99% of the Department of Economics' research has been rated world-leading (4*) or internationally excellent (3*) overall in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021.

Ranked 2nd in the
Research Excellence Framework.

Discover our Research Impact

99% of the Department of Economics' research has been rated world-leading (4*) or internationally excellent (3*) overall in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021.

The REF results, released on Thursday 12 May 2022, place the Department as 2nd in the UK for overall research quality in the discipline of Economics and Econometrics, according to rankings of institutions by Grade Point Average (GPA)* published by Times Higher Education. Submissions to the REF are made by institutions and assessed by subject-level expert panels in three key areas:

• The quality of research outputs in terms of their originality, significance and rigour (accounting for 60% of the overall outcome)
• The reach and significance of research impact beyond academia (25%)
• The vitality and sustainability of the environment that supports research (15%).

The weighting of these elements forms the overall quality profile. Each area is rated as 4*, 3*, 2*, 1* or unclassified.

Key highlights from REF 2021

Outputs

• The Department ranks 3rd in the UK for quality of research output in Economics and Econometrics, according to Times Higher Education.
• 98% of the Department’s submitted research outputs are rated 4* (world-leading) or 3* (internationally excellent).

Impact

• The Department ranks 2nd for impact in the UK.
• 80% of the Department’s impact is rated 4* (outstanding) and 20% is 3* (very considerable).

The assessment was based on the submission of impact case studies, which describe specific examples of how the Department’s research has made a positive difference to the economy, society and quality of life beyond academia.

Read more and watch short videos about the impact of our work.

Environment

• The Department ranks 3rd for research environment in the UK.
• 87.5% of the Department’s environment submission is rated 4* (conducive to producing research of world-leading quality and enabling outstanding impact).

The assessment considered a wide range of factors including:

• How research is structured in the Department
• Strategies for research, impact, staffing and staff development
• Research income, infrastructure and facilities
• Collaborations and contributions to the research base, economy and society.

Find out more about our research.

Learn more about our comprehensive MRes/PhD programme.

Commenting on the results, Head of Department Professor Jeremy Smith, said: “These results reinforce our position as one of the leading departments in the UK for economics.”

“Our strong performance in the REF reflects the incredibly hard work of staff from across the whole Department in conducting and supporting the production of innovative research that pushes the boundaries of the discipline. That this research is also shaping policy as indicated by the evaluation of the impact case studies is also very gratifying.”

“We are extremely proud of this achievement and look forward to building on our strategy for developing research excellence in the coming years.”

Professor Carlo Perroni, Research Director for the Department, said: “The Department of Economics at the University of Warwick is home to a vibrant and diverse research environment that produces relevant and exciting work across all major sub-fields of economics.”

“We are proud of our researchers and of our PhD students, and we are pleased that the REF result recognises the value of what we do.”

About the REF

The REF is the system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions. It is led by the four UK higher education funding bodies: Research England, the Scottish Funding Council, the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, and the Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland.

REF results inform the allocation of public research funding and are used in university league tables and benchmarking. The process ensures accountability for public investment in research and provides evidence of the benefits of this investment.

Notes on rankings

*Grade Point Average (GPA) is a measure of average quality of research. It is calculated by multiplying the percentage of 4* research by four, 3* research by three, 2* research by two and 1* research by one. The totals are added together and divided by 100 to give an average overall star-rating.

We congratulate a Warwick Economics finalist, Alex Reid (BSc Economics), who is one of the winners of the University's Outstanding Student Contribution Awards 2024 for demonstrating his entrepreneurial flair during his time at Warwick. The OSCAs recognise and celebrate the outstanding contributions of Warwick's students who not only excel academically, but also find the time to campaign for good causes, fundraise, start small business, and work with local charities.

In his second year, Alex got in touch to tell us about how he and two of his friends created a social media app called Butterfly, available to Warwick students, so that they could receive relevant content about campus life and feel connected to fellow students. We outlined the benefits of the app in the article Butterfly helps students spread their social wings, which was published in March 2023.

When we interviewed Alex then, he commented on his venture:

"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."

Now, Alex has just finished his final year exams and is getting ready for his graduation on 23 July at which he will be receiving his Outstanding Student Contribution Award 2024.

