Economics is being reinvigorated by increasing application of the experimental method to study economic decision-making, and by behavioural models that embody departures from the benchmark of normative rationality. Our Department has made a significant investment in Experimental Economics, both in the recruitment of new faculty as well as in the creation of physical and institutional infrastructure for running experiments (LExEL).

The topics of this group’s research overlap with those of economic theory on one side, and extend into areas where controlled experiments are the primary research instrument.

The former include auctions, game-theoretic solution concepts, Bayesian information processing, dynamic decision-making, and the axioms underpinning economic theory of choice under risk and uncertainty, while the latter include other-regarding preferences, trust and norms, bounded rationality, and heuristics and biases. The group’s research also investigates long-standing puzzles and paradoxes of decision making. Virtually no empirical economic context remains that has not benefited from vibrant behavioural modelling and experimental investigation.

Members of this group have published in leading general and field journals such as the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Economic Theory, Games and Economic Behavior, Public Choice, and Risk Analysis. They are regular active participants in the Economic Science Association.

The group would particularly welcome applications from well-qualified candidates interested in pursuing PhD study involving the application of experimental investigation methods to Game Theory, Political and Public Economics, Behavioural Finance, and Decision Making Under Risk and Uncertainty.

The Department has a long history in Industrial Organisation going back to its establishment by the founding members, Philip Andrews and Elizabeth Brunner, early editors of the Journal of Industrial Economics. Their work was later sustained and expanded under the leadership of Robert Rothschild and, currently, under Dakshina De Silva.

The research conducted by members of this group spans several areas of industrial organisation and economic theory. One stream focuses on auctions and how bidding behaviour is affected by strategic interactions of firms and policy changes. Another area of expertise involves environmental economics with an emphasis on the design of environmental markets and the impacts of international environmental agreements, as well as projects related to renewable energy, toxic-release firm locations, and the effects of natural hazards on regional economic issues.

Several members share an interest in various aspects of game theory (e.g. evolutionary game theory, psychological game theory, game theoretical analysis of fair division with application to bankruptcy problems, game theoretic approach to understand how institutions shape individuals and strategies in political parties, game-theoretical agency models applied to voting behaviour and public finance decisions). Another line of research has considered the effects of knowledge spill-overs on high-tech firm start-ups, growth and survival, as well as trying to understand the mechanisms meant to promote research, development and innovation. Finally, various projects focus on decision-making under risk and ambiguity (e.g. dynamic choice under ambiguity, formation and updating of subjective beliefs, strategic interaction under ambiguity and their application to public policy).

Members of this group have published in leading general economics, industrial organization, environmental, and regional science journals such as American Economic Review, Review of Economics and Statistics, European Economic Review, RAND Journal of Economics, Games and Economic Behavior, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Journal of Industrial Economics, and Regional Science and Urban Economics. Members of the group have also edited special issues for Applied Economics and Labour Economics on topics related to environmental policy and management and sports economics. They have also organized conferences and workshops on topics related to Art, and Auctions, Competition, Regulation, and Public Policy.

The group would particularly welcome applications from well-qualified candidates interested in pursuing PhD study in any of the following areas: applied and theoretical industrial organisation, game theory, spatial economics, and political and public economics.

The Department has a long-standing interest and an international reputation, in education, labour and health economics. A range of contributions have been made in Education Economics to areas such as the returns to education, the role of competition in school performance and the efficiency of educational production. In addition, members of this group have published work on a range of wider issues in labour economics, such as labour supply, performance-related pay, migration and worker effort decisions.

Current research by this group focuses on a range of issues, including school choice, social mobility, the consequences of being bullied at school, cross-country evidence on school-to-work transitions, labour market performance in transition economies, and the economics of professional sports markets. The group has received extensive funding in recent years from ESRC, the Nuffield Trust, the Department for Education, and the Social Mobility Commission.

Recently, the group has diversified into health economics in collaboration with the Division of Health in the Medical School. This has led to a range of projects, including the effect of winter fuel payments on elderly health (ESRC-Funded) and the effect of alcohol availability on a range of outcomes, such as traffic accidents and workplace absenteeism. In addition, there are several ESRC CASE/MRC-funded PhD students who are jointly supervised with DHR.

