Economics in Action Conference

On Tuesday 1 December, the L6 and U6 Economics students attended the ‘Economics in Action’ online webinar where they were able to spend the whole day listening to key speakers in the field.

They explored a wide variety of topics including globalisation, monetary policy, Covid-19 and austerity measures, the gig economy and the value of statistics in economics. It was an extremely stimulating day which allowed the students to explore many real-life applications of economics beyond the confines of the syllabus and the walls of the classroom.

Here are a few quotes from the girls about how they found the day:

“I have learned many new economics vocabulary, such as ‘the legacy of austerity’, ‘universal credit’, ‘asymmetric information’ and ‘congestion charge’. Also I have learned current economic policies e.g. monetary and fiscal policy.” - Molly (L6)

“It was really interesting to hear about how economics links to many aspects of life. For example, we learned about how history has affected the economic borders. My favourite speaker was Ayeisha Thomas-Smith, who spoke about Coronavirus and the legacy of austerity. As a politics student, it was interesting to hear how the two subjects interlink, and I valued this session the most.” - Rowena (L6)

“I learned more about austerity and its widespread impact on different sectors and communities within a country e.g. children in poverty, race, gender, housing and health care. As well as this, I learned how economic history has affected the state of the economy today and finally how economists can make accurate predictions based on the country’s demographic structure using past data and statistics.” - Serena (L6)

“For the lecture called 'How to make the world add up,' it really opened my eyes as to how statistics can be used to justify and 'prove' everything that the person would like their audience to ‘see’. I learned that is very important to question the source of the statistics, as the statistics can be easily manipulated. For example, data from the ONS would be more reliable and trustworthy than data stated by politicians.” - Zoe (L6)

“I learnt about how Covid-19 is impacting our economy, greater detail into the role of the MPC and the ‘Chindia’ effect. The bit of the day that surprised me were the charts showing how developing countries are doing much better than countries like the UK in terms of huge increases in economic growth and the impact of their rapid population increase. My favourite speaker was Tim Harford - I thought he was the most engaging. The most useful session was the one on monetary policy as I felt it was the session which was most relevant to our specification.” - Holly (U6)

“It was interesting to learn that productivity is a secret source of economic growth. Also, post WWII and after the fall of the Berlin Wall, we have gone through a global era of demolishing walls, opening up of trade - but now are we are having to rebuild walls due to political systems. The bits that surprised me were the UN's projected population of African countries such as Nigeria and the negative impacts of  austerity measures. My favourite speaker was Stephen King, as he focused on aspects of economic history were so interesting to me.” – Gabriella (U6)