Economics

E C O N O M I C S

A Level talks and workshops at Cambridge Econometrics

This June, a group of A Level Economics students led by Teacher of Economics, Mr T Flowerdew, were kindly hosted by Cambridge Econometrics for the day. The students participated in a range of talks and workshops, providing insight into what it is like to pursue a career as an economist and the role they play in supporting decision-makers to understand complex problems and find effective solutions. Our students also heard about how economics is applied to the important topic of climate change, and were given the opportunity to shadow economists during their working day.

Professor James Reade

Professor James Reade is the Head of the Department of Economics at the University of Reading. His research is, broadly speaking, on applied econometrics, with a particular focus on sport. He has published research investigating a range of economic phenomena using sports data; for example, discrimination and market efficiency. The talk combined maths and sport to understand the economic behaviour of people and was well suited to the A-level/GCSE economics course.

Mark Essex: The impact of extractive industries on the host (developing) economy

The Economics Society explores, analysis and discusses current affairs o the economy and financial news by the economist and the financial times.

Year 12 student Killian F, arranged a special guest lecturer Mark Essex to talk about the impact of extractive industries on the host economy in May 2022. Mark Essex has over 20 years of professional experience managing development assistance projects in Asia, the Pacific and Africa. He has led large local teams in delivering technical assistance projects in Ethiopia (£26m), Nigeria (£14m), Kenya (£24m) and Uganda (£5k). Since 2007 he has worked mainly for Oxford Policy Management but from 2014-2016 was an Associate Director in KPMG East Africa, leading business development in extractive industries across KPMG’s offices in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda. Mr Essex gave an extremely interesting talk on the impact of extractive industries on local economies and offered an insight into what a career in Economics can look like. The depth of his knowledge on extractive industries and their impacts is best shown by the toolkit he wrote, which presents a wide range of research from across the world. Hearing him speak about his experiences in countries such as Romania, Papua New Guinea and Uganda highlighted how diverse the roles of an economist can be and how governments and corporations can work together to try to understand the impacts of certain policies. Head of the Economics Society, Killian F (12BSA) concluded, "Overall, the talk helped us understand how economic policy decisions are made - something very useful for seeing how the subject is used in the real world."

Alexander Hammond: The Follies of Foreign Aid

Alexander Hammond held a virtual lecture on International Aid. Alex is a Free Trade Fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs and often writes about African development, economic freedom, global wellbeing, and British politics. Alexander’s works have been translated into multiple languages and have been featured in various news outlets both in the United Kingdom and overseas. During the lecture, Alex discussed the issues with how international aid is used in the developing world and how useful infant industry policies are. At the time of the lecture, Alex was in Poland.

Well done to Killian F for leading on the Economics Society which has been a huge success, supported by the Economics Department.