Professor Caroline Elliott has taken up a prestigious role on the UK’s Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC), an independent body of experts which assesses the quality of evidence and analysis used to inform government regulatory proposals.

Since taking up her appointment in March she has already provided expert review on a range of policy issues including multiple drafts of a white paper, an impact assessment for proposed secondary legislation, and two post-implementation reviews.

Looking towards the future, Caroline said: “I hope that I’ll be able to make a difference by using my applied research knowledge and my academic skills on the impact assessments. We’re also going to start looking at policy options assessments and I’m excited to bring my knowledge to bear on the independent reviews.”

Caroline is continuing a tradition of Warwick economists contributing to the work of the committee – the position became vacant when Dr Jonathan Cave’s term of appointment came to an end. He is delighted that, after a rigorous selection process, the Committee chose to appoint another “proper card-carrying academic economist.”

Caroline said: “Jonathan sent me the advertisement for the role, and when I looked into the work of the committee, I thought it looked amazing. I teach industrial economics, regulation and competition policy and I always try and link my teaching to the real world - I never want to be criticised as being an ivory tower academic. Here was an opportunity to put my work into practice – to not just comment on the work of others, or the work of the government, but to be directly involved.

“As an economist, and as an academic economist, I believe there are two things I bring to the role. The first is my familiarity with academic literature and evidence. The second way in which I feel I’m contributing comes back to my academic training. As an academic, as an applied economist, you’re always looking for data. Sometimes you’re having to pull data together from different sources. And because I come from this background I can assist with this.”

Jonathan is delighted that Caroline has been appointed as his successor. “I think because I kept citing peer-reviewed literature in my Opinions and other interventions, trying to ensure that regulatory analysis made appropriate use of economic empirical methodologies and theoretical tools, including the use of real options analysis - I think they saw the value of having a replacement who is similarly positioned.”

Asked if he had any advice for Caroline, Jonathan said: “Don’t be afraid to challenge people and to be the voice within the committee resisting calls to compromise when that isn’t appropriate, by ensuring that the impacts of whatever regulations ministers wish to propose are rigorously assessed against real problems, but without being drawn into comments about whether the policies themselves are ‘right’ or ‘wrong’.

“I’d encourage her to be very actively engaged with the new government in a partnership based on a culture of evaluation and analysis and a mechanism design view of regulations and the regulatory process of which the RPC is a part. She should strive to remain committed to the concept and values of better regulation and work hard to make those concepts her own – in the committee, in her academic research and teaching and in leaving her mark on the better regulation framework itself.

“If you see how policies are made you can build better regulatory economics models. Regulation is not a matter of feeding a problem into a machine, turning a crank on a machine and ‘solving’ the problem – politics intervenes, economics intervenes, delays intervene, and the things you should be looking for are not always where they should be. For instance, we spent a lot of time worrying about how – or whether – to scrutinise the impacts when government threatens to regulate, business behaviour changes in anticipation and the regulation is abandoned. I think Caroline will find this useful in her academic work, and her teaching.”

Jonathan says that his decade as an RPC member was “fascinating” and saw many changes and developments. He worked hard to encourage the committee to avoid compromising or watering down its opinions for spurious reasons, arguing against “voices that felt we should temporise or give green ratings to things that did not merit them, for the fear that the political cost of refusing would be too high.” Rather than asking if each contested Bill was ‘the right hill to die on’, he tried to sit down with departments to negotiate where possible, and to publish Red opinions where important analytic principles or impacts were not properly acknowledged.

He also became adept at navigating changing political priorities: “I think the biggest lesson I had to learn along the way was how to sail in the direction of better regulation by tacking across a wind blowing from the deregulatory quarter.”

Jonathan also argued strongly for the committee to be allowed to give its opinions at an earlier stage in the policy process: “A few years ago, we only got to look at things when the bills were laid before Parliament, by which time all the decisions had been made. We commented, many times, on impact assessments that were more ex-post rationalisation than a formative influence on the creation of policy – which led to the most tendentious type of data-mining and the temptation to rely on ‘policy-driven evidence.’ Now the RPC is looking at things much earlier in the process, at the options assessment stage.”

