Find out about latest publications, news and current events.
Nov 4: Decarbonising the Bank of England's monetary policy
The aim of the event is to discuss how the Bank of England can decarbonise its monetary policy under its new climate neutrality mandate. A new UoG, New Economics Foundation, SOAS, and UWE report will be presented which focuses on alternative approaches for greening the Corporate Bonds Purchase Scheme.
More details about this event will be announced on our website. This event will be online and registration is open and free.
Date: Thurs, 4 November 2021
Time: 17:30 – 19:30 BST
Location: This event will be online.
Sign up link: This event is free but please register using this link
Nov 17: Global Finance, Governance and Socio-Ecological Transformation: Insights for Progressive Strategies from the Special Issue and a COP26 debrief - what has been achieved?
*** Due to unforeseen circumstances, this event will now be held only online. You can access the webinar via this link. Please do not attend the in person event on campus. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused and look forward to seeing you at the webinar. ***
Green finance has been increasingly presented as being an effective solution to global environmental problems and climate change. However, today’s global financial structures tend to reproduce global inequalities and contribute to continued, highly unequal over-use and destruction of the environment, as well as a global ecological crisis.
Fossil fuel dependent world economy needs to rapidly decarbonise and that needs to be adequately financed and equally adequately governed and managed. The above begs questions about the sources of funding, targets of it, modes of governance and ownership of productive and reproductive systems that are to emerge, replace what is clearly not working, what is driving the global heating.
This workshop will (1) build on the scholarship collated in the Special Issue “The Global Political Economy of Green Finance and Socio-Ecological Transformation”, in Das Journal für Entwicklungspolitik (2021) Jaeger, J. and L. Schmidt, Eds. and (2) aim to assess the progress/regress of the COP26 and what it means for the problematic raised in the SI.
Speakers
Dr Yuliya Yurchenko, Senior Lecturer in Political Economy
Professor Johannes Jaeger, Professor and Economics coordinator at the University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna
Plus more speakers TBA
Date: 17 November 2021
Time: 17:30 – 19:30 BST
Sign up link: This event is free but please register using this link
Webinar link: The webinar can be accessed online via this link
Nov 18: Time to remit: The effect of remittances on household consumption in India. A panel analysis of the India Human Development Survey.
India has enjoyed over twenty years of rapid economic growth. The benefits of this growth, however, have largely by-passed India's poor: around a quarter of the world's malnourished children lives in India, and their wasted bodies and stunted lives represent a challenge for the Indian government. Although the growth in India's domestic economy did not result in many trickle-down benefits for the hungry poor, anecdotal evidence suggests that food security has benefited from another factor. Both rural or urban families have become increasingly reliant on remittances and used them to improve their food security. This paper explores the pattern of relationship between remittances received and food consumption at the household level; the paper uses a panel data approach with data coming from two rounds of the ‘India Human Development Survey’ (IHDS) conducted in 2005 and in 2011-12, and employs an instrumental variable approach to control for the endogeneity of remittances. The econometric results indicate that remittances do have a significant positive effect on the size of expenditure on food, as well as on two key indicators of food diversity, the Shannon and the Simpson Index. Results are robust to models’ specification and support the view that remittances do represent a mechanism by which households improve their food security.
Speakers
Dr Luca Tasciotti, Senior Lecturer in Economics
Dr Navjot Sangwan, Senior Lecturer in Economics
Time: 17:30 – 19:30 BST
Location: Room QA063, Queen Anne Building, Old Royal Naval College, Park Row, London SE10 9LS
** Postponed due to strike ** The scope of fiscal policy to tackle climate change
How will we pay for the green new deal? This workshop will debate how to conduct truly sustainable fiscal policy and public investment.
Speakers
Dr Cem Oyvat, Senior Lecturer in economics at the University of Greenwich
Dr Rafael Wildauer, Senior Lecturer in economics at the University of Greenwich
Chair: Prof Ozlem Onaran, co-director of PEGFA and professor of economics at the University of Greenwich
Plus more speakers TBA
More details about this event will be announced soon.
Date: 2 December 2021
Time: 17:30 – 19:30 BST
Location: Online webinar
Sign up link: This event is free but please register using this link
Webinar link: The webinar can be accessed online via this link
Dec 8: Sustainable economy is a cooperative economy
Overview
Cooperation Jackson is a network of worker cooperatives and solidarity economy institutions based in Jackson, Mississippi. The network consists of four interconnected and interdependent institutions: a federation of emerging local worker cooperatives, a cooperative incubator, a cooperative education and training center, and a cooperative financing system.
