Departmental news

We’re delighted to share that the Department of Economics has achieved an outstanding overall satisfaction score of 95% in the 2025 Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) - our highest result in recent years. This places us well above the Russell Group average of 86% for Economics and reflects the continued strength of our postgraduate programmes.

The PTES invited feedback from MSc and second-year MRes students on their experiences of teaching and learning at Warwick. With a response rate of 54%, exceeding the University average of 47%, our students have shown a strong commitment to sharing their experiences and helping us enhance postgraduate education.

Our top-performing areas include:

• Learning Resources – 96%
• Dissertation Supervision – 91%
• Teaching and Learning – 90%
• Organisation and Management – 90%

We’re particularly proud to have scored above the institutional average across all key themes, reaffirming our position as one of Warwick’s leading departments for postgraduate student experience.

At the question level, students highlighted that:

• The course is intellectually stimulating - 95%
• Teaching staff are good at explaining things – 93%
• They have appropriate access to subject specific resources – 97%
• They were given appropriate guidance and support throughout their course – 91%
• Dissertation supervisors have the skills and knowledge to support dissertations – 94%
• They would recommend the Department to others – 97%

While the overall results are highly positive, we recognise that opportunities for interaction among postgraduate taught students scored lower. We’re actively exploring ways to strengthen peer engagement and build a more connected postgraduate community.

Professor Jeremy Smith Head of Department, commented:

“These results highlight the strength of our postgraduate programmes and the dedication of our teaching and professional services staff. We’re proud of the experience we offer to our students and remain committed to enhancing student satisfaction, with a particular emphasis on building meaningful connections and engagement across our student community. We’re grateful to everyone who contributed to this success - and to our students for their thoughtful feedback”

The first evidence-based assessment of how the Government’s Inheritance Tax (IHT) reform would affect farm estates has been published by the Centre for the Analysis of Taxation (CenTax), led by Professor Arun Advani of Warwick Economics and Dr Andy Summers of the LSE.

CenTax analysis finds that there is scope for better targeting the reforms to extend protection for family farms and other small businesses whilst further reducing the use of agricultural and business property as a tax shelter.

A farm estate, which is the focus of the analysis, is defined as the total net wealth of an individual who has died owning some farmland or other farm assets on which they had claimed tax relief.

Using detailed HMRC inheritance tax data, The Impact of Changes to Inheritance Tax on Farm EstatesLink opens in a new window finds that, as currently designed, the planned reforms do protect family farms to a large extent - just under one third of farm estates would be impacted by the reform; and that of that 30 per cent, around 200 estates per year potentially comprise family farms valued at less than £5 million - but there is scope for better targeting the reforms to extend protection for farms and other small businesses whilst further reducing the use of agricultural and business property as a tax shelter.

The report proposes two options for better targeting the reform whilst still raising at least as much revenue overall:

• A ‘minimum share rule’ that would remove relief for passive investors in farmland and other business assets, reducing the use of these assets as a tax shelter. Restricting relief to estates whose relief claims cover at least 60% of the total estate could fund an increase in the combined allowance for 100% relief to £5 million per estate, whilst still raising at least as much revenue as planned reform overall.
• An ‘upper limit on relief’ that would cap relief at the first £10 million of claim, funding an increase in the allowance for 100% relief to £2 million per estate. The effect would be to extend protection for family farms and other small businesses.

Addressing concerns that family farms would need to be sold to pay the tax, the report finds that:-

• Almost half (49%) of all impacted farm estates would see a tax increase of less than 5 percentage points.
• All of the 25 farm estates per year facing an increase larger than 15pp are valued at over £7.5 million.
• 86% of impacted farm estates could pay their entire IHT bill out of non-farm assets, leaving around 70 farm estates per year that could not.

Dr Andy Summers, Director of the Centre for Analysis of Taxation (CenTax) and Associate Professor at London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) said:

“Our analysis shows that the Government’s reform largely protects family farms whilst limiting claims by the wealthiest estates. But the relief could be better targeted to reduce its use for tax planning and further extend protection for businesses, including farms.”