In Jonathan’s experience, this particular challenge is not unique to the UK. He said: “I’m very pleased and proud about our international engagement with RegWatch Europe (a network of similar EU scrutiny bodies) our OECD counterpart and OIRA in the United States. I’ve worked closely with them over the years to share best practice and identify common problems, and there has been lot of progress made on this challenge of ex-ante assessment.

“Another challenge is the need to look back and evaluate regulations to see if they have done what they set out to do. I’ve had a long struggle to champion “post-implementation review” and I think we’ve made good progress. The UK is regarded as setting the world standard in this and we’ve been trying to maintain that. That’s been a really good thing.”

ENDS

Last week, a group of students and staff from the Department of Economics participated in a sensory awareness workshop to gain insights into what it feels like to have a disability.

Dr Juliana Carneiro, the Department’s Disability Coordinator and organiser of the workshop, gave an introduction about the importance of awareness of sensory perception and neurodiversity in our learning and working communities. She said:

“Being aware of how disabled people experience the world gives us a valuable insight into issues related to diversity within our society; it teaches us empathy, encourages inclusivity and helps us build a supportive environment for all members of our community. It is also a soft skill recognised and highly valued by employers in the job market.”

Several speakers were invited to contribute to the topic or tell their story of sensory perception, including:

• Dr Damien Homer, Head of Disability Services who talked about different types of assistance available to Warwick’s students.
• Diana Shore, Assistant Professor, WMG - shared her own experience as a person with a disability which is not always visible to those around her. Diana invited the audience to participate in a role play: Juliana interviewed Diana while fidgeting and making noises, to show the audience the challenges a person with hearing impairment must overcome.
• Nivaria Morales Salas, IT Developer in the Department of Economics, explained in her talk about different categories of visual impairment and shared her own experience as a person with disability.
• Martyn Parker, Community Engagement Officer for Warwickshire Vision came with his guide dog Harper who stole the limelight! Martyn shared his experience of visual impairment and interacted with students walking them through obstacles while they were wearing an eye band.

The participants engaged with a number of other hands-on activities to have a taste of the diversity of sensory perception experienced by people within our community, including the use of a wheelchair.

Nivaria Morales Salas commented about the event:

“It’s great to see events like this being organised on campus. They raise awareness of the reality of living with a disability as well as showing that disabled people make a positive contribution to society despite facing daily challenges.”

Economics student
Kush Majithia
trying one of
the activities

More than 20 students and 6 members of staff benefitted from attending the event, fully engaging in the activities and role play and raising their knowledge and understanding of studying, working, and living with diverse people.

Dr Carneiro wishes to thank her colleagues who supported her in organising the event: Claire Johnson, Student Engagement and Experience Coordinator and Tina MacSkimming, Student Support and Progression Officer from the Department of Economics.

Dr Carneiro is also grateful to the sponsors of the event - Professor Rebecca Freeman, Director of the Dean of Student Office, and Professor Lorenzo Frigerio, Pro-Vice Chancellor (Education) - for their support of the Department's Inclusive Education Action Plan.

Related content

Wellbeing and Student Support at Warwick:

• Information for Disabled Students 
• Staff and Student Wellbeing guidelines
• Self-help Resources

A new research project launched today by a partnership including the University of Warwick will explore how shoppers can be encouraged to make more sustainable food choices while they do their online shopping.

The online shopping project is part of the SALIENT food trials, a consortium of eight universities and two research institutes looking at ways to support healthier eating and reduce the impact of food on the planet, funded by the UK government through the ESRC.

The trial is facilitated by a web browser extension for the online grocery platform of a major UK supermarket, which will pull information from a database of over 14,000 ‘life cycle assessments’ for the available products compiled by food sustainability experts Sustained.

Up to 2750 UK shoppers will be recruited to take part in up to five waves. They will be invited to download a plug-in for their internet browser which will provide two sorts of nudges to help guide their purchases:-

• Eco-labelling: these will inform online shoppers about the environmental footprint of their food choices, using an A (least impact) to G (most impact) rating system.
• Product Swaps: shoppers may be shown products with a lower environmental impact and equal or better nutritional profile, in place of their initial choices. These may also be made available at a discount to test the effect of lower prices on purchase decisions.

