News http://www.ucl.ac.uk/economics/seminars_events/news/rss admin 2008-10-02T10:53:22Z Andrew Chesher appointed as William Stanley Jevons Chair of Economics and Economic Measurement http://www.ucl.ac.uk/economics/news-library/may13/chesher15may13 Perhaps the most eminent figure to hold a professorship of economics at UCL was William Stanley Jevons (1835-1882), also earlier a student of the college. Often seen as the main British contributor to the marginalist revolution in economic thought of the 1870s, he challenged Ricardian ideas, seeking for instance to replace theories of value based on labour input with theories based on utility. In his support for the use of mathematical analysis in economics and in his practical use of economic statistics, he can be seen as one of the first exponents of recognisably modern econometric methods. Andrew Chesher’s standing in the profession and his contributions make him an extremely worthy holder of the William Stanley Jevons Chair of Economics and Economic Measurement. Charlotte Choudhry 2013-05-15T07:20:28Z Fabien Postel-Vinay to join UCL Economics http://www.ucl.ac.uk/economics/news-library/may13/postel-vnay14may13 UCL Economics is pleased to announce that Fabien Postel-Vinay (Bristol) will join the department this coming academic year. We are proud to be able to add his significant talent to our departmental portfolio. Charlotte Choudhry 2013-05-14T07:30:19Z Orazio Attanasio appointed as Jeremy Bentham Chair of Economics http://www.ucl.ac.uk/economics/news-library/may13/attanasio13may13 Jeremy Bentham, was the “spiritual founder” of UCL and a key player in the establishment of UCL Economics. He made fundamental contributions to economics and many of them still shape modern economic theory. Perhaps most importantly, Bentham developed Utilitarianism. Although his felicific calculus has not survived to modern economic theory, the idea of utility being the main object of interest for welfare and choice theory is still very much the dominating paradigm. Utilitarianism also provides the foundation of much modern econometric measurement, testing and estimation of economic theory without which macroeconomics would have little relevance. Bentham also worked on macroeconomic theory including monetary economics. Orazio Attanasio has made fundamental contributions to many of these areas and is an extremely worthy holder of the Jeremy Bentham Chair of Economics. Charlotte Choudhry 2013-05-13T08:25:53Z Andrew Chesher to deliver the Walras Bowley Lecture http://www.ucl.ac.uk/economics/news-library/may13/chesher09may13  Andrew Chesher delivers the Walras Bowley Lecture , "Limited Information Econometrics", at the North American Summer Meeting of the Econometric Society, Los Angeles, June 14 2013. Charlotte Choudhry 2013-05-09T08:02:06Z Eric French to join UCL Economics http://www.ucl.ac.uk/economics/news-library/may13/french07may13 The Department of Economics is pleased to announce that Eric French (Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago) has decided to accept our offer for a chair in applied economics and will be joining us this summer. Charlotte Choudhry 2013-05-07T08:42:22Z Antonio Cabrales to join UCL Economics http://www.ucl.ac.uk/economics/news-library/april13/cabrales22apr13 UCL Economics is pleased to announce that Antonio Cabrales will join the department this coming academic year. Antonio is an outstanding economist with a very broad research agenda. We are proud to be able to add his significant talent to our departmental portfolio. Charlotte Choudhry 2013-04-22T08:01:02Z UCL Festival of Arts, 7-17 May 2013 http://www.ucl.ac.uk/economics/news-library/april13/ucl-fest-of-arts Start: May 7, 2013 1:00:00 PM End: May 17, 2013 7:30:00 PM Charlotte Choudhry 2013-04-11T08:00:39Z Byron Fellowship http://www.ucl.ac.uk/economics/news-library/april13/byron03apr13 Congratulations to Theodore Pang, a final year undergraduate studying Philosophy and Economics and winner of the 2013 Byron Fellowship. Charlotte Choudhry 2013-04-03T07:26:58Z Economics Department Hires Two New Academics http://www.ucl.ac.uk/economics/news-library/march13/hiring07mar13 The Department of Economics is pleased to announce that Wei Cui (Princeton) and Terri Kneeland (UBC) will be joining UCL Economics in September. Charlotte Choudhry 2013-03-07T09:41:15Z Recent Contributions to Inference in Game Theoretic Models Conference http://www.ucl.ac.uk/economics/news-library/march13/depaula06mar13 The event features a very exciting mix of presentations from the microeconomic theory and applied and theoretical econometrics sides of the spectrum.  