The group is involved in a range of editorial activity. Geraint Johnes founded the journal Education Economics in 1993 and remained editor for ten years. With the later work of Steve Bradley as successive editor, it has become a leading journal in its field. Ian Walker has served as Editor-in-Chief of Labour Economics, and the IZA World of Labor; he is the Director of Education Economics Research at the IZA in Bonn, a Fellow of the European Economic Association (EEA) and a member of the Executive of the European Association of Labour Economics (EALE). Rob Simmons has served as the President of the North American Association of Sports Economists and is the current editor of International Journal of Sport Finance. Giuseppe Migali co-organised the annual International Workshop on Applied of Economics of Education (IWAEE.)

The group is also actively involved with policy related to the labour market: Geraint Johnes was previously the Director of the Work Foundation and is engaged with a variety of issues related to labour and government policy more broadly; and Ian Walker has been heavily engaged with policy surrounding higher education issues and was, until recently, a member of the Doctors and Dentists Remuneration Board.

The group would particularly welcome applications from well-qualified candidates interested in pursuing PhD study in any of the following areas: the economics of education, labour economics, health economics, sports economics, and personnel economics.

The Macroeconomics and Financial Markets (MFM) research group includes 15 colleagues from the Economics Department who have contributed, over the past two decades, to the analysis of key economic issues such as stabilisation policies employing both conventional as well as unconventional policies, speculative dynamics in asset markets, efficiency of the banking sector, the behaviour of housing markets, financial connectedness and the impact of market microstructure.

These contributions by our group members have been theoretical, empirical as well as methodological. Their research studies have been published in top journals, including Econometrica, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Journal of Monetary Economics, International Economic Review, Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, Journal of Econometrics, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Journal of International Economics, and European Economic Review.

The academic impact of our research is also illustrated by the international rankings and the academic awards received by our group members. For instance, David Peel is in the top 2% of the most highly-cited economists, according to REPEC. Tayler and Zilberman were the winners of the Bank of England competition to recognise outstanding research conducted on a specific One Bank Research Agenda topic. Furthermore, the MFM group actively fosters international cooperation, as evidenced by a high-profile seminar series that runs throughout the academic year with top international speakers, the organisation of our annual international Workshop on Macroeconomic and Financial Time Series Analysis, and the PhD Summer School.

The research highlighted above has also benefited non-academic stakeholders and facilitated external engagement and knowledge exchange for our community. This is shown by the appointment of Mike Tsionas as a Board member of the Greek Fiscal Policy Council, as well as by the creation of the International Housing Observatory (in collaboration with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas) and the UK Housing Observatory. These two Observatories provide a comprehensive set of publicly available indicators to monitor real-time risks and financial stability in the UK and international housing markets. In addition to this, a housing market project was awarded an ESRC-CASE scholarship with the Bank of England as an industry partner. Other initiatives that our members have developed in collaboration with the corporate sector include the creation of Gulf One Lab for Computational and Economic Research (GOLCER).

Theoretical and empirical research by this group has focused on political economy, international trade as well as related topics in development economics. Research on International trade and Development Economics has a long tradition in the Department with the work of Professors Balasubramanyam and Macbean. They have published widely on trade policy, foreign direct investment, technology transfer, and India and China’s economic policies and performance. More recently, research projects in this area have focused on (the political economy of) trade policies with reference to the regulatory role of the World Trade Organization and trade theories with elements of economic geography.

Theoretical work on political economy has analysed issues related to fiscal federalism and the interplay between voting behaviour and public finance decisions, as well as investigations of how institutions shape individuals' and parties' strategies in different political contexts. On the boundary between political economy and development economics, members of this group also research the causes and consequences of conflicts and migration in developing countries and the role of political institutions in international conflicts.

Members of the group have published in leading general and field journals such as American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Journal of Political Science, Canadian Journal of Economics, Economic Development and Cultural Change, Economic Journal, European Economic Review, Journal of Economic Geography, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Journal of the European Economics Association, Journal of International Economics, Journal of Public Economics, Public Choice, and World Development. They have also authored and edited several books, and secured funding for their research activities from multiple sources and have served as consultants to many international institutions (e.g. African Development Bank, FAO, OECD, World Bank).

After hosting two workshops in 2015 and 2016 members of the group are among the founding members of the UK-wide network called PoleconUK.

The group would particularly welcome applications from well-qualified candidates interested in pursuing PhD study in any of the following areas: FDI in India’s retail sector, the impact of diaspora and FDI on economic development in India, a comparative analysis of FDI into African countries, empirical analysis on the causes and consequences of conflict, Evaluation of transport infrastructure for economic development, an analysis of electoral systems and voting behaviour, an analysis of antidumping policies in developing countries, empirical analysis of political economy of trade policies.