• PHOTO - His Majesty's Treasury, Whitehall
  
  
• Read the report in full on the CenTax website: The Impact of Changes to Inheritance Tax on Farm Estates (2025)Link opens in a new window Arun Advani, Sebastian Gazmuri-Barker, Sanaya Mahajan, and Andy Summers
  
  
• The Centre for the Analysis of Taxation (CenTax) is an independent research centre dedicated to improving public understanding of tax policy and helping to design a better tax system. This research was funded by the Nuffield Foundation and abrdn Financial Fairness Trust.

Digital platforms are increasingly taking engagement metrics into account when compensating journalists and other content creators – but does this have a negative effect on pay, quality, tone or coverage?

A new studyLink opens in a new window by Dr Mateusz Stalinski (University of Warwick) and co-authors is among the first to provide answers, based on a field study with a Kenyan digital news platform.

The writers were split into three groups – one-third continued on the existing per-article contract; one-third moved to a pay-per-click (PPC) model; and one-third chose between the two options.

PAY

• Although their articles received double the views of the control group – good news for advertisers! - the journalists who moved to pay-per-click saw their overall earnings fall by 49 per cent

CONTENT

• The pay-per-click journalists focused more on national stories, and on political topics. These shifts are consistent with writers maximizing reach by selecting topics with broad appeal. However, the resulting decline in comprehensive and locally-relevant coverage may carry important civic costs.

TONE

• The pay-per-click writers used fewer positive words in their headlines and produced articles with higher toxicity scores and more negative tone.

Dr Stalinski said “While PPC writers earned more per article, their overall earnings fell, lowering the firm’s wage bill and increasing platform profits. However, these profits come at a cost: PPC writers shifted content production away from local news and towards attention-grabbing political stories.

“PPC writers also used less positive language in both headlines and article bodies. Our results show that engagement-based pay boosts reader traffic, but we also caution that this may come at the cost of compromised coverage diversity, local news provision, and journalist well-being.”

• Incentivizing Engagement: Experimental Evidence on Journalist Performance PayLink opens in a new window Ivan Balbuzanov, Jared Gars, Mateusz Stalinski & Emilia Tjernström Warwick Economics Research Papers No: 1570 July 2025

The Department of Economics is proud to celebrate the achievements of our graduates - Class of 2025. The awards and prizes recognise not only academic excellence but also outstanding contributions to the wider student experience and community.

Outstanding Student Contribution Awards (OSCA) 2025

Three students were honoured with the OSCA for their leadership, service, and innovation:

• Gunisha Aggarwal (BSc Economics) – For her transformative work in student inclusion, international outreach, and global education initiatives, including her leadership in Enactus Warwick and the HELP Chennai project.
• Libby Bach (BSc Economics) – For her dedication to global education through Warwick in Africa, community volunteering, and her selection for the FCDO Fast Stream.
• Aimee Cornish (BSc PPE) – For championing gender equality and community through her leadership of the Warwick Women in Economics Society and impactful events like the Elevate Conference.

Professor Jeremy Smith, Head of the Department of Economics, commented:

“Gunisha, Libby, and Aimee exemplify the values we hold dear at Warwick - leadership, service, and a commitment to making a difference. Their contributions have enriched our community and will continue to inspire future generations.”

Academic Prize Winners 2024–25

• Best MSc Project (Behavioural and Economic Science – Economics Track) - Anoushka Kumar
• Examiners’ Prize for Outstanding Performance in Economics - Jacob McLoughlin, Ren Jie Lim, Maddy Pedder, Oli Greenfield
• Examiners’ Prize for Best Research in Applied Economics (RAE) - Fasai Charoensudjai, Martin Huo, Jacob McLoughlin
• Rohin Modasia Prize - Aigli Danopoulou, Cian Lester, Matthew Stubbs, William Tang
• Shiv Nath Prize (Economics, Politics, and International Studies) - Finlay Davis, Yiran Huang
• Outstanding Student Contribution Prize (Department of Economics) - Matthew Murray – For his leadership as President of Warwick Economics Society and his role in launching the Policy Talks event.