The researchers will evaluate the impact of these interventions on the environmental rating of consumers’ shopping baskets, to understand whether either intervention results in more sustainable shopping habits and by how much.

Professor Thijs van Rens, co-lead of the Sustained trial, said: “Offering swaps and price discounts are promising ways to get people to buy more sustainable foods, which are often better for their health too. But we have very little evidence for how effective these interventions are, particularly for online grocery shopping.

“Previous research has mostly focused on physical supermarkets or on simulated online supermarkets. But we know that people often make quite different choices in real life than in simulated environments.

“Our collaboration with Sustained will provide a great opportunity to generate real life data which we can analyse in order to recommend policies with the best chance of changing behaviour in a positive way.”

Professor Oyinlola Oyebode, also co-lead of the research trial, said: “Climate change and environmental degradation are important and serious challenges for human health. Changing the food we produce, buy and eat can help to address this, and more sustainable food often offers direct benefits for health too.”

Carl Oliver, Sustained CEO, said: “Empowering more sustainable purchasing choices is part of the journey to reducing the massive impact the global food system has on the environment.

“This trial is also about understanding how industry and policy makers can utilise technology partners like Sustained to shape a food system that supports the health of us and our planet.

“This is an exciting partnership for Sustained as we work towards our vision of helping consumers and businesses reduce their environmental impact through actionable intelligence and collaboration.”

About SALIENT: SALIENT is a team of researchers working with the public, partners from local and national government, food charities, community support teams, and the food industry, with the goal of designing interventions to support healthier eating and reduce the impact of food on the planet. The SALIENT consortium is drawn from eight universities (Oxford, Cambridge, Warwick, Birmingham, Hertfordshire, Liverpool, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Queen Mary University of London) and two research institutes (Nesta and the Behavioural Insights Team). https://www.salientfoodtrials.uk/

Professor Giovanni Ricco has received a prestigious American Economic Journal Best Paper 2024 AwardLink opens in a new window for a paper published in the American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics.

The awards are made annually to the best paper published in each of the four American Economic Journals – Applied Economics, Macroeconomics, Economic Policy and Microeconomics - in the previous three years.  The winning papers are chosen by the journals’ Boards of Editors from those nominated by AEA members.

Professor Ricco’s paper was published in 2021 and is co-authored with Professor Silvia Miranda-Agrippino, Research Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York

In The Transmission of Monetary Policy Shocks Silvia Miranda-Agrippino and Giovanni Ricco study widely used instruments for the identification of monetary policy disturbances, show how the use of these instruments is behind the empirical puzzles reported in the literature, and propose a new high-frequency instrument for monetary policy shocks that accounts for informational rigidities.

Commenting on his award, Professor Ricco said it was a complete surprise but a very welcome one.

Head of Department Ben Lockwood said: “On behalf of all in Warwick Economics I’d like to congratulate Giovanni on his ‘best paper’ award. It is a significant achievement for him personally and an important accolade for the Department."

• The Transmission of Monetary Policy Shocks Silvia Miranda-Agrippino and Giovanni Ricco, American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics 2021, 13(3): 74–107. https://doi.org/10.1257/mac.20180124
• Full text versions of the four winning articles are available at https://www.aeaweb.org/about-aea/honors-awards/aej-best-papersLink opens in a new window.

Andrew Oswald, Professor of Economics and Behavioural Science in the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick has been appointed Chair of a new Network Advisory Panel of the IZA Institute of Labour Economics.

The new IZA Network Advisory PanelLink opens in a new window, chaired by Professor Oswald, will discuss, and make suggestions for, the future direction of the IZA research institute.

IZA Institute of Labour EconomicsLink opens in a new window, based in Bonn, is a research institute and the leading international network in labour economics, with around 2,000 scholars from over 60 countries. The institute also now covers behavioural economics. IZA members are dedicated to high-quality research on labour markets, inequality, and behaviour. To date, IZA has published over 16,750 discussion papers which are free for anybody in the world to download and read. It also publishes policy papers and has a substantial history of influencing economic policy in Germany and many other nations.

