August Küenburg (BSc Economics, Year 2) has released an exciting new podcast Econ Bites, exploring economic public policymaking and its key figures and institutions. In his impressive first episode, August interviews Jonathan Haskel, member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England, to discuss central bank independence and inflation targeting. We caught up with August about his fascinating new project.

Hi August! Why did you decide to start creating and publishing your own podcast?

Having my own podcast gives me the opportunity to talk to inspiring people in the field of economics about all kinds of interesting topics and share these conversations with other interested people. Preparing a podcast episode is a fun learning experience and an excellent way to deepen my own understanding about certain topics that we begin to cover as undergraduate economics students.

Your first episode has a very exciting guest – Jonathan Haskel. Can you explain who he is and why you’ve chosen to interview him?

Jonathan Haskel is a Professor of Economics at Imperial College Business School and is currently serving his second term as a member of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) at the Bank of England. Jonathan holds one of the nine votes to decide the future of the UK monetary policy. His experience as a central banker and ability to explain complex matters with often simple analogies makes him the perfect guest for my podcast episode.

Why should people listen to this episode with Jonathan?

Listeners will hopefully gain a better understanding of how the MPC operates and why inflation targeting and central bank independence are essential to ensure effective and credible monetary policy. Jonathan makes an excellent point about how economists have too long held a machine-like view of the economy and that a major intellectual breakthrough was needed to start treating the economy much more systematically.

For this episode you’ve done a lot of research into the history of the Bank of England and its policymaking on matters such as inflation. How has your degree in economics equipped you with the skills to complete this research?

One of my optional models, Money and Banking, discusses monetary policy and central bank independence in more detail and this motivated me to do further research into central banks. Most of my preparation goes into reading the literature and gaining a solid understanding of the topic.

Your podcast demonstrates a keen interest in policymaking – are you planning to pursue a career path in this area?

At the moment I want to pursue a career in public policy, being as a central banker or maybe as an economist at the International Monetary Fund or World Bank.

Talking to people in those fields is an exciting opportunity for me to learn more about their jobs and why they matter so much. Policymaking has a real impact on people’s lives, and I believe that coming up with new insights and solutions to various economic issues could be a very interesting and fulfilling career prospect.

I hope to have more central bankers, academics and economists working on public policy on my podcast in the future.

August Küenburg (BSc Economics, year 2)

You can listen to August’s first episode of his podcast Econ Bites on Spotify here.

We are proud to report that four of the best Warwick Economics student dissertations have been published in the sixth round of the Warwick Monash Economics Student Papers (WM-ESP) series.

The WM-ESP portal showcases the top innovative and original research papers written by Warwick and Monash undergraduate and postgraduate students. Over 74 papers have been published since its launch in 2021, covering the most significant topics for young economists in todays climate, including the housing market, climate change, gender inequality and healthcare.

We congratulate our four students for this fantastic achievement and for the fascinating research that they have conducted; we wish them all the best for their future endeavours.

You can find out more about their research papers below:

Relevant Links

Top Economics student research showcased on Warwick Monash portal in it's fifth release 9 October 2023

Fourth Suite of student research papers showcased on Warwick Monash portal 9 March 2023

On Tuesday 28^th November Professor Jonathan Haskel CBE, external member of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), delivered a speech at Warwick University in an event jointly hosted by the Warwick Finance Societies and the Warwick Economics Society.

Oliver Greenfield, Head of Markets at the Warwick Finance Societies, reports:

"Jonathan Haskel is one of the 9 committee members who sets the UK bank rate whilst also currently being a Professor of Economics at Imperial College Business School. Professor Haskel's research interests of productivity, innovation, intangible investment and growth led him to be a distinguished member on the editorial boards of Economica, Journal of Industrial Economics and Economic Policy.

"In his speech, UK inflation since the pandemic: How did we get here and where are we going? Professor Haskel explored the drivers of the UK inflation experience since 2020 by applying the Bernanke and Blanchard (2023) model. Using this model, he explained how the exogenous shocks which hit the UK economy fed through to result in the elevated inflation figures experienced, dispelling the commonly cited narrative that the Bank of England was wrong to characterise inflation as transitory. After reflecting on his experience on the MPC, Jonathan gave some thoughts on the future of monetary policy and concluded that without a sufficient loosening of labour market conditions inflation would stay elevated and hence interest rates would remain restrictive.