We asked Alex how he felt about being awarded an OSCA and he said:

"Warwick is an amazing place to learn, connect, and innovate - I'm very grateful to have had these opportunities and be awarded the OSCA."

The app Butterfly is available in the AppStore and Google Play Store.

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

The Department of Economics is joining forces with one of the top business schools in the UK to launch a new undergraduate course.

The BSc Economics and Management degree combines two interrelated disciplines of economics and management, two highly ranked subjects by the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024, with the Department of Economics ranked number one in the UK and the Warwick Business School’s BSc Management ranked second by the same publication.

In today’s fast-changing economic landscape, business leaders, consultants, analysts and civil servants need to have a fundamental understanding of both disciplines: economic theory to be able to critically analyse economic data and managerial knowledge to adapt their business strategy accordingly.

This course will teach students the cutting-edge tools and latest research to do just that, helping them excel in their careers with transferable skills for any business.

Graduates from the Department of Economics and WBS have gone on to work for global names like Goldman Sachs, Unilever, Amazon, Google, PwC and UK Government departments such as the Department for Business and Trade.

Professor Elizabeth Jones, Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Economics, said:

“We have been developing this programme for a number of years and are excited about its launch and subsequent growth over the coming years.”

“The Department of Economics is renowned not only for its research, but also for its teaching, having been awarded the gold standard for teaching in the latest Teaching Excellence Framework. This combination will provide students with access to some of the world’s leading researchers in a range of areas, which will help them develop the knowledge, skills and practical expertise to succeed in their careers.”

“We are excited by the opportunity to diversify our portfolio of undergraduate programmes and provide students with more choice when it comes to studying at a top University. Graduates from Warwick Economics are highly sought after and the added advantage for students to benefit from Warwick Business School’s expertise in providing placements will undoubtedly provide fantastic opportunities for students to meet their full potential.”

Professor Mark Johnson, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programmes at Warwick Business School, said:

“It is great to see this course come to fruition after so much work behind the scenes.

“Our ongoing dialogue with employers has revealed a real need from businesses and organisations for graduates who can combine management skills with an understanding of economics and some of the tools needed to navigate the economic landscape.

“This course brings together world-class academics from one of the best business schools in the world and the leading researchers from an Economics department ranked second in the UK by the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF).

“At Warwick Business School we are for the Change Makers, those restless to change the world for the better. This course will enable students to gain the skills and knowledge to have a positive impact with any career they choose to build.”

The three-year course can also be extended to four with a placement year at a top company either in the UK or abroad. This gives students the chance to put what they have learned into action in the real world, and it has led to many on other courses securing jobs once they have graduated at leading firms like IBM, Porsche, Samsung and Deloitte.

Warwick Business School’s teaching was given the top gold standard by the UK Government's latest Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), with the University of Warwick one of just four Russell Group universities rated gold in all three categories - student experience, student outcomes, and for the overall assessment.

For details of the new degree, available for 2025 entry, please visit the course webpage: BSc Economics and Management

Bookings to attend our next Open Days on 15 and 22 June are open now - Open Days at the University of Warwick

We congratulate Selina Shibata, Year 1 Economics student, who has won the Student Volunteer of the Year award at the Warwick Volunteers Award night.

*Selina is the middle person in the above image

Selina volunteers with a local organisation based in Coventry called Guardian Ballers. Founded in 2021, Guardian Ballers works with young students from various backgrounds in the local community. Volunteers engage young children through Basketball to help them achieve a happier and healthier life. They also work with several other organisations to provide mental health services.

Selina started volunteering in January of 2024 and has been helping at their basketball camps, where attendees improve their basketball skills and become more educated on maintaining good mental health. Guardian Ballers also sell branded clothing and Selina has helped to expand their merchandise line.

This opportunity has enabled Selina to make friends with students from other universities and increase her network.

Selina says:

“As an international student worried about being unable to integrate into the UK and its culture, the Guardian Ballers community has helped me feel comfortable in a new country and community.”

The Department is extremely proud to see one of our students assist young people on their mental health journey. We are very pleased that this volunteering opportunity has made it easier for Selina to settle here at Warwick after moving from abroad.

Local artists, schoolchildren and their families in Radford, members of Coventry City Council and University of Warwick researchers have teamed up for a unique project to explore what puts people off making their homes more energy efficient.

