News 2018-2019
Congratulations to LSE Department of Economics alumnus Kilian Huber who has been awarded the Deutscher Studienpreis 2019. This award is given by the Körber Foundation and honours excellent dissertations with particularly high social relevance.
The title of Kilian’s competition entry was: How harmful are banking crises? Is breaking up big banks a dangerous reaction to bank crises? Only few German banks were hit directly by the 2008 financial crisis and reduced their loans. Kilian demonstrated that not only the companies linked directly to the affected banks were forced to postpone investments and lay off employees but that employment also declined at other companies, who continued to receive loans from healthier banks.
Kilian completed his BSc, MSc and PhD in the LSE Department of Economics. He is now Assistant Professor of Economics, Booth School of Business, University of Chicago.
Head of Department, Professor Steve Pischke, shared his congratulations:
"Congratulations to Kilian for his excellent work, which has improved our understanding of the macroeconomic effects of banking crises and how these effects come about."
July 2019
We are very proud to congratulate former PhD student Daron Acemoglu on being named Institute Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the most prestigious title at the institution. Having gained his MSc at LSE, Daron continued his research studies with us and was awarded his PhD in 1992. He subsequently stayed as a Lecturer in Economics at the School before moving on to MIT.
Daron’s principal interests are political economy, development economics, economic growth, economic theory, technology, income and wage inequality, human capital and training, and labour economics. His research work has produced far-ranging and influential studies.
Head of Department, Professor Steve Pischke, said "Congratulations, Daron. He has made remarkable contributions to economics in research, teaching, and training PhDs alike. Having worked with him, Daron’s success comes as absolutely no surprise to me. He combines curiosity, creativity, and ingenuity in a rare fashion."
Daron’s award highlights our exceptionally talented students who become part of the economics community at LSE and beyond.
July 2019
'The organisers, students and faculty at CERGE-EI were so incredibly welcoming. I’m very lucky to have had this opportunity to present my work and to hang out with smart people from so many different countries.' - Charoo Anand, BSc EME 2018 and current pre-doctoral student at LSE
Congratulations to Charoo Anand who has won the 2019 New Economic Talent (NET) competition. Organised by the Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute (CERGE-EI), the final round took place on 31 May 2019.
Four finalists presented their papers to the CERGE-EI evaluation committee. Charoo's winning paper, which she wrote for her bachelor’s dissertation, studies discrimination against African Americans by mortgage lenders in Chicago: ‘Do mortgage lenders discriminate against African American areas? An instrumental variable approach.’
Upon hearing the news, Dr Judith Shapiro said:
‘Charoo’s outstanding research on racial discrimination is, in our best traditions, both policy-relevant and econometrically sophisticated. Our Tuesday evening Sen Club was entranced to hear her present the paper in Lent Term and I hope it will inspire successors. Coming after last year’s NET prize to classmate, Sitong Ding, it shows the rich vein of undergraduate research we continue to develop.’
Sitong Ding, BSc EME 2018, won the competition in 2018, for his paper "Bounded Rationality in Rules of Price Adjustment and the Phillips Curve".
Professor Steve Pischke, Head of Department, shares his congratulations:
'Congratulations to Charoo for this well-deserved recognition. She continues the very strong record our BSc EME students have winning this and other international competitions.'
June 2019
LSE is ranked number four in the Tilburg University Top 100 Worldwide Economics Schools Research Ranking, based on research contribution from 2014-2018. In addition, LSE is the only non-US department in the top 10. See the rankings here.
The Tilburg University Economics Ranking provides a standard Top 100 of Economics schools, based on a subset of journals in their database, over a 5-year period. Their database covers publications in 74 leading economics journals, among which features the departmental journal Economica.
For further information, please visit the Tilburg University Economics Ranking website.
May 2019
Tim Besley, School Professor of Economics and Political Science & W. Arthur Lewis Professor of Development Economics, has joined the panel of the Deaton Review. Launched by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) on Tuesday 14 May 2019, the review is a five year study, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, to explore inequalities in many dimensions; both their causes and consequences.
The panel is led by Nobel Laureate Professor Sir Angus Deaton, and includes world-leading experts in sociology, epidemiology, political science, philosophy and economics. The project will also draw on contributions from dozens more experts with diverse areas of expertise and perspectives.