"After the event, Professor Haskel generously stayed behind to answer all of the many questions that students, academics, professors and external attendees wanted to ask. The event provided an invaluable insight for all those who attended and served as a great reminder of the application possible with the economic theory taught at Warwick University."

• The text of Professor Haskel's speech and his slide deck can be found here: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/speech/2023/november/jonathan-haskel-speech-at-warwick-university.

Warwick Economics PhD student, Jinlin Wei, has received the Best Paper Prize of the Business and Industrial Section of the Royal Statistical Society awarded at the PhD Symposium in Industrial Economics.

Jinlin’s paper, Branching for Caution: Banks in England and Wales during the 1878 Financial Panic discussed his research on how exposure to an unexpected financial panic resulting from the failure of the City of Glasgow Bank in 1878 led to the geographic expansion of banks affected, based on a bank-level dataset on joint-stock banks in England and Wales in the 1870s and 1880s.

Jinlin (third year PhD student of Economics) was awarded the Best Paper Prize of the Business and Industrial Section of the Royal Statistical Society for the best contribution to the use or advancement of statistical-econometric methods or data collection to the analysis of industrial economic issues.

Jinlin was presented with the prize at the PhD Symposium in Industrial Economics he attended last week, as part of a two-day research conference of the Network of Industrial Economists (NIE) held at the University of Leicester School of Business. The symposium brings together early career economists (PhD students and postdoctoral researchers) to foster discussion and dissemination of research in all areas of industrial economics and to provide them with feedback on their work from a designated discussant drawn from both internal and external faculty.

Commenting on the award, Jinlin said:

"Witnessing the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank, I hope that this paper can add to our understanding of how accountability affects the responses of banks to financial panics and how regions with low financial access are affected."

We congratulate Jinlin on this fantastic achievement and wish him more successes in the future.

Related information

Jinlin Wei is a third year PhD student in the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick. For further information about his research and publications can be found on his PhD student Profile - Jinlin WeiLink opens in a new window.

The Network of Industrial Economists

Established in 1970s, the Network of Industrial Economists (NIE) is a forum for interchange among university economists in the UK, and for interaction between academia, business, and government on topics of industry economics.

NIE Conference and PhD Symposium 2023Link opens in a new window, 8-9 June 2023, University of Leicester School of Business

Royal Statistical Society

Founded in 1834, the Royal Statistical SocietyLink opens in a new window is one of the world’s leading organisations advocating for the importance of statistics and data. It’s a professional body for all statisticians and data analysts with more than 10,000 members in the UK and across the world.

Image banner attribution

Wikimedia Commons license: A cleared cheque from 1877, the year before the collapse of the City of Glasgow Bank,Link opens in a new window 4 June 2014, author AllyD

Four undergraduate students from the Department of Economics presented research papers at the prestigious Carroll Round conference in April 2023.

The Carroll Round is an annual international economics conference at Georgetown University for the world’s top undergraduates to present their research and exchange ideas. They are joined by prominent members of the academic and policy-making communities in a forum that facilitates informed and productive discussion on global economic issues.

The students had the opportunity to showcase original research undertaken as part of the final year of their degree course at Warwick. They presented their findings in discussion panels moderated by economics professors and practitioners.

This year’s keynote lectures were given by Dr Lisa Cook, member of the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve System, and Dr Signe-Mary McKernan, vice president of the Urban Institute’s Center on Labor, Human Services and Population.

Class of 2023 (pictured L-R)

• Mateusz Wiewiórski, ‘Effects of recent and prior migrants on native’s wages.’
• Jay Kavaiya, ‘Is net-zero a feasible approach? A theoretical model of sustainable growth & natural capital.’
• Daira Povez Gamboa, ‘The effect of child penalty in Peru’s labour market.’
• Andy Lau, ‘A model of online misinformation with endogenous reputation.’

