Economics News
Economics Student Newsletter | Issue 4 | May 2014
Economic Lecture Series Success!
For all those that enjoyed the Economics Lecture Series, the final
lecture ‘If an Asteroid Hits the Earth’ brought the series to a
‘smashing’ end. Dr Ken Darks Exclamations of a 536 event and the
Byzantium Empire put a whole new spin on the ‘Dark Ages’
Economics Society Committee 2013-14
On the back of an eventful six-part
lecture series, Social-Sec’s Hugo
Sheenan and Laura Overal organised
the end of term Easter ball. At the
event, a huge round of applause was
given for the collective efforts of the
lecturers and the society sponsor EY,
for their help over the year.
Alongside this, a few ‘personal’
awards for committee members were
presented highlighting the
outstanding effort of the students
outside of their academic study. The
event also saw the election of the
2014-15 committee:
President – Matt Twells
Vice President – Gideon Shepherd
Secretary – Brittney Shiny
Treasurer – Sam Hillier
Social Sec – Romy Barton
Social Sec – Eden Harris
DLO – James Hart
©University of Reading 2016
Going forward, The Economics
Committee (2013-14 pictured above)
would like to like to thank everyone
in the department for their help over
the past the past 12 months and wish
the new committee all the best for the
next academic year. We’re already
looking forward to next years Easter
Ball!
including Oxford and Cambridge
from the UK. Game rules require a
team must be of at most two PhD
students, with the remaining two
spots taken usually by Masters
students, sometimes probationary
research students, and also
undergraduate students.
Participating teams are set a case, and
required to present their response to it
by the end of the first day. The case
involved forecasting consumption
outcomes from a panel dataset, and
Reading's team worked furiously to
present their case. The competition
was fierce and only a handful of
teams made it to the final. Sadly
Reading were eliminated at this stage
but the eliminated teams were given
the opportunity to enjoy some
sightseeing with their fellow
competitors. All the team, and
particularly our undergraduates
Annie and James, reported that they
found the whole experience hugely
enriching as they were able to meet
fellow students from all around the
world and experience a wonderful
city in Amsterdam.
James Reade, Lecturer
James Cutlan, Economics Society
International Econometric
Game
Four students represented the
University of Reading in the annual
Econometric Game in Amsterdam in
April. PhD student Subham Kalitha
led the team composed of fellow PhD
Despoina Kentrou and third-year
undergraduates Annie Morton and
James Moore across the channel to
pit their wits against universities from
around the world. The Econometric
Game has grown out of humble
beginnings as a Dutch venture into a
global enterprise, with Harvard and
Seoul Universities represented
alongside the best from Europe,
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Introducing Professor
Dominik Zaum, our new
Head of School
I hope I can make a positive contribution to
the development of the school – in terms of
our teaching, our research, and our
engagement with the wider world beyond the
university. Both disciplines in the School,
Politics and Economics, are interested in
understanding different aspects of social life,
and ask similar questions. I want to make
sure that the School continues to be an
intellectually exciting and diverse place for
both students and staff, and a space where we
can continue to constructively test and
challenge each others ideas.
Be an Economics News writer!
Your content submissions and ideas for
Economics News are always welcome.
Professor Dominik Zaum was recently
appointed as the new Head of the
School of Politics, Economics and
International Relations (SPEIR) from
July 2014. We asked him to tell us
about his background, his research
interests, and his plans as incoming
Head of School.
How long have you been at Reading?
I’ve been in the Politics and International
Relations Department since 2006. Before
this, I was a post-doc at Oxford, and had
worked for the UN in Kosovo, where I
worked on issues of economic and political
development. My research has always
focussed on conflict-affected countries, and I
have always been interested in combining
research and teaching on these issues with
policy work. For the last two years, I have
been working for two days a week for the
government, as a Senior Research Fellow on
Conflict and Fragility in the Department for
International Development (DFID), to provide
expert guidance and support to its policy and
country teams.
What are your research interests?
My main research interest is in fragile-and
conflict affected states, in particular in the
efforts of strengthening governance and
security in such countries. In recent years, I
have been more and more interested in the
way in which interventions into these
countries – be they economic, political, or
military – affect political and economic
dynamics and structures. What we have found
is that very often, even well-intentioned
interventions can end up strengthening and
entrenching those groups who grew powerful
as a result of the conflict. Understanding both
how and why this happens is at the centre of
much of my current research.
What do you hope to achieve as Head of
School?
©University of Reading 2016
Dominik Zaum is currently Professor
of Governance Conflict and Security in
the Department of Politics and
International Relations.
His research interests cover the political
economy of state- and peacebuilding in
conflict-affected countries, and the
politics of international organisations,
especially the UN Security Council. He
has written and edited six books, most
recently Legitimating International
Organizations (OUP 2013).
He is also a member of Reading
University’s Developing Economies
and Emerging Markets (DEEM)
Research Centre.
Sarah has been working on a series of
projects in relation to Creative Graduates
and the Creative Economy. Broadly
speaking, creative graduates are those in the
subject fields of Arts and Design,
Architecture and Media. The creative
economy encompasses both creative
industries and creative occupations as
defined by the Department for Media,
Culture and Sport (DCMS).The DCMS
defines a creative industry as ''those
activities which have their origin in
individual creativity, skill and talent and
which have a potential for wealth and job
creation through the generation and
exploitation of intellectual property”. The
research projects highlight that creative
graduates tend to have less certain career
outcomes, on average lower salaries than
other graduates and only a third find work in
a creative job. Creative graduates earn more,
on average, by finding work in the creative
economy but still earn less than the average
graduate salary. The research also stressed
the importance of breaking down the
analysis by the different subjects under the
umbrella of creative graduates, as the
experiences can be very different depending
on the type of creative graduate. Coauthored journal articles, book chapters and
a list of the research outputs can be found on
Sarah's staff profile.
Sarah Jewell, Lecturer
.
Placement Achievements
Congratulations to some of our second year Economics students who
have been offered a year out placement opportunity in the academic year
2014/15 within the Government Economic Service (GES) programme:
Louise-Jayne Watts - The Home Office
James Harris - The Office of National Statistics
Jayson Kelly - The Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Robert Benson - UBS
Poppy Small - Grant Thornton
Creative
AbigailGraduates
Bryce – UBS and the
Creative
Economy –
Contact v.l.wiles@reading.ac.uk for information regarding placement
Seminar
given by Sarah
opportunities.
Jewell, Lecturer
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