The review has two phases. From 2019-2020 the panel will commission studies and commentaries on a large number of key themes. Once complete, these will be brought together in a published volume, forming the core evidence of the review.
In the second phase, the panel will bring together the insights from the evidence volume to build a comprehensive and coherent narrative around the key questions that motivated the project in the first place: which inequalities matter, why do they matter, how are they related, what causes them, and what can be done about them. A particular focus will be on providing comprehensive and practical policy guidance. The findings will be published as a short book, comprising the second and final volume of the review.
Find out more about the IFS Deaton Review here.
May 2019
The Department of Economics and many colleagues and friends at the School, wish Happy Birthday to Basil Yamey, who is turning 100 on 4 May 2019. Basil was a member of the Department’s academic staff from 1947 until his retirement in 1984, with a one year hiatus at McGill.
In celebration of Basil's birthday, colleagues and friends, Richard Jackman, Richard Layard, David Metcalf, Steve Nickell, Steve Pischke, Christopher Pissarides and John Sutton, share their birthday wishes and memories of Basil .
May 2019
The Students' Union has announced the winners of the Teaching Excellence Awards. We’re thrilled to share the news that members of the Department of Economics have won in three of the seven individual categories! We’re also delighted to announce the Department of Economics was the runner up for the Departmental Excellence Award.
Congratulations to Kasia Krajniewska (Undergraduate Tutor to 2nd year students) who has won the award for Excellent Feedback and Communication; Junius Olivier (Undergraduate Tutor to 1st year students) on winning the award for Excellent Welfare and Pastoral Support; and (Graduate Teaching Assistant, EC102 Economics B) for the award for Sharing Subject Knowledge.
Additionally, there were three runners up from the Department. Huge congratulations to: (Graduate Teaching Assistant, EC210) runner up for the award for Excellent Feedback and Communication; Dr Rachel Ngai (EC100; EC301; EC539) runner up for the award for Inspirational Teaching; and Professor Ronny Razin (EC102; EC302), runner up for the Innovative Teaching award.
Four members of the Department were highly commended for awards: Dr Judith Shapiro (Senior Lecturer in Practice) for Mentoring and Personal Development; (EC201 Course Manager) for Excellent Welfare and Pastoral Support; (EC210 Course Manager) and (Graduate Teaching Assistant, EC201) for Inspirational Teaching. Congratulations to all!
Professor Steve Pischke, Head of Department of Economics, shares his congratulations:
'It’s great to see so many colleagues in the Department being recognised by the student-led awards, as well as the overall effort at the Departmental level. Congratulations to all the winners.'
April 2019
The Department is delighted to announce that Professor Oriana Bandiera and Professor Imran Rasul have been jointly awarded the 2019 Yrjö Jahnsson Award in Economics.
Oriana Bandiera is Professor of Economics and Sir Anthony Atkinson Chair in Economics at LSE, Director of STICERD and State Research Programme Director for the IGC and Member of the IGC Steering Group.
Imran Rasul is Professor of Economics at University College London, co-director of the Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy at the Institute for Fiscal Studies and Firms Research Programme Director for the IGC. Imran is an LSE Department of Economics alumnus: BSc Economics (1995); PhD Economics (2003).
In 1993 the Finnish Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation established a biennial award, called the Yrjö Jahnsson Award in Economics, for a European economist no older than 45 years old who has made a contribution in theoretical and applied research that is significant to economics in Europe. The European Economic Association (EEA) cooperates with the Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation in the selection of the award winners.
Oriana Bandiera and Imran Rasul are applied microeconomists. Their work on the role of social relationships in economics, advanced through pioneering field experiments in the workplace and social networks, has provided salient contributions to economics, especially to the fields of personnel economics and development. Read more here.
Professor Steve Pischke, Head of Department of Economics, shares his congratulations:
"Congratulations from the Department of Economics and the entire Economics community at the LSE to Oriana and Imran for this prestigious award. Their pioneering work on the interaction of social relations in the workplace with economic incentives has generated an active literature and changed the way economists think about employment relations. Most deserved."