Dr Lory Barile from the Department of Economics at the University worked with creative partners and experts in Net Zero to develop a series of lessons and practical activities for pupils at St. Augustine’s Catholic Primary School, Radford.

The children carried out science experiments to test out the insulation properties of different materials and built models of houses showing what they could do to make their homes more energy efficient to provide affordable warmth whilst helping to tackle global warming.

Parents and guardians then attended a showcase of their children’s work and their model houses. This provided a relaxed forum to discuss how homes can be better insulated, and what help is available from Coventry council for local residents.

Dr Barile explained: “Coventry has one of the highest levels of fuel poverty in the UK. In some areas of the city half of the households are in fuel poverty – that is, they need to spend at least 10% of their household income on keeping warm.

“If we can find more effective ways of speaking with residents about retrofit measures, we will make a big contribution to the success of Coventry’s net zero agenda.”

The objective of the project was to increase awareness of retrofit measures – such as double-glazing or cavity wall insulation - and to understand barriers to engagement with schemes designed to improve residents’ house energy efficiency.

Dr Barlie explained: “My project uses elements of a method called design thinking, and engages children in creative and interactive activities to help kick-start conversations with Radford’s adult householders.

“By embracing creativity, we hope that this pilot study will be a catalyst for change and inspire other residents in Coventry to increase their take up of government schemes aimed at creating healthy homes, reducing carbon emissions, energy bills, and fuel poverty.

“We also hope that the project will improve the way the council engages with the needs and aspirations of the local community.

“We are now working on creating an online teaching pack that all schools across the City will be able to use to raise the awareness of children and families about domestic energy efficiency.”

Bret Willers, Head of Sustainability & Climate Change at Coventry City Council said: “This pilot project has been very successful in raising people’s awareness as to how to better insulate their homes and how to access free funding to improve energy efficiency.

“We hope that this pilot will contribute to increase the take up of schemes available to households to meet the City’s commitment to tackling climate change and addressing fuel poverty.”

The workshops, facilitated by Warwick researchers, members of the Council, student ambassadors, teachers, and local artists, included an interactive workshop on energy conservation, 3D models of energy efficient homes, and a final celebratory event with adults engaged in discussions on barriers to housing retrofitting, where children’s work and learning was also showcased. Parents turnout was extremely high, highlighting the potential of using similar approaches to work with local communities and address the challenges of climate change.

The information gathered from these workshops has informed the development of a survey that has been distributed to all parents in the school and will guide future iterations of the methodology in areas of Coventry where engagement with retrofit measures is particularly low.

The survey is available here. Coventry residents are invited to fill it in and enter a draw for one of three £50 Love2shop vouchers.

The Department of Economics is pleased to have been chosen as this year’s host of the prestigious event organised by the Review of Economic Studies – the REStud Tour which starts today at Warwick campus.

The REStud Tour is an annual event at which some of the best graduating doctoral students in economics and finance in the world, called the ‘tourists’ are invited to present their research to audiences in leading economics departments across Europe.

Founded in 1933 by a group of Economists from leading UK and US departments, The Review of Economic Studies is one of the core economics journals, consistently ranking among the top five titles, and essential reading for economists. The REStud Tour is aligned to one of the Review’s objectives - to encourage research in theoretical and applied economics, especially by young economists, and to publish the results in the Journal.

The REStud Tour will take place at Warwick over two days (13 and 14 May) and staff and students from the Department of Economics at Warwick, as well as several external guests will be joining the event to welcome the REStud tourists and to watch their presentation.

We are excited to welcome this year's REStud Tourists:

• Anna Russo - MIT, 'Additionality and Asymmetric Information in Environmental Markets: Evidence from Conservation Auctions'
• Nina Buchmann - Stanford University, 'Paternalistic Discrimination'
• Roberto Corrao - MIT, 'Mediation Markets: The Case of Soft Information'
• Frank Yang - Stanford Graduate School of Business, 'Nested Bundling'
• Agostina Brinatti - University of Michigan, 'Third-Country Effects of US Immigration Policy'
• Hugo Lhullier - Princeton University, 'Should I Stay or Should I Grow?'
• Benny Kleinman - University of Chicago, 'Wage Inequality and the Spatial Expansion of Firms'

Professor Caroline Elliott, who is an official host of the REStud Tour at Warwick commented:

“We are absolutely delighted to welcome seven REStud tourists to Warwick Economics. This is a hugely prestigious event, and I’m honoured that we’ve been chosen this year to host the UK leg of the REStud Tour. We’re looking forward to meeting some of the most promising young economists and to hearing about their innovative research.”

