I hope people find my project interesting.”

Patricio Hernandez Senosiain’s paper is “Why do men keep swiping right? Two-sided search in swipe-based dating platorms.” The fifth Warwick paper selected for publication is by Anya Dobson and is titled “Impacts of ECB unconventional monetary policy on Eurozone sovereign risk: A cross-country analysis.”

Formed 10 years ago in 2012, the Warwick Monash AllianceLink opens in a new window brings together two research-focused universities in an ambitious and collaborative partnership dedicated to developing international leaders and expertise for the future.

Related Links

Read our first article on this initiative from 30 September 2021. Top Economics Student Research Showcased on Warwick Monash Portal.

Read the February 2022 update: MSc Economics student research featured on Warwick Monash portalLink opens in a new window

Visit the portal here: Warwick Monash Economics Student PapersLink opens in a new window

Our Economics Alumni community is a large global network with over 15,000 former students of the Department scattered around the world.

We are lucky to have amazing alumni who are eager to remain connected with us after they graduate. We are keen to hear from them to find out more about the career paths they have taken and how they reflect on the skills and knowledge they acquired on that journey.

In this article we introduce Lynda Whitney (BSc Economics, 1997), who is Partner at Aon where she is a Scheme Actuary and actively involved with making complex topics easier for pension scheme trustees. We caught up with Lynda earlier this year when she joined us as part of our virtual ‘Coffee with Economists’ event to celebrate inspirational women economists as part of the International Women's Day 2021.

Following this successful event we decided to ask Lynda a few more questions about the career choices she made since graduation. In particular, we asked her to comment about what it’s like to be a female economist in a male dominated field and what can be done to achieve a better gender balance.

How did you decide upon your chosen career path?

I followed my interests and what I was good at. I enjoyed economic statistics and that then led me towards actuarial work. I then tested that idea through a summer internship which was pivotal in making my career choice. It made me realise that I liked actuarial work and pensions and that’s why I went in that direction.

What was your experience as a woman choosing a career in Economics?

At sixth form college I had already been in the relatively male dominated areas when doing double maths and economics (and the female dominated A level history set). For many years I didn't really reflect on being a woman choosing this career but more that I was choosing a career that I enjoyed.

What does the work of a Scheme Actuary involve?

I work as a consultant mainly with the Trustees of company pension schemes. My role is to help them to make decisions and provide technical guidance. This can involve explaining complex models of life expectancy or future views of inflation or it can be helping them with a negotiation strategy when arguing for more contributions from the company sponsor.

What was your motivation for joining Aon?

I joined a predecessor firm that became part of Aon because of their strong record in supporting actuarial training and because I felt comfortable when I visited that office. I am still there today because the job has kept changing and providing new challenges.

Could you give specific examples of projects you have worked on?

I have helped trustees negotiate multi-million pound contributions from their sponsoring companies. I have designed new forms of security that are not cash. I have helped negotiate the insurance of pension schemes' longevity risk. I have helped trustees to think about how diversity, equity and inclusion applies to their pension structures and decisions.

What is the most fulfilling aspect of your current job?

The best part of my job is helping someone to understand a new concept whether that is a Trustee, a pensions manager, a colleague or a journalist.

What has been the highlight of your career to date?

The 15 minutes of fame was talking about the impact of the changes from RPI to CPI* and getting to explain that technical corner about inflation and pensions on Radio 4 Moneybox and Radio 2 drivetime, to completely non-technical audiences. But the personal highlights have often been the small things, like when I help mentor someone to find the next opportunity and their right niche.

Has the pandemic changed your work in any significant way?

All meetings immediately went virtual and my spare room became my office. But the biggest change was working with company sponsors some of whom were badly impacted by the pandemic and looking to renegotiate the contributions they would make to the pension scheme very quickly. We also had to figure out how furlough worked for pensions, what the employees were entitled to, and the member contributions due. And that is all before then reflecting on how the pandemic has changed long term life expectancy – which is probably a lot less than you might expect as a lay person listening to the news.

Do you get a good work-life balance in your field of work?

I would say that consulting is both intense but also flexible. You have the pressure of client demands but you also have the ability to work part-time and during the pandemic many colleagues have flexed their hours to allow for home schooling or other commitments.

Which skills were of particular importance throughout your career?

The ability to take something complex and explain it simply has been a key skill. This can involve teaching one individual, a small group or presenting to a large room; each scenario needing different presentation styles.

What advice would you give to female students who are considering Economics as a degree but are a bit hesitant?

Economics is built up from people, and thinking about how individuals, businesses or whole countries respond to different economic pressures. Male or female, you want to enjoy analysing problems and thinking about what the most important aspects are.

How would you advise our finalists who are looking for jobs in the current economic climate?

I am aware that recruitment is pressing on as usual. Selection is likely to be through virtual selection centres, but otherwise it isn't very different. If you are researching a company either before a selection centre or especially when trying to decide if you should accept the role, don't be afraid to reach out to someone on social media (like LinkedIn) and ask for a chat. Also, be willing to stand out. Recognise where your strengths are and articulate them.

We thank Lynda for sharing with us her career journey and for her tips to our current and future students.

7 June 2021

*The Retail Prices Index and the Consumer Prices Index.