King’s Award for Voluntary Service 2024

We also congratulate Modhurima Islam, Student President of Warwick Volunteers 2024-25, for her contribution to the work of Warwick Volunteers who were awarded the King’s Award for Voluntary Service for 2024.

Professor Jeremy Smith added:

“We extend our warmest congratulations to all the winners. Your achievements reflect the dedication, creativity, and excellence that define our department. We look forward to seeing the impact you will continue to make in your future endeavours."

Photo from left to right: Professor Stuart Croft, Gunisha Aggarwal, Libby Bach and Aimee Cornish

Autonomy – the feeling of control over how, when and where work gets done - has become recognised as a key driver of employee satisfaction and productivity, especially in the post-COVID hybrid workplace.

But, far from rising throughout a person’s career, new evidence looking at nearly half a million workers in Australia, Germany, the UK and England shows that autonomy peaks in mid-career then steadily declines towards retirement.

In their new paper, “The growth and collapse of autonomy at workLink opens in a new window,” published this month in PNAS, the flagship peer-reviewed journal of the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS), Professor Andrew Oswald of Warwick Economics and Associate Professor Redzo Mujcic of Warwick Business School analyse longitudinal data from more than 400,000 workers in three rich countries to trace in detail their own feelings about their job autonomy, and cross reference this with objective measures such as job titles.

They find that from the age of around 40, in all of the countries studied, job autonomy collapses as people move from middle age towards retirement – which may represent 20 to 30 years of working life.

It is the first study to identify this “hump-shaped” pattern, which remains true for both subjective data – the worker’s own feelings – and more objective measures such as whether a person holds a formal managerial or supervisory position, according to their job title.

The researchers suggest that formal and informal demotions and “sidelining” must play a greater part in the modern labour market than is usually believed.

They also highlight that the curve is not explained by people moving to a new employer in a lower-autonomy role – the data shows that the phenomenon mostly occurs within the same employer.

Professor Oswald said: “We assumed that older workers would today be the ones who ruled the roost and had high autonomy. That is not remotely what we found.”

Dr Mujcic added: “We hope that economists, psychologists, HR specialists and other social and behavioural scientists will pick up this baton and seek to uncover what is driving this international phenomenon; and to reconcile this “hump” with the “bath-tub” wellbeing evidence seen in many other studies.”

• R. Mujcic, & A.J. Oswald, The growth and collapse of autonomy at work, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 122 (27) e2504419122, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2504419122 (2025).

New analysis by an international team including Professor Sonia Bhalotra of Warwick Economics and CAGE finds a strong link between job loss and domestic violence. According to the research, published this month in The Review of Economic Studies, men who lose their jobs are more likely to inflict domestic violence, while women who lose their jobs are more likely to become victims. The increases are upwards of 30%.

• Unemployment - whether of men or women- increases domestic violence
• Men who lose their jobs are more likely to inflict domestic violence
• Women who lose their jobs are more likely to become victims of domestic violence
• Unemployment benefits have potential to mitigate this if designed correctly
• These results are relevant globally given that unemployment occurs not just cyclically but also on account of structural changes and automation.

The study discusses carefully designed unemployment benefits as a new approach to policy measures intended to protect women and girls.

Professor Bhalotra said:

“Our study uses administrative data from Brazil to understand the effects of job loss and unemployment benefit payments on domestic violence. Our evidence suggests that job loss triggers two mechanisms – income loss, and an increase in potential time at home. The loss of income creates stress within the household, while more time at home increases exposure to the risk of domestic violence.”

The study is based on large scale data from Brazil, analysed by Sonia Bhalotra with Diogo Britto and Paolo Pinotti of Bocconi University in Italy and Breno Sampaio of Universidade Federal de Pernambuco in Brazil.

