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BBC Talking Business: Data centres and AI

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 12:39:35 GMT

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Women at the forefront of environmental economics

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 10:19:00 GMT

Over 20 women working in environmental economics joined forces to showcase their research and expertise at an event held at the University of Warwick’s Venice venue.

Hosted by the CEPR and the CAGE Research Centre this second event of its kind provided an opportunity for women working the field to network with others, share their findings and discuss insights in environmental economics of global policy relevance.

Participants from European, US, Australian, UK and global institutions presented their work on topics which included renewables, emissions, forest conservation, water, climate and industry investment amongst others.

They also heard from keynote speakers Hélène Ollivier (Paris School of Economics) discussing her work on climate damage and trade; and Katrina Jessoe (University of California) on the way economics can inform water management.

Andrea La Nauze (Deakin University, Melbourne) co-organiser of the event said:

“Women are still the minority in economics, and the same is true in environmental economics. This workshop has been organised by women and for women working at the frontier in our field.

“It has been great to have the opportunity to discuss some of the challenges experienced by women in the profession and look at ways events like these can help to change the culture.”

Ludovica Gazze (University of Warwick) continued:

“Our aim is to provide an opportunity for women to further their careers in a curated environment. Those that took part in our first workshop commented on the difference it made to them to work alongside a group of women – noting the excellent quality of interactions and feedback, along with kind and constructive delivery. This is not always the case in standard economics workshops.”

Read the full programme

FT Podcast: Economic warfare - lessons from history

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 08:10:00 GMT

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Government's seven new town locations scored against real-world demand data

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 15:30:00 GMT

The government’s new town strategy is one part of its efforts to address the UK’s housing shortage through large-scale development. However, its success depends less on the quantity of housing built and more on where it is built.

New analysis by the Warwick economists behind the Where to Build housing demand mapping tool have tested the government’s seven-site shortlist against measures of likely success, and ranked the sites to help policymakers decide which to finally approve. Their findings highlight stark differences across the proposed sites. Locations in Manchester and Leeds which benefit from strong existing demand and connectivity make them well-positioned for rapid and successful development. While others, particularly Tempsford and Enfield, face significant structural challenges that may limit their viability.

Nikhil Datta explains:

“Whether large new developments succeed or fail depends crucially on pre-existing demand for housing in the area. And that housing demand is driven by underlying economic fundamentals– such as access to jobs, as well as services and amenities.

“Housing supply does not automatically generate demand. So there is a real danger that if demand is not taken into account, these New Towns could be built in the wrong places.”

In A Scorecard for the Seven New Towns, Nikhil Datta and Amrita Kulka test each of the seven shortlisted sights against their data on real-world demand at neighbourhood level, access to jobs, availability of amenities such as schools, shops, restaurants and healthcare, and connectivity. They also take into account whether new transport links are part of the proposals.

Ranked against these criteria, the scorecard shows:

Read the Scorecard for the Seven New Towns policy brief by Nikhil Datta and Amrita Kulka

CAGE Working Papers March 2026

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 13:03:00 GMT

CAGE research papers draw on our global academic network of research associates and address topics aligned to our four core themes.

Contact cage.centre@warwick.ac.uk for more information on submitting research to our working paper series or to be added to our mailing list.

799 Appropriate Entrepreneurship? The Rise of China and the Developing World

Authors: Josh Lerner, Junxi Liu, Jacob Moscona, David Y. Yang

Theme: Designing and Building Institutions

Summary: This paper examines the global impact of China’s rise as a hub for innovation and entrepreneurship. Using international data, it shows that growth in China’s venture capital sector stimulated entrepreneurship in other emerging markets, particularly in sectors closely aligned with Chinese industries. The effects are driven by local investors and firms resembling Chinese counterparts. This expansion increased innovation, serial entrepreneurship, and broader economic outcomes, suggesting that emerging economies benefit from more context-appropriate technologies and business models.

Read the working paper

798 Greenwashing or Pragmatism?

Authors: Junxi Liu, Shaoting Pi, Ao Wang

Theme: Designing and Building Institutions

Summary: This paper examines the rise in shareholder support for environmental and social proposals between 2010 and 2020, focusing on changes in proposal content. It documents a shift from “big-ask” proposals demanding operational changes to “small-ask” proposals focused on disclosure, which drives increased support rates. Using a structural model of proposer and voter behavior, the study shows this shift reflects an equilibrium adjustment rather than greenwashing, indicating a more pragmatic approach to advancing environmental and social objectives.

Read the working paper

797 Perceptions of Workplace Sexual Harassment and Support for Policy Action

Authors: Sonia Bhalotra, Matthew Ridley

Theme: Gender, Health and Wellbeing

Summary: This paper examines the prevalence and consequences of workplace sexual harassment in the UK and public perceptions of related policies. Using population surveys, it provides unified estimates of harassment prevalence, harms, legal awareness, and policy effectiveness, while also documenting citizens’ beliefs about these issues. An information experiment tests how evidence on prevalence, harms, and policy performance shapes support for policy and civil society action. The study also compares policymakers’ beliefs with those of the public.