Last week the major newspapers in Germany, including Der Spiegel and Frankfurt Algemeine Zeitung, ran stories on the formation of the new Panel and its members.

IZA Network Advisory Panel:

• Joseph Altonji, Yale University
• Oriana Bandiera, London School of Economics
• Annabelle Kraus-Pilatus, IZA
• Andrew Oswald, University of Warwick
• Aderonke Osikominu, University of Hohenheim
• Daphne Skandalis, University of Copenhagen

Professor Oswald has been an active member of IZA since 1999 when he joined it as a Research Fellow and working as Acting Director of Research at IZA between 2011 and 2012. His research lies at the borders of economics, psychology, epidemiology and medicine and he worked on trade unions, labour contracts, the wage curve, entrepreneurship, job satisfaction, and the economics of happiness and mental health. He has also published papers on climate change and gives regular talks on climate emergency and policy action.

Professor Andrew Oswald said about his appointment:

"IZA is thought to be the largest network of research economists in the world. It seems to me an honour to be asked to chair this kind of distinguished Panel (it wouldn't greatly surprise me if it contains one or two future Nobel prize winners). It would be especially nice to think that the appointment might, in some small way, reflect Warwick's reputation in European and world economics.”

Relevant links

Professor Andrew OswaldLink opens in a new window – staff profile with a link to his personal website.

Professor Dennis Novy has given evidence to members of the London Assembly on the impact of Brexit on the London economy, at the invitation of the Assembly’s Economy CommitteeLink opens in a new window.

He presented data on the economic costs of Brexit and the problems created for businesses of all sizes by customs checks and regulatory divergence.

Responding to members’ questions he reminded the committee that the UK had given up a position of significant influence in shaping EU trade policy, going back to Margaret Thatcher’s premiership and Peter Mandelson’s contribution as EU Trade Commissioner, and also pointed out the “uncomfortable” fact that the UK is not one of the countries which accepts the highest number of immigrants, a fact sometimes overlooked in public debate.

Introducing the data, Professor Novy told the committee: “Brexit has been a very expensive policy adventure for the UK economy. The impact on UK GDP is something in the range of 3 - 4 per cent. Where does that impact come from? The biggest issue is increased costs for consumers - higher prices and inflation."

Responding to an invitation from the Chair to sum up the positives and negatives of Brexit, Professor Novy encouraged policy-makers to focus on “the art of the possible” and to work in a cross-party way to develop a strategy that reflects the strengths of the UK and the London economy, particularly a cohesive strategy for trade in services. He recommended “more predictability, less uncertainty,” and called for action to “tackle regulatory divergence” saying: “I wish politicians strength and courage to do this in a way that takes voters with them.”

• Professor Novy was one of five invited experts giving evidence and taking questions from the members of the Economy Committee in City Hall on 11 January 2024. The meeting was also webcast live.
• Visit the CAGE website for a fuller report.

Congratulations to Associate Professor Mingli Chen who has been appointed as Associate Editor of the Journal of Econometrics from 1 January 2024

The Journal of Econometrics serves as an outlet for important, high-quality, new research in both theoretical and applied econometrics. The scope of the Journal includes papers dealing with identification, estimation, testing, decision, and prediction issues encountered in economic research. Classical Bayesian statistics, experimental design, and machine learning methods are decidedly within the range of the Journal's interests.

Mingli Chen is an Associate Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick, a Research Associate at CeMMAP, and a Turing Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute (the UK's National Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence). She is working on econometrics, with a special focus on panel data models, social networks, quantile regression, and AI + machine learning both in theoretical inference and applications in economics.

Visit Dr Chen's staff profile for further details about her research and publications.

Arun Advani, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick, has been appointed as a member of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR’s) advisory panel.

The advisory panel consists of leading economic and fiscal experts whose remit is to help develop and scrutinise the OBR’s work programme and forecasting methods.

