The Department of Economics has a strong track record of internationally recognised research. Key areas of research are:

International development

Innovation and industry dynamics

Economics of social policy

Economics, philosophy and history of economic thought

Theory and methods

Members of the department are engaged in a range of research activities:

Editorial Boards: includes editing the Adam Smith Review (Prof Vivienne Brown, Founding editor), associate editor of Feminist Economics (Prof Susan Himmelweit), associate editor of Information Economics and Policy (Prof Mariana Mazzucato), and book review editor of Economic Issues (Dr Andrew Trigg). Membership of editorial boards also includes Journal of Socio-Economics (Prof Paul Anand) Economics and Philosophy and European Journal of the History of Economic Thought (Prof Vivienne Brown) and International Journal of Economics (Dr Andrew Trigg).

Refereed Journals: recent articles have been accepted for publication in the Cambridge Journal of Economics, Industrial and Corporate Change, International Journal of Industrial Organization, Journal of Development Studies, Journal of Economic Psychology, Journal of Health Economics, Journal of Medical Ethics, Journal of Socio-Economics, Journal of the Philosophy of History, Metroeconomica, Review of Economic Dynamics, Review of Social Economy, Social Science and Medicine.

Research Grants: a wide range of external research grants have included ESRC, AHRB, ESF, WHO, NHS, and the UN.

Research Students: A number of Phd students are supervised, with applications particularly welcome in our key areas of research.

Seminars

The Department of Economics has its own seminar series organised by Prof Susan Himmelweit.

Prof Vivienne Brown is convenor of the joint Economics-Philosophy Rationality working group, which holds regular seminars.

A regular IKD seminar series is organised by Economics Research Fellow, Dr Elif Basavusoglu.

See details on forthcoming events at the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Research Centres

• The Centre for Innovation, Knowledge and Development (IKD) researches the dynamics between technology creation and diffusion, business behaviour, government and non-governmental actors. IKD was initially set up by its current director, Professor of Economics Mariana Mazzucato, and includes a core membership from the Economics Department.
• The International Development Centre (IDC) is an Inter-Faculty collaborative centre that aims to develop research and teaching partnerships with academic colleagues in developing countries, with particular reference to Africa. Professor of Economics Maureen Mackintosh was one of the founding directors and is now a board member.
• Economists are also members of the ESRC Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC) and the Centre for Citizenship, Identities, Governence.

Workshops and Conferences

OU Economists organise numerous workshops and conferences:

Policy Implications from Recent Advances in the Economics of Innovation and Industrial Dynamics. December 2006. Prof Mariana Mazzucato and Dr Roberto Simonetti organised this workshop, co-funded by IKD and the EU Network of Excellence DIME.

Association for Hetrodox Economics (AHE) Dr Andrew Trigg is former chair, and currently member of the organising committee of the Association for Heterodox Economics, which holds an annual international conference.

The Philosphy of Adam Smith: Prof Vivienne Brown is organising a conference in 2009, jointly with the International Adam Smith Society, to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the publication of Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments.

International development

The economics department has several researchers with expertise in international development; they form part of a network of expertise across the University in this research field. Research areas include:

• foreign direct investment, technology transfer and industrial development
• health-care commercialisation and the economics of health policy and regulation in low income contexts
• social policy and development
• market-based instruments in climate change policy
• ethics and economics of the environment
• human capabilities in a development context.

Innovation and industry dynamics

Researchers in the economics department, with an internationally-recognised research record in the areas of innovation and industrial dynamics, belong to the Centre for Innovation, Knowledge and Development (IKD). Research areas include:

• technology, competition and market structure (including industry studies)
• firm- and industry-level analysis of the dynamics of productivity, employment and growth
• mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliances
• financial markets and innovation
• industrial relations in different sectors
• systems of innovation and technology policy
• regional innovation and development
• entrepreneurship, learning and innovation

Economics of social policy

The department has several members with a research and publications track record in the economics of social policy and in the interface between economics and sociology. Some are also involved in advising the UK government and international bodies. Research areas include:

• the economics of care, paid and unpaid labour
• economics of gender, including intra-household bargaining and inequalities
• gender impact analysis of economic and social policy
• the interaction between social norms, identities and behaviour in the economy
• evolution and consumption
• culture in mass-media industries
• economics of health-care markets
• economics of capabilities and well-being

Economics, philosophy and history of economic thought

The department has researchers with internationally recognised research track records on the interface of economic theory, analytical philosophy and history of thought. Research areas include:

• the historical development of the poverty line
• history of economic thought (Adam Smith and John Locke)
• discourse and textual analysis
• liberty and rights
• rationality and ethics
• economics and philosophy
• economic and philosophical issues in genetics and health-care rationing

Theory and methods

Members of the economics department use various empirical and theoretical methods in their research. Research areas include:

• modelling choice and norms
• nineteenth- and early twentieth-century social surveys
• decision theory
• evolutionary economics
• post-Keynesian economics
• Marxian economics
• nonlinear dynamics and complexity
• game theory and experimental economics
• computer simulation
• advanced econometric methods
• panel data and life satisfaction
• neo-classical economics.

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