The researchers analysed court registers for Brazil that contain every domestic violence case during 2009–2018. In this period there were 2 million domestic violence cases, representing 11% of all criminal justice cases, which were then linked to employment registers, with details of around 100 million workers, 60 million employment spells and 10 million layoffs per year.

The study also included measures of domestic violence that do not rely on victims reporting the event to the police. These are indicators for women using domestic violence public shelters, and notifications of domestic violence by health providers that are mandated by the federal government.

They find that job loss has a significant effect on domestic violence, and that unemployment benefits may not mitigate this effect if they lead to men being unemployed for longer. Benefits do, however, have the potential to mitigate the effect if accompanied by policies that encourage men back into work.

Professor Bhalotra added:

“Our main findings are that job loss influences domestic violence first by generating an income shortfall, and second by increasing exposure to violence. So, the ideal policy intervention would compensate the income shortfall and get people out of the home and back to work.

“Unemployment benefits can help but need to be combined with active policies aimed at getting the unemployed back to work. Traditionally, these policies are training and support with job search, but they could include community service.”

“The policy infrastructure has been primarily concerned with providing support to victims in the shape of shelters, counselling and protection orders. Interventions designed to prevent domestic violence have focused on the economic empowerment of women, though the evidence shows that they misfire in settings where men want to maintain economic control. Our research suggests that it is equally important to consider the economic status of men and the potential for policies that compensate both men and women for income losses.”

• Sonia Bhalotra, Diogo G C Britto, Paolo Pinotti, Breno Sampaio: Job Displacement, Unemployment Benefits and Domestic Violence, The Review of Economic Studies, 2025; rdaf004, https://doi.org/10.1093/restud/rdaf004
  
  
• The authors acknowledge financial support from The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. Professor Bhalotra acknowledges support from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, grant agreement No. 885698 and from ESRC grant ESM010236-1 awarded to the Human Rights, Big Data and Technology project at the Human Rights Centre in Essex.

The Department of Economics was delighted to welcome two outstanding female economists as Honorary Graduates during the 2025 Summer Graduation celebrations.

On Friday 18th July Dr Gemma Tetlow received an Honorary Doctor of Science degree; and on Tuesday 22nd July Professor Ekaterina Zhuravskaya received her award.

Dr Tetlow’s longstanding relationship with Warwick began as an undergraduate in the Department of Economics. More recently, she has been a great supporter of the Department’s research agenda, as a member of the advisory board of CAGE, the Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy, and Chair of the Advisory Board of CenTax, the Centre for the Analysis of Taxation.

Presenting Dr Tetlow for her honorary degree, CenTax Director Professor Arun Advani highlighted her successful career in thinktanks, in journalism and as a media commentator, and also praised her contribution to addressing the under-representation of women in the profession, saying “with her impressive career history and her visibility across the media, Gemma provides a much-needed role model for young economists, whether studying for degrees in the discipline or already embarked on their careers. In this capacity, and as an alumna, Gemma has given up her time to take part in events on campus organised by the Department of Economics to promote a more inclusive environment for women studying economics, and to encourage them to go on to work in jobs in that area.”

Accepting her award, Dr Tetlow said: “Before coming to Warwick I had never studied economics, and so it was a real leap of faith to choose that as my degree subject. But it turned out to be one of the best choices I ever made in my life.

The teaching here at Warwick gave me a great appreciation for the subject and made me realise how economics can be used to understand and improve so many real-world issues. And it was what I learned here that really inspired me to pursue a career in economics, where I could apply that knowledge. And it’s a career that has continued to motivate and challenge me over the years.”

On Tuesday 22nd July Professor Ekaterina Zhuravskaya was presented for her honorary degree by Professor Sascha Becker.

Professor Zhuravskaya took her MSc at LSE and her PhD at Harvard. She has been based at the Paris School of Economics since 2010. She is a frequent visitor to the Department and has co-authored several papers with colleagues.

Professor Becker praised the “breathtaking width” of her research and described her as a “shining light and a role model” for all female academic economists.