Related content

• About REStud
• Event page with REStud Tour Programme

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

Final year BSc Economics student Khushi Sampat coached Warwick's Quadball Team to triumph in all three competitions that took place this year.

Quadball is a full-contact mixed-gender sport that can be considered a mix of Netball, Dodgeball, and Rugby.

Khushi joined the Quadball Society in March 2022, took over as coach in April 2023, and was invited to join the Team England training squad in November 2023. There are three tournaments in a season that university teams take part in:

• Development Cup

• Southern England League/ Nothern England League

• British Quadball Cup (BQC)

Khushi celebrating a tournament win with a trophy

Khushi was happy to announce that “Warwick won all three tournaments this season and the commentators recognised the quality of coaching and gameplay!”

Outside of the university league, there are international competitions such as the European Games and World Cup which take place over the summer that Khushi hopes to take part in with the England Squad.

The Department would like to congratulate Khushi and the Warwick Quadball Team for this great success and all the hard work they have put in.

The image at the top of the article was taken in Sheffield during the British Quadball Cup on April 28th 2024. Khushi Sampat is third from left in the front row.

Two members of the Department are taking on leadership roles in the University’s Research Spotlight programme, a new programme designed to promote collaborative work on urgent global challenges.

Professor Daniel Sgroi has been appointed Chair of the new interdisciplinary Behaviour Spotlight, and Professor Thijs van Rens is a member of the leadership team for the Health Spotlight.

A total of six interdisciplinary ‘Research Spotlights’ have been created. Each of them identifies a major global challenge: “They are all serious interdisciplinary areas that are going to make a big difference,” Daniel explains. “The University has asked, ‘what are the big issues facing the world?’ and decided to put a spotlight on each of them and bring people from every department together to work on them.

“This is important because most of the world’s big problems are problems that can only really be solved by disciplines working together – for example, how we deal with climate change, how we tackle political polarisation, how we handle pandemics.

“We know from COVID that medics worked with behavioural scientists so that they didn’t just develop vaccines, they developed strategies to ensure people would take them.

“Our Behaviour Spotlight aims to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration between behavioural researchers that seek to understand and address some of the biggest problems faced by the world today.

“We can provide seed funding for pilot experiments or to kick-start projects, we can create and financially support new seminar series, workshops and conferences, and help fund early-stage research.

“We have a big network already, inherited from the Behaviour, Brain & Society GRP, but we now want to reach across the whole university. We’ll be inviting anyone doing behavioural research at Warwick to join us as part of our mission to build a university-wide network of active researchers.”

A new Health Spotlight has also been created. Professor Thijs van Rens is one of four academics on the leadership team. He said:

"There are many people at University working on research that is relevant to health, at Warwick Medical School, of course, but also in Business, Chemistry, Economics, Engineering, English, History, Mathematics, Physics, Psychology, Statistics and probably other departments as well.

“Our aim is to build the network and infrastructure to bring these people together so that together we can make better progress on the big questions that cannot be addressed from a single discipline.

“Some of the interdisciplinary areas that we will focus on are technologies in health, prevention and public health, mental health and wellbeing, and interdisciplinary methodologies. Warwick has strengths in all of these areas, and we hope that by providing a supportive environment for collaboration, we can further build on these strengths and encourage ‘blue-skies’ research ideas.”

“My own research on healthy and sustainable diets has made me realise how the quality of the research can benefit from an interdisciplinary team, and how much it helps to secure funding for that research."

Professor Ben Lockwood, Head of the Economics Department, said “I am delighted that Daniel and Thijs have been appointed to these leadership roles and will be contributing to the University’s ambitious interdisciplinary research programme.”

The Spotlight programme is intended to run for at least 10 years and is an indication of the University’s long-term commitment to world-changing research.

 FIND OUT MORE

• Behaviour Spotlight : Behaviour | Research at Warwick
• Health Spotlight: Health | Research at Warwick