Find out more about the Carroll Round conferenceLink opens in a new window

Once again, we proudly report on the publication of 14 student papers on the Warwick Monash Economics Student Papers (WM-ESP) portal which contains some of the most exciting undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations of Economics students from Warwick and Monash.

This is the fourth round of student papers published on the WM-ESP portal, launched in September 2021, showcasing now 56 dissertations which have been carefully selected based on their academic quality and originality. They cover a wide range of topics from all areas of economics, and focusing on some of the most pressing global issues that young economists are trying to understand and solve: inequality, poverty, the pandemic, climate emergency, obesity and healthcare, and many others.

We congratulate all the students selected and wish them every success in their future careers.

Below we feature six Warwick MSc graduates and their research papers:

In the next feature in our series focusing on our undergraduate entrepreneurs, we meet the team behind Butterfly, a new app taking flight on campus.

Alex Reid, Zain Mobarik and Josh Okusi (pictured above, left to right) are a team with an ambitious vision – they plan to “put the social back into social media” with their app, Butterfly.

Second year Economics student Alex and his friends were workshopping ideas for a new sorting algorithm Josh had developed. They realised that they had a bigger vision than simply ranking undergraduates according to their popularity – why not make an app that would help to bring digital friendships off the screen and into the real world?

Alex explains: “We all felt that social media has lost its way – far from being social, these days it is about passive scrolling and the consumption of entertainment, often far removed from our own day to day lives.

“We decided to create a social media app that is grounded in our community, with all the content shared on the app being relevant to the real lives of its users – and which puts the focus on enabling friendships in the real world.”

Butterfly is only available to users with a Warwick student email, which keeps the content grounded in the realities of campus life. As well as creating their profile pages – the Butterfly ‘Flashcard,’ – and posting thoughts and confessions, users can chat with their course-mates or explore societies and campus events before deciding to attend, taking a bit of the anxiety out of trying something new.

Regular giveaways and prizes keep the community engaged, and there are perks for registered users such as discounts. Alex says “We now have over 60 discounts at partner stores, exclusive to Butterfly users. Our partners now include Kasbah, Tenpin, Phat Buns, Royal Pug, and Boom Battle Bar Coventry.”

“We also have a fantastic partnership with Benugo,” Alex added. “Butterfly users can get 10 per cent off anything on the menu and we ran a competition last year where the app’s most enthusiastic users won a free meal with a plus one. That really captured our ethos of supporting students to grow their real-life friendships.”

Commenting on the app, first year student Sofia said: “Butterfly has completely changed my university experience at Warwick. It has built my confidence and encouraged me to go to loads of events.”

Since its launch in September last year Butterfly has been downloaded 3,000 times. Its creators have won Warwick’s Student Enterprise Competition and been accepted onto Google’s Startups for Cloud Programme.

The app is available in the App StoreLink opens in a new window and Google PlayLink opens in a new window .

In an occasional series focusing on our undergraduate entrepreneurs, we hear from Kartik Jambur, Warwick Enterprise Innovation Fellow, about his work to embed innovation and entrepreneurship at every level of the university and beyond.

Kartik Jambur (BSc Economics and Industrial Organisation) - Innovation Fellow

Currently in his second year studying Economics and Industrial Organisation, Kartik is one of six Innovation Fellows chosen to help promote entrepreneurialism and innovation across the University of Warwick.

As a fresher Kartik got to know Warwick Enterprise through working alongside them as part of entrepreneurship societies on campus. After meeting the previous cohort of Innovation Fellows at a careers fair hosted at The Shard in London he was keen to become more closely involved.

“I was instantly intrigued by the role,” Kartik says. “It seemed like the best opportunity to be at the forefront of the student entrepreneurship community at Warwick and help scale up the innovation culture. I’m excited to be making innovation accessible to students across the University.”

As an Innovation Fellow Kartik’s role includes raising awareness, liaising with departments, and promoting a range of events and challenges. He leads on building collaborative partnerships with Warwick’s student societies, and raising awareness of the resources available at the Warwick Innovation Space, housed in the Junction Building.