Speaking to the economics students graduating alongside her, Professor Zhuravskaya said: “This moment takes me back to my own graduation. It was 1999 and I was a fresh Harvard PhD graduate, with very high aspirations but a lot of doubts. I was convinced that I had mastered the tools and possessed a substantial body of knowledge – but looking back I realise that I had completely misunderstood what education was useful for!

“The frontier of knowledge shifts much faster than we expect. Most of the techniques I learned became outdated within a few years of graduation. But education teaches you how to truly learn. This is the core of what we do as researchers but it is equally useful outside academia.

“In your head you shouldn’t graduate at all. You should always remain in the learning mode of a student. Congratulations to all of you and I wish you a long, surprising and meaningful journey ahead.”

Photo from left to right: Professor Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, Professor Sascha Becker, Professor Arun Advani, Dr Gemma Tetlow, Professor Stuart Croft.

Does access to real-time information about air pollution levels change how people feel about living close to a recycling plant?

A new study by Dr Juliana Carneiro and colleagues in China and the USA looks at data from China to understand the impact of real-time environmental data disclosure on people’s housing preferences, and creates new insights into the economic benefits of environmental transparency.

The incineration of household waste as a means of creating energy has become a popular option for waste management, as an alternative to burying the waste in landfill.

Governments regard it as a sustainable option, but local residents can be opposed to the construction or expansion of these “Waste to Energy (WtE)” incineration plants, often citing health or environmental concerns.

Efforts to mitigate these fears by providing disclosure of environmental information have until now largely focused on one-off reports of negative incidents, or infrequent updates from inspection visits.

Dr Carneiro’s study takes advantage of a relatively recent policy in China – the 2017 IEN policy, which has made it a legal duty for plants to display real-time emissions data on public billboards at their entrances – to explore how such a detailed level of information influences local residents’ perceptions of risk and their decisions about where to live.

The paper, Real-time emissions data disclosure of Waste-to-Energy incineration plants and public risk perceptions: Evidence from the housing market sets out a theoretical model and then tests this against empirical data from over 35,000 housing transactions around 13 WtE plants.

The research finds:-

• After the implementation of IEN, the housing price gradient – the difference in price for properties close to a plant and those further away – become much flatter. This suggests that buyers are less concerned about buying a property close to a WtE plant that shares real-time information.
• The biggest change was seen in properties within 2km of a plant
• The most significant positive effects were seen where the plants had a good track record of complying with emissions limits, and up-to-date pollution control equipment.
• The change is not driven by a reduction in pollution, but a change in the level of local residents’ concerns about living close to a plant

The researchers hope that their findings will be of interest in many countries where environmental projects face local opposition.

Dr Carneiro said: “This research was driven by a desire to understand how transparency in environmental data can influence public perceptions and behaviour, especially around controversial infrastructure like Waste-to-Energy incineration plants.

Using China’s 2017 IEN policy as a natural experiment, we found that real-time emissions disclosure significantly reduced the housing price penalty near these plants—by about 34.7%, which translates to a meaningful economic gain for residents.

What’s especially compelling is that the effect was stronger near plants that complied with emission standards and used advanced pollution controls, suggesting that transparency works best when paired with good performance.

We believe these findings offer important insights for policymakers looking to build public trust and acceptance through data-driven environmental governance.”

Photo: An aerial view of residences in Pudong, Shanghai, China, a district where one of the WtE plants in the study is located.

Read more: Real-time emissions data disclosure of Waste-to-Energy incineration plants and public risk perceptions: Evidence from the housing market, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Volume 133, 2025, 103207, ISSN 0095-0696. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103207Link opens in a new window.

The University of Warwick's Department of Economics has once again demonstrated its commitment to world-class teaching and student experience, securing the top spot in the Russell Group for student satisfaction in the 2025 National Student Survey (NSS), and achieving an average positivity score of 93% for Teaching on my Course.