April 2019
From 25 February 2019-1 March 2019, five students took over @lse.economics on Instagram. One MSc and four BSc students shared pictures and videos of their life as an LSE student, everyday life in the Department and living in London!
Do you follow @lse.economics on Instagram? You can watch all the student takeovers on our Instagram highlight reel. Enjoy!
Meet our takeover students:
Wye Yew How, BSc Economics
‘My name’s Wye Yew and I’m a First Year BSc Economics student. Catch me on Economics Department’s Insta Story as I bring you into my life as a busy Economics student, venturing into my role in the LSESU Economics Society and the outside options you can take in the course!’
Eniola Ladapo, BSc Economics
‘My name’s Eniola and I’m a First Year BSc Economics student. When I took over the LSE Economics Department’s Instagram account, I ran a Q&A session. I aimed to represent the life of an LSE student and answer questions that I had as a prospective student and offer holder!’
Ciaran Marshall, BSc Economics
‘University has been fantastic so far. The opportunities within LSE and London are immense! My experience has allowed me to live life ‘to its fullest.’’
Rohan Ramesh, BSc Economics
‘Don’t forget to make the most of your time in London! Being in this city, with its breathtaking sights, and having a campus situated right in the centre of all the action is definitely a highlight of the LSE experience’.
Andrea Sisko, MSc Economics Two Year Programme
‘Hi, I’m Andrea and I am in my second year of a two year MSc in Economics. During my takeover, I showed you my daily life at LSE.’
Search #lseeconstudenttakeover for updates.
March 2019
Congratulations to (MRes/PhD Economics) and (MRes/PhD Economics) who have received UniCredit Masters scholarships.
On Thursday 7 March 2019, they attended the annual Donors and Scholars reception at LSE. Here, they are photographed with Annalisa Aleati and Giannantonio De Roni from UniCredit.
Left to right: Annalisa Aleati; Bernardo Mottironi; Edoardo Leonardi; Giannantonio De RoniMarch 2019
Happy Birthday to Professor Lord Richard Layard who is turning 85 on Friday 15 March! Richard Layard is , and Wellbeing Programme Director at CEP.
Richard has been with the Department since 1965, first as an MSc Economics student and then as a Lecturer in Economics; Reader in the Economics of Labour; Professor of Economics; and Emeritus Professor of Economics. He has also been the founding Director of the Centre for Economic Performance.
Richard’s research focuses on wellbeing, labour, unemployment, educational policy and happiness. He is a member of the House of Lords and has been involved heavily in public policy over the years.
March 2019
Meet LSE students and academics, explore the campus, and experience being #partofLSE. Find out more and book a place .
March 2019
Dr Xavier Jaravel, Assistant Professor of Economics at LSE and STICERD associate, has been awarded an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) New Investigator Award to undertake research on the distributional effects of prices.
The project has three objectives: (1) to advance our understanding of the impact of price changes over time and across countries on inequality and standards of living; (2) to advance our understanding of the price effects of specific policies (namely: redistribution policies; trade policies; and monetary policy); (3) to enable researchers, policymakers and the general public to access new data on prices so that they are able to conduct their own analyses on prices, policies, inequality, and standards of living.
ESRC is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), a new organisation that brings together the UK’s seven research councils, Innovate UK and Research England to maximise the contribution of each council and create the best environment for research and innovation to flourish. Find out more here.
January 2019
From 23-25 January 2019, the University of the West Indies will be celebrating the life of Sir W. Arthur Lewis, former member of the LSE Department of Economics, and Nobel Laureate (1979), who was born 100 years ago this week.
As part of the festivities, Professor Tim Besley (School Professor of Economics and W Arthur Lewis Chair of Development Economics) will be giving the keynote talk on "State Capacity and Economic Development", on Friday 25 January at 19:00 at the University Inn and Conference Centre. For more details, please see here.
January 2019
Minouche Shafik shares her memories of friend and LSE classmate, Lord Jeremy Heywood, in this tribute.
Minouche and Jeremy met as students at LSE while doing an MSc in Economics in 1985. In this tribute, Minouche says Jeremy ‘was a true servant of the people and a loyal and loving friend to those of us who had the privilege of knowing him.’
You can read Minouche's words here.