The broad mission of Cooperation Jackson is to advance the development of a regenerative economy in Jackson, MS based on a program centered around food sovereignty, which is rooted in the practices of agroecology, combined with local resourcing provisioning to build a locally grounded supply chain production that is rooted in the practices of working class self-organization and economic democracy to create a sustainable future.
Speakers
Kali Akuno, Director of Cooperation Jackson
Dr Adotey Bing-Pappoe, Senior lecturer in economics at The University of Greenwich
Time: 17:30 – 19:30 BST
This is an online event.
Sign up link: This event is free but please register using this link
Webinar link: The webinar can be accessed online via this link
October 7: is the Silvertown tunnel compatible with London's climate commitments?
The Silvertown Tunnel is a proposed four-lane road tunnel across the Thames, to be built a few metres east of the Blackwall Tunnel. It has been commissioned by the Greater London Authority from the Riverlinx consortium and is scheduled for completion in 2025. The GLA says that the cost, which it estimates at £1.2 billion but opponents say is £2.2 billion, will be met by road tolling.
Climate and transport researchers have argued that the project is incompatible with London’s own climate targets, which require a substantial overall decrease in traffic volumes in the next decade. It will also exacerbate local air pollution problems, and community campaigners and doctors have called for its cancellation for that reason.
The tunnel project raises wider questions about London’s transport system and urban planning. Opponents, including the Labour party’s own London regional conference, are calling for alternative approaches with more investment in public transport and non-motor modes.
This is a “hybrid” event that you can attend in person on the university campus, or on line
Speakers
Rachel Aldred, Professor of Transport and Director of the Active Travel Academy, University of Westminster
Andrew Boswell, Independent Scientist and Consultant on Climate Emergency Planning and Policy
Simon Pirani, author of The Silvertown Tunnel is in a hole, so Stop Digging; Senior Research Fellow, Oxford Institute for Energy Studies
Date: Thu, 7 October 2021
Time: 17:00 – 20:30 BST
Location: Hamilton House, University of Greenwich, 15 Park Vista, SE10 9LZ
Sign up link: This event is free but please register using this link
Online Conference: Inequalities and policy implications after Covid-19
Whether we look at wealth, race, gender, health, or income, the pandemic has exposed, and in some cases exacerbated, pre-existing inequalities. From Black Lives Matter to new wealth taxes, the visibility of inequality has generated a strong response from social movements and policy makers. This raises many questions that have long been at the heart of policy - what causes inequality? What policies stop it rising? And does it ultimately lead to instability?
Programme
12:30 Opening remarks: Vice Chancellor Professor Jane Harrington, University of Greenwich (UoG)
12:45 Keynote speech 1
Chair: Ozlem Onaran, Professor of Economics, Co-director of PEGFA, UoG
Transformatory strategies to reduce inequalities after Covid-19: creating caring economies, Diane Elson, Emeritus Professor University of Essex,
13:15 Tackling wealth inequalities
Chair: Aleksandar Stojanovic, Professor and HoD of Accounting and Finance, Co-director of PEGFA
Tax wealth to fund purple and green public investment, Ozlem Onaran, Professor of Economics, Co-director of PEGFA
The fall and rise of the top 1%: is wealth inequality determined by new technologies, globalisation, progressive taxation, or worker’s bargaining power? Ben Tippet, PhD Research Student, UoG,
The distribution of wealth in Europe and a European wealth tax, Rafael Wildauer, Senior Lecturer in Economics, UoG
Producer cooperatives as pre-distribution: Lessons from Emilia Romagna, Adotey Bing-Pappoe, Senior Lecturer in Economics, UoG
15:00 Keynote speech 2
Chair: Jeff Powell, Programme Leader UG Economics, UoG
Informality and intersectionality of race, gender and class inequality: The impact of Covid-19 policy responses in developing countries, Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
15:30 Race, gender, class inequalities and development
Chair: Julia Mundy, Deputy director of PEGFA, UoG
The Effects of Public Social Infrastructure and Gender Equality on Output and Employment: The case of South Korea, Cem Oyvat, Senior Lecturer in Economics , UoG
Neoliberal de-development and social reproduction in the post-Soviet space: erosion of women’s rights, social protection and security in Ukraine, Yuliya Yurchenko, Senior Lecturer in Political Economy, UoG
Capitalism, labour and race: the role of accounting in the Indian Maritime labourers, Antonella Russo, Senior Lecturer in Financial Accounting, UoG
The impact of Global Value Chain participation on income inequality in Emerging Economies, Alexander Guschanski, Lecturer in Economics, UoG
17:15 Finance, regional development and inequalities
Chair: Maria Nikolaidi, Assoc. Prof., UoG
Estimating workforce jobs data for British local authority districts, 1981-2018, Rob Calvert Jump, Research Fellow in Economics, PEGFA, UoG