With a response rate of 76%, final-year undergraduate students rated the Department highly across multiple themes, earning Economics its strongest-ever performance in the survey to date. The Department achieved first place among all Russell Group universities for key categories of the survey with percentage of satisfied students in brackets:

• Teaching on my Course (93%)
• Learning Opportunities (88%)
• Assessment and Feedback (83%)

High scores were also achieved in the following categories:

• Organisation and Management (92%)
• Academic Support (91%)

Professor Jeremy Smith, Head of the Department of Economics, said:

"We are incredibly proud to see our students recognise the dedication and excellence in the quality of teaching of our staff. These results reflect not only the academic rigour of our programmes but also the inclusive and supportive environment we strive to maintain."

Students rated the Department particularly highly on individual questions, including:

• How good are teaching staff at explaining things? (96%)
• How often is the course intellectually stimulating? (97%)
• How well does the course challenge you to achieve your best work? (95%)
• How well does your course introduce subjects and skills in a way that builds on what you have already learned? (92%)
• How often have you received assessment feedback on time? (96%)
• How well organised is your course? (93%)
• I would recommend the University to future students (93%)

While some areas (IT resources and visibility of feedback action) presented opportunities for development, the overall satisfaction remains exceptionally high - outperforming institutional averages and reaffirming Warwick Economics’ status as one of the UK’s leading departments in the field.

The Department's continued success feeds into Warwick’s strong standing in the Teaching Excellence Framework and league tables including the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide, The Guardian and the Complete University Guide.

Professor Jeremy Smith added:

"These insights are vital not only for internal reflection but also for future students looking for a vibrant, intellectually rewarding place to study. We are grateful to our students for their feedback and proud to champion their voice as part of our teaching journey."

We are pleased to announce that two members of the Department of Economics have been honoured for their teaching with the Warwick Awards for Teaching Excellence (WATE).

The Awards celebrate exceptional educators in the Warwick teaching community.

The Faculty Awards highlight the significance of understanding disciplinary contexts in achieving educational excellence. In recognition of the role of collaboration in fostering educational communities, WATE introduced the Collaborative Award in 2021 and the Community & Culture Award in 2022.

Additionally, the Award for Postgraduates who Teach, honours Graduate Teaching Assistants for their valuable contributions to student learning and the academic community. Read more about the award categories.

Dr Arthur Galichere received the Social Sciences Faculty Award and Shantanu Chadha was acclaimed with the Postgrads who teach award.

Find out what Arthur and Shantanu said about being honoured in their respective categories:

Dr Arthur Galichere

“I am still very surprised to receive this award, especially as an early career academic. I feel deeply honoured and sincerely grateful to my students for their nomination and for the warm feedback I have received since joining Warwick. It is truly rewarding to know that my teaching has had a meaningful impact on their learning experience.

I am also thankful to the WATE jury for this recognition, and to my colleagues, whose support and inspiration have meant a great deal. I do not think this would have been possible without them.”

Dr Arthur Galichere is a Assistant Professor (Teaching Focussed) within the Department of Economics. View his staff profile.

 

Shantanu Chadha

“My research lies at the intersection of microeconomics and econometrics, with a focus on modelling the role of social and economic networks in shaping behaviour and policy outcomes. Alongside my focus on research, I also teach small-group seminar classes as a Senior Graduate Teaching Assistant. Teaching has always been deeply meaningful to me and is one of the key reasons behind my decision to pursue a PhD.

Just being nominated for the Warwick Awards for Teaching Excellence (WATE) was a surreal feeling and provided immense satisfaction for all the hard-work I try and put in to ensure that my students not only learn but do so in a fun, inclusive and safe environment, and winning the award was just the cherry on top.

This award reaffirms my commitment to creating inclusive, student-centred learning environments where students not only thrive academically but are also empowered to think critically and apply their knowledge to real-world challenges. It is an honour I carry with immense pride and responsibility, and I am deeply grateful to the department, my module lecturers, and—most importantly—my students for recognising my efforts and helping me grow as a tutor.”

Shantanu Chadha is a PhD student and a Senior Graduate Teaching Assistant within the Department of Economics. View his staff profile.