(Photo credit: Steve Back)
December 2018
We’re thrilled to share the news that nine Department of Economics faculty members have received this year’s LSE Excellence in Education Awards: congratulations to Professor Nava Ashraf, Dr Margaret Bray, Professor Francesco Caselli, Professor Wouter Den Haan, Professor Erik Eyster, Dr Greg Fischer, Dr Francesco Nava, Dr Rachel Ngai and Professor Ricardo Reis, for their contributions to education in the Department.
The LSE Excellence in Education Awards support the School’s aspiration of creating ‘a culture where excellence in teaching is valued and rewarded on a level with excellence in research’ (LSE Strategy 2020). The awards are made on the recommendations of Heads of Department, to staff who have ‘demonstrated outstanding teaching contribution and educational leadership in their departments’. You can find the full list of this year’s winners here.
November 2018
Daniel Sturm will become President of the Urban Economics Association (UEA) in 2020.
The UEA seeks to promote participation and excellence in academic research in urban and regional economics.
The Association hosts annual meetings in North America and Europe, with keynote lectures and contributed papers focused on the economics of cities, housing, real estate, local public good provision, and the distribution of economic activity in space. For more information, please see the Urban Economics Association website.
Daniel Sturm is Professor of Economics at LSE, Executive MPA and MPP Co-Director, and an Associate at CEP and STICERD. Daniel is currently Vice President of the Urban Economics Association.
November 2018
Congratulations to Silvana Tenreyro on being elected President of the European Economic Association (EEA). Silvana will serve as the President of the Association in 2021 after being Vice-President (2019) and President-Elect (2020).
The EEA is an international scientific body, with membership open to anyone involved or interested in economics. The Association aims to: ‘contribute to the development and application of economics as a science in Europe; improve communication and exchange between teachers, researchers and students in economics in the different European countries; develop and sponsor co-operation between teaching institutions of university level and research institutions in Europe.' The EEA aims can be found here.
Silvana Tenreyro is Professor of Economics; Programme Leader at CFM- Shifts in the World Economy and their Consequences Programme; and Programme Director at IGC- Macroeconomics Research Programme.
October 2018
Ricardo Reis and Nava Ashraf have been elected to the European Economic Association (EEA) Council.
Nava Ashraf is Professor of Economics; Research Director at Marshall Institute; Associate at IGC- Lead Academic for IGC Zambia; and Programme Co-Director at STICERD- Psychology and Economics Programme.
October 2018
The Department of Economics offers its warmest congratulations to Giulia Bovini, PhD student, on winning the young economist award at the annual conference of the Italian Society of Labour Economists. Giulia was awarded the Tarantelli Young Economist Prize for her paper "Prime-age labour supply responses to the transition from DB to NDC public pension system: evidence from Italy".
October 2018
We are delighted to welcome to the Department our new faculty members.
Dr Dimitra Petropoulou, Associate Professorial Lecturer, joined the Department in September. Dimitra is the Deputy Undergraduate Programme Director, helping us with class teaching, GTA training and supervision, and the recruitment of more ECT colleagues in the future. Dimitra completed her BSc, MSc and PhD within the Department of Economics and we’re thrilled to have Dimitra back with us.
Dr Zarak Mirza and Dr Rafayal Ahmed arrived in September and join us as LSE Fellows for 2018-19.
Zarak holds a PhD from the University of Kent and studies the economics of charitable giving. He will help us with our undergraduate class teaching in the forthcoming year.
Rafayal holds a PhD from Northwestern and is a contract theorist. He will teach EC487 as well as classes.
Our two new Undergraduate Tutors joined the Department at the end of August. Junius Olivier (1st Year Tutor) and Katarzyna Krajniewska (2nd Year Tutor) will provide support and advice to our many undergraduate students.
October 2018
Congratulations to Steve Pischke (Head of Department) and Joshua Angrist (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), who have been awarded the Chicago Booth’s Eugene Fama Prize for Outstanding Contributions to Doctoral Education, for their book Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist’s Companion.
Awarded every three years, the Fama Prize honours Nobel Laureate Eugene F. Fama. Fama is best known for his work analysing markets and securities prices, pioneering research closely followed by academics and financial services professional alike. Fama received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2013.