“A lot of students never visit the Junction except for exams and we’re working to change this,” he jokes. “Working with student societies helps me spread the word about Warwick Enterprise more efficiently. My goal is to connect students with entrepreneurial ambitions to the huge range of resources available to them.

“We have programmes and resources for students at every stage of the start-up journey. And we create opportunities to test those new problem-solving skills, such as the Warwick Secret Challenge, where students work to solve real-life problems that departments in the University are facing.

“I’d encourage everyone to take part in at least one of these challenges as they boost your ability to think innovatively and also introduce you to the whole enterprise ecosystem.”

Kartik credits his early years in Bangalore, “the start-up city of India,” for inspiring his passion for innovation and entrepreneurship.

“I was surrounded by entrepreneurship from an early age. Members of my family built their own companies and my interest in innovation was really sparked when some of them failed. This might sound counter-intuitive but it was that experience which taught me the importance of resilience and of critical thinking.

“The idea of building something of value from the ground up, and scaling it to the next level, is something that philosophically attracts me.”

Asked what skills entrepreneurs need, Kartik doesn’t hesitate. “Work ethic,” he says. “It is resilience and work ethic that distinguishes great entrepreneurs from good ones.”

Curiosity is also high on Kartik’s list. “You need to be curious about every single thing in your industry. It completely boils down to asking enough questions in your specific area that you become an expert. This is the best way to build credibility for yourself – when you stand in front of an investor they want to know whether you’ve put in the work and whether you are an expert in your market.”

Kartik believes strongly that his background in economics gives him an advantage when it comes to innovation. “I might be biased but I truly believe that no-one understands products and markets better than economists – this is the core skill that drives entrepreneurship and I’m looking forward to exploring the intersection between economics and entrepreneurship throughout my life.”

Warwick Enterprise

Warwick Enterprise was created in 2019 with the vision of promoting a culture of innovation at every level of the university.

The Innovation Fellows make a vital contribution to the delivery of this vision. The all-student team works to boost knowledge about Warwick Enterprise throughout the student and staff body. “Our focus is now on embedding innovation as part of the curriculum in every department,” Kartik explains.

“We want the University of Warwick to be synonymous with innovation and entrepreneurship, and to be renowned for our entrepreneurial culture. And we are expanding our reach by collaborating with universities across the UK and around the world.”

Kartik’s top tips for student entrepreneurs:

• The most important thing is to understand the resources available, whether it be through Warwick Enterprise, your department or through joining appropriate student societies.

• Take part in at least one of the innovation challenges like the Warwick Secret Challenge, the Global Think Tank, Ingenuity, society challenges or challenges run by individual departments.
• If you do have a start-up idea, speak to one of the Innovation Fellows or the staff at Warwick Enterprise to receive guidance and support to build on it and explore any funding opportunities available.
• If you want to build up your knowledge and skills, sign up for the workshops and take part in the Warwick Enterprise Pathways Programme.
• Make sure you attend student society events that are focussed towards entrepreneurship as you’re guaranteed to meet students who are equally interested in entrepreneurship and you’ll help strengthen the innovation and entrepreneurship community at Warwick.

Related content

Find out more about these opportunities at Warwick EnterpriseLink opens in a new window 

We're organising a bespoke innovation workshop for Economics students on 22 February 2023. Invitations will be sent out w/c 23 January 2023.

Two teams from Warwick Economics have been Highly Commended in the recent university-wide Excellence in Gender Equality AwardsLink opens in a new window.  

The Awards Link opens in a new windowwere created by the Athena Swan Self-Assessment Team and the Gender Taskforce to acknowledge commitment to equality, diversity, inclusion and sharing best practice. This year entries were judged by University Provost Professor Chris Ennew, the Chairs of Faculty, and Kulbir Shergill, Director of Social Inclusion.

The two Economics teams recognised for excellence in working towards gender equality were Dr Stefania Paredes Fuentes and the ‘Women in Economics: A Student Workshop’ Team; and the ‘Warwick Women in Economics International Women's Day Conference’ Team.  