Read the working paper

796 When Teachers Break the Rules: Imitation, Reciprocity, and Community Structure in the Transmission of Ethical Behavior

Authors: Victor Lavy, Moses Shayo

Theme: Designing and Building Institutions

Summary: This paper studies how teachers’ grading rule violations influence students’ ethical behavior. Using administrative data linking teacher-assigned internal scores with externally graded national exam scores, it tracks grading violations and subsequent student cheating. Exploiting within-student variation in teacher exposure, the study finds undergrading increases cheating, consistent with imitation and negative reciprocity. Overgrading has mixed effects: it raises cheating in heterogeneous communities but reduces it in homogeneous ones, highlighting the role of community structure and reciprocity norms.

Read the working paper

795 The Accuracy and Malleability of Parental Beliefs about Child Socio-Emotional Health

Authors: Victor Lavy, Moses Shayo

Theme: Designing and Building Institutions

Summary: This paper investigates why parents systematically under-report children’s socio-emotional difficulties relative to children’s self-reports using data from Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, and Australia. A theoretical framework and novel survey design disentangle information frictions from reporting-style differences. Evidence from Luxembourg shows that about 70% of the discrepancy stems from information frictions. A randomized information intervention shifts parental beliefs among those with weak priors, highlighting the role of second-order beliefs and the potential for targeted information policies.

Read the working paper

794 Social Media vs. Democracy: Evidence from the January 6th Insurrection

Authors: Karsten Müller, Carlo Schwarz, Zekai Shen

Theme: Designing and Building Institutions

Summary: This paper examines how social media can be used by political elites to undermine democratic institutions, focusing on the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection. Exploiting plausibly exogenous variation in Twitter usage, it shows that greater exposure predicts participation in the attack, support for election fraud claims, and related donations. Trump’s tweets triggered spikes in online mobilization, while his account suspension reduced toxic public expression but had limited effects on private beliefs or financial support.

Read the working paper

793 The Content Moderator’s Dilemma: Removal of Toxic Content and Distortions to Online Discourse

Authors: Mahyar Habibi, Dirk Hovy, Carlo Schwarz

Theme: Designing and Building Institutions

Summary: This paper develops and validates a method to measure how content moderation distorts online discourse using text embeddings from computational linguistics. Applying it to 5 million U.S. political tweets, the authors find that removing toxic content substantially alters the semantic composition of discussion, with distortions comparable to randomly eliminating several major topics. The results show distortions stem from removing topic content, not just toxic language. Rephrasing tweets with generative language models reduces toxicity while preserving discourse integrity.

Read the working paper

US Presidential Party switches are mirrored in global maternal mortality

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 08:22:00 GMT

British Medical Journal, 2026

Sonia Bhalotra et al

Gender, Health and Wellbeing

School students discover what it takes to become an economist

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 08:47:00 GMT

"Being an economist isn't about being a single thing. A good economist is ready for anything and can absorb anything." Mirko Draca, CAGE Centre Director

Over 70 students from schools across the region discovered that a career in economics is about far more than finance at an interactive workshop run by the CAGE Research Centre and Discover Economics.

The year 12 and 13 students studying economics, geography, history and politics took part in a 'How migration shapes economies' event which looked at the way the movement of people shapes world economies.

Students and teachers stepped outside of the standard economics A level curriculum and engaged in interactive activities and videos on the impacts of different types of migration on individuals and a country.

They also had the opportunity to hear from and question academic staff and current undergraduate students on their pathway to economics and the interdisciplinary nature of the subject.

“The seminar was interesting, especially due to the range of experiences by the speakers.” Student

"Loved the event! A great opportunity for the students" Teacher

About the project

Working with Discover Economics a Royal Economic Society initiative, we develop resources and a regular interactive event for schools. The material draws on CAGE's network of internationally renowned experts and looks at political history from different angles with a view to inspiring young people into a career in economics.

Our aim is to help teachers, and their students navigate the different ways economics can intersect with a whole range of curriculum areas, broaden horizons and enhance understanding of world economies and modern society.

Over the past two years the partnership has developed two video series on the impact of colonialism and political protest on global economies – subjects which have appealed to history, geography, politics, business and economics A level students.

The Conversation: Do petrol retailers really ‘price‑gouge’ during oil price spikes?

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 16:00:00 GMT

Excess profits are being made at the pumps – but not when you think

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 12:48:00 GMT

New analysis of fuel prices confirms a long-held suspicion – at times of crisis when wholesale oil prices rise, prices at the pump also rise quickly – but they are slower to match any subsequent fall.