The Fama Prize is intended to ‘encourage the development and diffusion of innovative approaches to doctoral education and the publication and wide distribution of exceptional educational materials’.
Pietro Veronesi, chair of the selection committee, spoke about the decision to select Mostly Harmless Econometrics: ‘The book draws on readers’ interests and empirical curiosity to motivate the analysis, training future generations of applied researchers who can push forward our understanding of economics and finance. The Committee ultimately selected this book, as we believe it best represents the aspirations and the objectives of the Fama Prize.’
When awarded the prize, Steve Pischke said: ‘It’s a great honor to receive this prize, as Eugene Fama is such a giant in the profession. What creates a particular connection for us is the close parallels between the empirical methods we discuss in the book, and Fama’s 1969 paper with Fisher, Jensen, and Roll. That paper is considered the template for modern event studies in finance, a close cousin of the difference-in-differences methodology used in other fields.’
October 2018
Visiting Professor Ben Moll has been awarded the prestigious 2017 Bernácer Prize "for his path-breaking contributions to incorporate consumer and firm heterogeneity into macroeconomic models and use such models to study rich interactions between inequality and the macroeconomy".
Established in 2001, the Bernácer Prize is awarded annually to European economists under the age of 40, who have made outstanding contributions in the fields of macroeconomics and finance.
Ben Moll, who is visiting the Department of Economics (LSE) during Michaelmas Term, is Associate Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University. He gained his PhD from the University of Chicago and his Bachelor’s degree from University College London. His research has two elements: the first addresses ‘Why are some countries so much poorer than others?’ with the second looking to understand how the enormous heterogeneity is observed at micro level affects outcomes at the macro level.
Head of Economics, Professor Steve Pischke commented: "This is a wonderful choice for the prize and greatly deserved. We are lucky to have Ben around at the department this term and are looking forward to tapping into his knowledge and many stimulating discussions."
For further information please visit the Bernácer Prize website.
October 2018
Camille Landais (pictured top) and Johannes Spinnewijn’s (pictured below) research- The Optimal Timing of Unemployment Benefits: Theory and Evidence from Sweden- has been featured in the Belgian media.
Published in the American Economic Review, Camille and Johannes’ research with Jonas Kolsrud and Peter Nilsson explores the optimal timing of unemployment benefits using evidence from Sweden.
Their paper provides a simple, yet robust framework to evaluate the time profile of benefits paid during an unemployment spell. You can read the news items in the links below:
Le Soir, 24/09/2018: here and here
Related Publication
September 2018
Congratulations to Silvana Tenreyro who has been awarded the Carl Menger Prize for Economics.
The German Economic Assosication (Verein für Socialpolitik) awards the Carl Menger Prize every two years for innovative, international research in the fields of monetary macroeconomics and monetary policy.
Named after the Austrian economist and co-founder of the Austrian School, the prize has been awarded jointly by the Deutsche Bundesbank, the Oesterreichische Nationalbank and the Swiss National Bank since 2014. In sponsoring this prize, the three central banks aim to foster research on monetary economics.
Achim Wambach, Chairman of the Verein für Socialpolitik, presented Silvana with the award at the association’s annual meeting in Freiburg. Mr Wambach highlighted Silvana’s particular expertise in the fields of international economics and monetary macroeconomics, adding that her work on the theory and empirical analysis of optimal currency areas and on econometrics have attracted worldwide interest. He also drew special attention to her work on the housing market. For further information, please see this Deutsche Bundesbank article.
Silvana is Professor of Economics at LSE and also sits on the Monetary Policy Committee at the Bank of England.
September 2018
Congratulations to Daniel Reck (pictured) and Jacob Goldin, who have been awarded the IIPF Young Economists Award 2018, for their paper ‘Optimal Defaults with Normative Ambiguity’.
The Award was established in 2008, with the aim of encouraging young scholars (authors must be under 40 years old) who present their papers at the IIPF Annual Congress.
An award committee, headed by the Scientific Chair of the respective congress and including further members, selects those papers that stand out for their scientific quality, creativity and relevance. Up to two of these papers are chosen to be distinguished with this award.
The International Institute of Public Finance (IIPF) is the world organization of Public Finance economists.
August 2018