Research in Economics
The Department fosters a strong research environment and has an international research reputation in various areas.
Our Research
The wide variety of research areas within our department include Behavioural and Experimental Economics; Labour, Education and Health Economics; Macroeconomics and Financial Markets; Political Economy and International Trade; and Industrial Organisation and Economic Theory.
We also host a modern experimental lab known as LExEL and the UK Housing Market Observatory, which provides real-time monitoring of the UK national and regional real estate markets. In addition to this, our active research seminar series contributes to our strong research culture.
Research Areas
Research by our faculty members covers a variety of topics, organised into research groups. We attract substantial research funding from a range of sources, and our members have published their findings in several top academic journals.
Behavioural and Experimental Economics
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.
Industrial Organisation and Economic Theory
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 effects of natural hazards on regional economic issues.
Labour, Education and Health 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 has 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.
Macroeconomics and Financial Markets
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.
Political Economy and International Trade
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.
Conferences & Lectures
Discover our rich programme of conferences, workshops and lecture series.
Conferences
The Department organises various conferences and workshops as a way to foster collaborations and dissemination of research findings. Building on the research strenghts of our members and core research areas, we host regular events in Auction and Competition, Education, Game Theory, Macroeconomics and Political Economy.
An overview of the conferences and workshops delivered by the Department is shown below.
Esmée Fairbairn Lecture Series
The Esmée Fairbairn Lecture Series has been run by Lancaster's Department of Economics since 1981. It has attracted many eminent speakers from business, politics, think tanks, the media and academia. The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation was one of the earliest supporters of Lancaster University. The support of the Foundation was a vote of confidence by a respected charitable foundation, itself in its early days, to our new institution, and is remembered with great appreciation by a university now rated in the Top 10 of UK universities in all league tables.
The annual lecture has become a major date in the Lancaster University calendar, attracting large audiences with strong student representation.
Andrews and Brunner Lecture Series
The Andrews and Brunner lecture series began with an inaugural lecture in 2019. This series commemorates PWS Andrews and Elizabeth Brunner, two leading figures who significantly contributed to the success of the Economics Department from 1967 to 1983. Both Andrews and Brunner supported the nascent University’s growing reputation in Economics. They are fondly remembered by former students who benefitted from their teaching.
Seminars & Events
The Department runs a weekly series of external research seminars and several other events.
The Economics Department runs a weekly series of research seminars with invited academics from universities across the world.
More Events