This so-called “rocket and feather effect” has been confirmed by economists Nikhil Datta and Johannes Brinkmann at the University of Warwick using more than ten years of pump price data. They find:

No evidence that UK petrol retailers exploit oil price spikes to widen margins, but new research shows clear evidence of margin expansion when prices fall, due to slower retail price reductions.
If concerns about “overcharging” are warranted, the evidence suggests that it is more likely to occur during periods of falling oil prices rather than during price spikes.·

Are consumers paying more as a result?

Analysis of the impact on petrol prices of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 showed that when wholesale costs fall, pump prices adjust downward more slowly, temporarily increasing the gap between wholesale and retail prices.

On average, if wholesale prices rise by 10 pence per litre and then fall by 10 pence per litre over a 60-day period, consumers pay about 1 pence per litre during that period than they would if retail prices adjusted symmetrically.

"This is not the same across all petrol stations – in some locations price falls are passed on at the same speed as price increases, implying little additional cost to consumers. For others, it is up to five times larger, meaning that the same 10 pence per litre increase and subsequent decrease over a 60-day period would cost consumers up to an additional 5 pence per litre."

“Public concern tends to focus on price rises but in fact excess profits are more likely to be seen when prices start to fall.” Dr Datta explains.

“In a well-functioning market prices would rise and fall symmetrically. What we actually see in the data is a quick rise, which draws the attention of politicians and consumer champions – but during this period, while wholesale fuel prices track crude oil increases almost immediately, retail pump prices rise more slowly and by a smaller amount, causing margins to compress, not expand.

“Profit margins expand after the crisis has passed when prices start to slowly drift back down.

“It’s during this period when focus from consumer champions and competition authorities would be most useful.

“Motorists can also help themselves by shopping around and using price comparison sites – we find that an increase in customer price checking during oil price spikes leads to stronger local competition and a downward pressure on pump prices.”

Read the full research briefing: Do petrol retailers price gouge during oil price spikes?

The Economics of Education : 2026 Crafts Lecture and Workshop

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 08:37:00 GMT

Over 50 national and international delegates attended the Crafts lecture and workshop on the economics of education and the role of institutions organised by Sascha Becker, James Fenske and Bishnupriya Gupta.

Sebastian Ottinger (CERGE-EI) opened the event presenting his joint work on why a fragmented Europe overtook the stability of the Chinese empire to generate so much scientific knowledge between the years 1000-1800. Analysing the productivity and life trajectory of 66,000 European scholars the researchers found that repeated shocks (such as plague, battles, ruler change) led to forced mobility and enabled a divergence and growth in knowledge.

The fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453 and the rise of the west was the focus of Andreas Link’s (University of Erianen-Nuremberg) presentation. One of the most consequential events in world history, his research provides the first quantitative analysis of the effects of the considerable number of Greek migrants to western Europe and their role and knowledge in the development of early modern Europe.

Xizi Luo from the University of Manchester focussed on the reform movements in China and the long run legacy of 15^th century philosopher Wang Yangming’s ideas of moral autonomy and unity of knowledge and action.

The Crafts lecture of 2026 was delivered by Martha Bailey, Professor in the Department of Economics and Director of the California Centre for Population Research at the University of California-Los Angeles. Martha talked through her programme of work which measures educational opportunity increases in the US over the 20^th century and discussed the role of local public policy in determining outcomes.

View her presentation: Changes in Education Mobility in the US over the Twentieth Century and the Role of Public Education

Early adoption of compulsory schooling and the role of education in the Italian Industrial Revolution was the focus of Francesco Cinnirella’s (University of Bergamo) presentation which opened day two of the conference. His research highlights the role it played in strengthening the transition to modern economic growth.

This was then followed by a presentation by Davide Coluccia (University of Bristol) on innovation and growth ushing his work analysing the Great British migration to the United States between 1870 and 1940.

Anne Sofia Beck Knudsen (University of Copenhagen) discussed her work on networks, identities and norms during the rapid structural changes of the second industrial revolution.

Felix Meier zu Seilhausen’s (Utrecht Univeristy) highlighted his research into colonial origins and evolution of gender inequality in mission schooling and formal labour participation. Analysis of 30,000 Anglican marriage registers on African bride-groom pairs between 1880-1960 showed that mission schooling created a rise in gender inequality over the colonial period. [link to previous cage article)

Access to education by black children in the US South during and after the civil war was the focus of Sebanti Mukherjee’s (University of Warwick) presentation. Her research finds that despite more racial violence, the presence of union army troops made an increasing number of schools and teachers in southern areas more accessible to black communities.

Finally, Casper Worm Hasen (University of Copenhagen) showcased his research with colleagues on the short and long run outcomes of school children impacted by pandemics and school closures.

By analysing data on school closure timings for more than 2000 districts in Sweden during the 1918 pandemic the researchers found that early school closures saved lives with the effects of closures making little difference to long term education, employment, income, retirement and longevity outcomes.