The conference is sponsored by Cemmap, UCL and The Breen Family Fund at Northwestern University.  It will be preceded by a two-day Cemmap Masterclass by Tamer on the topic. Charlotte Choudhry 2013-03-06T08:14:35Z Christian Dustmann elected Fellow of the German National Academy of Sciences http://www.ucl.ac.uk/economics/news-library/february13/dustmann27feb13.pdf Christian Dustmann elected Fellow of the German National Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina) Charlotte Choudhry 2013-02-27T09:49:24Z Migration: Global Development, New Frontiers 10-13 April http://www.ucl.ac.uk/economics/news-library/february13/migration Interdisciplinary conference on migration jointly organised by the NORFACE Research Programme on Migration and the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM) at UCL, and co-funded by the European Union 10 – 13  April 2013, at University College London Charlotte Choudhry 2013-02-20T15:12:26Z Raffaella Giacomini elected chair of EEA Women in Economics (winE) Committee http://www.ucl.ac.uk/economics/news-library/february13/giacomini12feb13 Raffaella Giacomini has been elected chair of the European Economics Association Women in Economics (WinE) committee. Charlotte Choudhry 2013-02-12T15:12:19Z Pierre-Andre Chiappori to give the 2013 Gorman Lectures http://www.ucl.ac.uk/economics/news-library/february13/gorman_lectures2013 Pierre-Andre Chiappori (Columbia) will be giving the 2013 Gorman Lectures. For more information please see: Gorman Lectures 29/05/13 and Gorman Lectures 30/05/13 . Details to follow. All welcome. Charlotte Choudhry 2013-02-12T14:20:24Z Imran Rasul awarded grant from Private Enterprise Development in Low-Income Countries (PEDL) and IZA http://www.ucl.ac.uk/economics/news-library/january13/imran16jan13 For £349K for a research project on “Easing Constraints for Small Firm Expansion: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Uganda”. Charlotte Choudhry 2013-01-16T12:17:41Z Christian Dustmann awarded ERC Advanced Grant http://www.ucl.ac.uk/economics/news-library/november12/dustmann-erc Christian Dustmann has been awarded ERC Advanced Grant: “The Dynamics of Migration and Economic Adjustment” Charlotte Choudhry 2012-11-16T14:33:32Z Morten Ravn and Raffaella Giacomini elected to the EEA council http://www.ucl.ac.uk/economics/news-library/october12/eea For more information please see the EEA Newsletter . Charlotte Choudhry 2012-10-24T07:16:13Z CALL FOR PAPERS – “Migration: Global Development, New Frontiers” http://www.ucl.ac.uk/economics/news-library/october12/norface Interdisciplinary conference on migration jointly organised by the NORFACE Research Programme on Migration and the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM) at UCL, and co-funded by the European Union 10 – 13  April 2013, at University College London More... Charlotte Choudhry 2012-10-16T11:14:45Z Nobel Prizewinner Tom Sargent to give UCL's Gorman Lectures http://www.ucl.ac.uk/economics/news-library/october12/gorman Running from the 12th-13th November 2012 For more information please see: Gorman Lectures 12/11/12 and Gorman Lectures 13/11/12 Charlotte Choudhry 2012-09-20T14:57:01Z Economics U/G wins Faculty Medal http://www.ucl.ac.uk/economics/news-library/august12/award10aug12 The Department is very proud to announce that Su Yi GAN (Economics 2012) has been awarded the Faculty Medal for Social and Historical Sciences.  A socially aware student with a keen and active interest in public policy issues, she is one of the academically strongest students that the department has seen in recent years, and we are extremely proud of her achievement. Charlotte Choudhry 2012-08-10T08:10:10Z Richard Blundell awarded the 2012 IZA Prize in Labor Economics' http://www.ucl.ac.uk/economics/news-library/august12/iza09aug12 The 2012 IZA Prize in Labor Economics is awarded to Richard Blundell (University College London and Institute for Fiscal Studies) for his path-breaking contributions to the econometric analysis of labor markets and public-policy reforms. Professor Blundell has played a major role in the development of modern labor and policy analysis. His work is characterized by a focus on pressing