The Women in Economics Student WorkshopLink opens in a new window was co-ordinated by Dr Stefania Paredes-Fuentes and a group of undergraduate students with the goal of hearing the student perspective on the debate on female under-representation in the discipline. During the two day event, students from 12 universities gathered in Warwick to present their ideas and to discuss the issues around the lack of diversity in the discipline. Outcomes from the workshop have included the ‘Economics for All’ guide with 7 Action Points to promote diversity in Economics, and the foundation of the Warwick Women in EconomicsLink opens in a new window (WWiE) society.  

The judges said that the Workshop “was a great initiative and event, which definitely demonstrated sharing good practice and meeting of the criteria for commitment to gender equality (and wider inclusivity) and delivering on a specific project.” 

The second Highly Commended Economics team was the 15-strong student team behind the 2022 WWiE International Women's Day conferenceLink opens in a new window. The IWD event was the society’s first in-person conference and attracted more than 80 attendees and 100 online participants. The aim of the day was to raise awareness of the different career paths available for female economics graduates.  

Milena Ermolenko, the society’s Vice-President, said “It was a huge achievement for the team to organise our society’s first large-scale in-person event and the high attendance confirms its success. The conference offered economics students a platform to raise their voice, ask questions about their degree, and become more curious about their future career prospects.  

“We are delighted that WWiE has been recognised for our contribution to equality, diversity and inclusion, and our commitment to building more inclusive environments and experiences through everyday behaviours at the University of Warwick.  

“The judges described our International Women’s Day Conference 2022 as ‘a successful and well-attended event.’ We intend to make it bigger and better in spring 2023.” 

Last week Warwick Economics students had a unique opportunity to meet with representatives of 19 organisations who were invited on to campus for our annual Careers in Economics Event to talk about internships and career opportunities specific to Warwick Economics students and graduates.

Professor Caroline Elliott, Deputy Head of Department (Teaching and Learning) opened the event by welcoming the employers and current students and wishing them a productive networking opportunity. It was good to see and chat with many of them, including our former students who talked about specific skills gained during their time at Warwick and how they apply them now in their current jobs.

As part of the event five organisations delivered short presentations about specific roles they were recruiting to, and highlighted the skills and experience they were looking for in economics graduates:

Cornerstone Research

Compass Lexecon

South West Water

NERA Economics Consulting

Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA)

The final part of this successful event was a keynote lecture delivered by John Burn-Murdoch, Chief Data Journalist at the Financial Times, on the topic of Quantitative Social Science in Action. This was hosted jointly by the CAGE Research Centre and introduced by Prof Mirko Draca, the Centre’s Director.

During the Covid-19 pandemic John became well-known for his clear and trusted analysis of the latest public health data, through charts and tables published on the FT.com website and also on Twitter. John’s work informed public debate and influenced decision-making across all sectors of the economy and public life.

Prof Draca welcomed John, speaking briefly about the challenge of misinformation in the public sphere and the need for high-quality analytical content to challenge it.

Taking the podium, John began with a simple question - Why do we make charts?

For John, charts are a vital tool because research shows that they can change people’s minds far more effectively than the written word alone. Done well, data visualisation is powerful and helps people make sense of complicated information.

John explained that a successful chart needs both numbers and words – well-thought-out text annotations, good use of colour, and clear titles help people read and understand the data.

The logarithmic scale proved a challenge to public understanding at the beginning of John’s COVID-19 series. John showed a sample of tweets challenging his work because the vertical scale was not uniform. Many people found this confusing and some thought it was a deliberate attempt to minimise the size of the pandemic. Taking advantage of the two-way nature of social media, John recorded an explainer video about what a log scale is and why he chose it – and was delighted when his followers began posting the link in response to puzzled tweeters.

John encouraged the researchers in his audience not to be afraid of bold headlines, citing a famous aphorism from “data rock star” Hans Rosling - ‘You have to be like the worst tabloid newspaper in the front and the Academy of Science in the back’

While COVID-19 has not gone away, John has turned his attention to the question of whether ill health is driving economic inactivity in the UK. He presented some snapshots of his work in progress and concluded with time for questions from the floor.

If you missed the talk, you can watch it on YouTube: Quantitative Social Science in ActionLink opens in a new window.