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- Katie Kedward
Research Fellow in Central Banking and Sustainability
Inst for Innovation and Public Purpose
Faculty of the Built Environment
- Joined UCL
- 3rd Aug 2020
Research summary
Katie's research draws from a number of traditions within economics and beyond. A heterodox economist by training, her work combines post-keynesian, institutional, and ecological economics perspectives, as well as drawing from international political economy and critical economic geography. During her previous career in banking, Katie observed that critical failures within finance are impeding capital allocation needed for the green transition. Her current research focuses upon this intersection between the financial system and environment, and explores in particular in the institutional and policy reforms that could realign the private financial system with the environmental aims of public policy.
At IIPP, Katie has been focusing especially on risks posed to the financial system by biodiversity loss, as well as how financial actors, motives, and practices facilitate biodiversity-negative economic activities. Over the course of the project, this topic has steadily moved up the agendas of financial policymakers. Katie's co-authored research on the topic has been cited in the influential Dasgupta Review on the Economics of Biodiversity, as well as research by central banks including Banque de France and Bank Negara Malaysia. Over the course of 2021-2022, Katie was a contributor to the first central bank-led study group on biodiversity loss and financial stability, convened by the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) - an influential group of 100+ central banks and financial supervisors. Katie's research has also been featured in prominent news outlets including The Guardian, BBC News Online, Business Green amongst others.
Katie's other research has focused on the topic of the Green New Deal, focusing especially on the need for coordinated industrial and financial policy as well as international climate justice. She has been a journal reviewer for New Political Economy and the Review of International Political Economy. Within IIPP, Katie coordinates a departmental quarterly seminar series on the broad topic of 'Green Economy', and is also a member of the departmental Black Lives Matter working group. Katie's Master's dissertation explored how the autonomous agency of the banking sector in (mis)allocating credit may be contributing to the 'green finance gap', modelled in an environmentally-extended stock-flow consistent macroeconomic model fitted to the UK economy. Katie was awarded the Sally Macgill Memorial Prize for Best Masters Thesis at the University of Leeds, in 2019.
Biography
Katie Kedward is an economist at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, with a research focus on sustainable finance. Katie started her career in capital markets at the Royal Bank of Canada, as a government bond and derivative specialist. Prior to joining UCL, she worked in green banking at ShareAction, the responsible investment NGO, and as a researcher for George Monbiot, focusing on sustainable food systems. Katie holds an MSc degree in ecological economics from the University of Leeds and a First Class degree from the University of Cambridge. She has contributed to publications such as LSE Business Review, Open Democracy, and Brave New Europe. Katie sits on the advisory panel for Positive Money UK, an NGO campaigning for a fair, democratic, and sustainable financial system.