The revised panel membership was announced in August 2023 and includes 25 academics, economists and industry specialists with expertise across different aspects of the OBR’s work. Dr Advani will contribute specific advice in the areas of public sector finances and public economics, and labour market and migration.

The OBR was created in 2010 to provide independent and authoritative analysis of the UK’s public finances. Its roles include economic and fiscal forecasting, evaluating the Government's performance against fiscal targets, scrutinising the Government’s costing of tax and welfare policies, and assessing fiscal risks and the long-term sustainability of public finances.

Commenting on his appointment, Dr Advani said: “I am delighted to be joining the OBR’s revised advisory panel. The OBR plays a key role in ensuring the sustainability of public finances and holding the UK Government to account and I look forward to contributing to its important work.”

Find out more about the OBR advisory panel

View Arun Advani’s staff profile

Professor Leonardo Melosi has been named as a ‘Wim Duisenberg’ fellow for 2024 by the European Central Bank (ECB).

The prestigious fellowship programme is named after the first President of the ECB and aims to promote policy-relevant research that meets the highest academic standards.

The programme offers research staff at the ECB the opportunity to gain exposure to the most recent advances in economic research, while giving prominent scholars the opportunity to gain insight into the policy-making environment of the ECB.

Professor Melosi will spend three months conducting research at the ECB in Summer 2024.

Leonardo Melosi is Professor of Economics at Warwick and previously served as Executive Director of the Center for Applied Macroeconomic Research, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. View his staff profile

We are delighted to announce that three members of the Department of Economics have been successful in becoming Warwick International Higher Education Academy (WIHEA) Fellows 2023.

WIHEA is the UK’s first institutional academy of educators for staff and students engaged in the advancement of learning and teaching excellence and has become the collective institutional voice on learning and teaching and the academic student experience.

The WIHEA Fellowship 2023 has been awarded to Dr Atisha Ghosh (Assistant Professor), Dr Isleide Zissimos (Senior Teaching Fellow) and Dr Juliana Cunha Carneiro Pinto (Teaching Fellow). They join a community of 85 Fellows from across the University and 3 WIHEA Fellows from the Department of Economics: Professor Caroline Elliott, Dr Lory Barile and Dr Emil Kostadinov.

The WIHEA Fellows commit to the role and making an institutional contribution to learning and teaching at Warwick for 3 years.

Find out more about each new WIHEA Fellows and what they said about this new opportunity:

Dr Isleide Zissimos

“With a background in Economics, my expertise lies at the intersection of teaching and learning across disciplines, as well as in the administration of joint programmes.  I also have a keen interest in researching the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on student learning and performance.

As a WIHEA fellow I am interested in actively contributing to projects centred around interdisciplinarity and to explore opportunities to evaluate AI-based tools that can enhance student inclusivity and foster widening participation.”

Dr Isleide Zissimos is a Senior Teaching Fellow and Director of UG Studies (Joint Degrees), member of the Political Economy Research Group within the Department of Economics. View her staff profile.

 

Dr Atisha Ghosh

“As the Academic Careers Coordinator for the Department of Economics, I am interested in linking and embedding employability skills in the structure of modules. I have experience in organising groupwork assessments as well as conducting research in understanding the efficacies and uptake of groupwork among students and lecturers.

As a fellow, I would like to actively continue my work on skills development. I am also keen to participate in projects related to designing and assessing groupwork, co-creation and pedagogic research.”

Dr Atisha Ghosh is Assistant Professor (Teaching Focussed) and Academic Careers Coordinator in the Department of Economics. View her staff profile.

 

Dr Juliana Cunha Carneiro Pinto

“I am a Teaching Fellow in Economics. Prior to joining Warwick, I taught at the LSE and the University of Birmingham. Pastoral care is especially close to my heart as the new Advisor for Students with Disabilities at the Department of Economics, and I am looking forward to working on developing enhanced support and guidance to students with disabilities.

I also hope that I will be able to contribute to the discussions on how to enhance teaching and learning outcomes for students and staff, particularly for the disabled and from widening participation background.”

Dr Juliana Cunha Carneiro Pinto is Teaching Fellow and Advisor for Students with Disabilities in the Department of Economics at Warwick. View her staff profile.