Rethinking Uncertainty - Refining Decision Theory (Richard Bradley)

In much of contemporary economics it is assumed that uncertainty can be captured by a precise probability measure on all factors relevant to the determination of economic outcomes. But it does so at the expense of ignoring the uncertainty surrounding the models from which the probabilities are derived and feeds into an 'illusion of control' that, as recent financial shocks testify, can have catastrophic consequences. In this talk, Richard Bradley from LSE will critically examine recent attempts to understand and measure the severe uncertainty that characterises economic and other projections and consider ways in which it can be managed in decision making.

10 years on, can pluralist economics break out now?

On the 14th September, 2017 it was 10 years after the run on Northern Rock. This was the first run on a British bank for about 150 years. 10 years after the last comparable financial crisis in 1929, the 2nd World War broke out. The historical parallels between the 30s and the current decade have been drawn by many. So is now the time for an upheaval of the economic orthodoxy? Should we consider strains of economic thought outside of our current neo-classical models? Is now the time when pluralist thought will be brought to the forefront of the discussion?

To find out, join us this tuesday for a talk and Q&A session with Henry Leveson-Gower. Henry has been a practicing economist and policy analyst for almost 25 years and is now a director at New Economic Knowledge Services, an institution that helps policy makers, regulators and firms navigate these challenging times by drawing on new thinking and techniques in economics and other disciplines. We hope to see you there!

Education and the Northern Powerhouse

Please welcome Professor Geraint Johnes, Professor of Economics at Lancaster University Management School.

Professor Johnes published widely in the area of the economics of education, but also in the areas of regional economics and labour economics. He won the Economics LSTN award for outstanding teaching in 2003 and was named 'one of the world's pioneering academic podcasters' by the Guardian in 2005.

On Wednesday the 8th of November, Professor Johnes will give a talk on the Economics of Education in the context of Northern England. After a short introduction to the Economics of Education he shall talk about the efficiency of secondary schools - how efficient they are at converting inputs into outputs at lower secondary level (to GCSE) and upper secondary level (to A level) - with specific reference to regional development issues.

Economics and Climate Change Policy (David Newbery)​

Professor David Newbery is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Cambridge and Director of the Energy Policy Research Group. Professor Newbery aims to indicate in his lecture that the design of policies to mitigate climate change can benefit from a wide range of economics specialisms, while underlining that partnership with other disciplines will be necessary to mitigate the adverse impacts of global warming. In his talk Professor Newbery will touch on matters like:

(1) How to deal with greenhouse gases as a global stock public bad?
(2) How best to introduce a carbon price?
(3) What is the case for supporting renewables?

​Overall, it seems as if economics has something useful to offer, but how much will the discipline need to draw on insights from climate science, technology, innovation policy, public finance and welfare economics in order to create an answer to one of the most pressing issues of our modern society? ​

​Big Data and Privacy from a Behavioral Economist's Perspective

​Recent improvements in the collection and analysis of large datasets allow today’s firms to know much more about their consumers than before. They appear to be using this knowledge to make increasingly individualized offers that on the one hand, can benefit both the customer and the firm. On the other, questions arise about the potential dark side of big data and the implications of this dramatic change for the notion of privacy. These issues are of long-standing interest to economists, but their discussion has become more timely than ever. Analyzing the problem had been rather limited in the past, but behavioural economics opened up the debate to new points of view that can inform it in deeply meaningful ways. 

Dr Kőszegi is Professor of Economics at the Central European University. He received the Jahnsson Award, a biennial award for the best economist in Europe under the age of 45, in 2015. He was also honoured with the Best Teacher award in two consecutive years at CEU. His research has recently been focused on studying how firms respond to consumers' psychological tendencies, especially in the pricing of products and the design of credit contracts.

T​he Ancient Greeks: their Economy and Society

Dr Millett will be taking a semi-autobiographical approach, taking in his experiences reading Economics in Cambridge in the early 1970s, the shift across to Classics, and his resulting research into the economy and society of ancient Athens, trying to assess how a pre-capitalist, pre-market system might function in terms of its exchange relations. 

This promises to be a fascinating talk, providing insights into Ancient perspectives on societal matters that are relevant two-millennia later. 
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