questions in economic policy, the development of cutting-edge econometric methods to tackle such questions, and painstaking analysis of micro data. Blundell’s contributions laid the foundations for the modern economic analysis of labor supply, consumer behavior, and policy reforms. His work has been hugely influential for the worldwide debates about tax and welfare reforms during the past decades. The annual IZA prize, awarded since 2002, is given for outstanding academic achievement in the field of labor economics. Past winners include Jacob Mincer, Dale Mortensen, Christopher Pissarides, David Card, Fran Blau and George Borjas. More information Charlotte Choudhry 2012-08-09T07:48:59Z UPDATED: Economics department hires NINE new academics http://www.ucl.ac.uk/economics/news-library/july12/newstaff18jul12 Economics department hires 9 new academics: The department is extremely proud to announce that 9 new academics will join the department: Charlotte Choudhry 2012-07-18T08:19:10Z UCL Economics signs Internship agreement with Samsung Electronics http://www.ucl.ac.uk/economics/news-library/july12/samsung03jul12 The Economics Department is happy to be able to announce that it has signed an internship agreement with Samsung Electronics that will facilitate Economics students to take part in work-experience internships with Samsung Electronics in Korea. Samsung Electronics is the world’s largest Information Technology company. Charlotte Choudhry 2012-07-03T12:49:13Z 'Should cannabis be legalised?' - new Economics film launched online http://www.ucl.ac.uk/economics/news-library/june12/cannabis28june12 The policy of ‘depenalising’ cannabis in Lambeth between 2001 and 2002 – where people with small quantities of cannabis were given a warning instead of being arrested – led to an 8% fall in overall crime in the area. That is the main finding revealed by a new documentary, 'Should Cannabis Be Legalised?', now available free online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jQLMywBg7k&feature=g-upl The documentary, by production start-up Econ Films, focuses on a study by economists Jérôme Adda, Brendon McConnell and Imran Rasul on the effect of depenalisation on crime presented at the recent Royal Economic Society annual conference. Their research compares crime records for Lambeth with all other London boroughs between 1998 and 2006. The documentary reports that: * Crime rates for cannabis possession went up by around 20%. This more than offset the fall in cannabis arrests because of the change in policy. Moreover, cannabis possession was still higher well after the policy experiment ended. By looking at the neighbouring boroughs, the researchers estimate that a large chunk of this increase (as much as half) was due to people coming from nearby to buy and smoke cannabis in Lambeth – so-called ‘drug tourists’. The rest of this rise is caused by a combination of a) cannabis users buying more cannabis, b) new people starting to using cannabis, and c) police reporting arrests where they would otherwise not have done. * But other sorts of crime fell by 11%. Other crime fell by 11% compared with the London average and overall crime fell by 8% (due to the rise in cannabis possession offences). Crime fell in areas such as violence against the person, sexual offences, robbery, theft, fraud, and criminal damage – these account for 97% of crimes in Lambeth. Meanwhile arrests went up by around 3% and prosecutions also went up. As Imran Rasul puts it: ‘this suggests there is an increase in police effectiveness’ – just as the policy had intended. * House prices in Lambeth were 6% lower than they otherwise would have been. House price data from the time shows that, despite the fall in crime, Lambeth became a less attractive place to live. So although there was public support for the scheme, there was a case of ‘not in my backyard’. The documentary argues that this ambivalence towards cannabis can help explain why cannabis is still illegal in the UK despite the growing calls for a change in approach. Charlotte Choudhry 2012-06-28T09:14:25Z Jim Durbin http://www.ucl.ac.uk/economics/news-library/june12/durbin26june12 James Durbin, Honorary Professor UCL and CeMMAP Fellow passed away June 23rd 2012. His contributions to econometrics and statistics were immense and we treasure his association with UCL and CeMMAP. Charlotte Choudhry 2012-06-26T10:58:35Z