Unconventional monetary policy and inequality, Alberto Botta (Programme Leader MSc Economics, UoG), Eugenio Caverzasi (Università Politecnica delle Marche), Alberto Russo(Università Politecnica delle Marche), Mauro Gallegati (Università Politecnica delle Marche), Joseph Stiglitz (Columbia University)
Inequalities in accessing finance: Has government support equipped British credit union sector to meet post Covid challenges? Sallyanne Decker, Principal Lecturer in Banking and Finance, UoG
Bank Credit Risk and Macro-Prudential Policies: Role of Liquidity in Uncertain times, Nadia Benbouzid (Senior Lecturer, UoG), Abishek Kumar, Sushanta Mallick (Professor of International Finance, Queen Mary), Ricardo Sousa (Associate Professor in Economics, University of Minho), Aleksandar Stojanovic (Professor, Head of Accounting and Finance, Finance, Co-director of PEGFA)
Tuesday 23 March 2021 12:30-18:45 (GMT)
Research Webinar: A dataset of workforce job counts for British local authority districts, 1981-2018
Speaker
Dr Rob Calvert Jump
Abstract
This paper presents workforce job counts for British local authority districts between the years 1981 and 2018. The estimates are produced by adjusting local authority job counts drawn from the Census of Employment, Annual Employment Survey, Annual Business Inquiry, and Business Register and Employment Survey to match regional job counts drawn from the Workforce Jobs dataset. The result is a measure of sub-regional workforce jobs which is consistent with publicly available national statistics, and can be motivated as a maximum entropy estimator. To illustrate the use of the dataset, the employment effects of European Union Objective 1 funding are examined using a synthetic control method.
Wednesday 3rd February 14:00-16:00 (GMT)
Click here to join the seminar (No sign up needed)
Research Webinar: Central Bank Power versus the tyranny of financial markets: liquidity preference in a world of endogenous money
Speakers
Dr Alberto Botta and Professor Marco Missaglia
Abstract
In this paper we present a simple Keynesian model about the role of liquidity preference in the determination of economic performance. We assume a world of endogenous money, where the banking system is able to fix the interest rate at a level of its own willing. Even in this framework, we show that the Keynesian theory of liquidity preference, while obviously not constituting anymore a theory for the determination of the interest rate, continues to be a fundamental piece of theory for the determination of the level and evolution of aggregate income over time, both in the short and in the medium run. However powerful, the banking system and monetary authorities are not the deus ex machina of our economies and financial markets are likely to exert a permanent influence on our economic destiny.
Tuesday 9th February 14:00-16:00 (GMT)
Click here to join the meeting (no sign up needed)
Research Webinar: Does intellectual property protection deliver economic benefits? A multi-outcome meta-regression analysis of the evidence
Speaker
Professor Mehmet Ugur
Abstract
Both theoretical and empirical research on intellectual property protection (IPP) report contingent and conflicting findings on how IPP affects related outcomes such as innovation, technology diffusion, productivity, or growth. To establish where the balance of the evidence lies and identify the sources of heterogeneity in the evidence base, we conduct a multi-outcome meta-regression analysis that takes account of dependence, unobserved heterogeneity, and publication selection at the same time. Drawing on 91 primary studies that report 1,626 effect-size estimates for one or more outcomes, we find that IPP does not spur innovation, technology diffusion, productivity, or economic growth. The effects remain statistically or practically insignificant under different scenarios concerning model specification, effect-size standardisation, and ‘best practice’ scenarios for research. Our work offers two contributions to existing knowledge: (i) we extend the application of the multi-outcome meta-regression analysis into evidence synthesis in economics; and (ii) we provide verifiable/replicable evidence indicating that the sanguine claims about the IPP’s economic benefits encountered in some legal studies and the advocacy literature are misleading.
Tuesday 16th February 14:00 – 16:00 (GMT)
Click here to join the meeting (no sign in required)
Webinar: A Sub-national Resource Curse? A synthetic-control approach to the case of hydrocarbons in Basilicata, Italy
Speaker
Abstract
Basilicata is a region of Southern Italy where the expansion of oil operations in the 1990s was promoted as an opportunity to foster economic development. In 2020, Basilicata is one of the poorest regions in Europe despite the exploitation of the largest onshore hydrocarbon reserves of the continent. The coincidence of high poverty rates with abundant natural resources suggests that the region is experiencing a 'resource curse'; however, socio-economic problems predate the oil boom, complicating any causality claim. To disentangle and estimate the effects of oil exploitation, we employ the synthetic control method that compares the actual trends of development indicators of Basilicata with a counterfactual that is created by taking a weighted average of trends of other Italian regions --a 'synthetic' Basilicata.
The analysis finds that the development of oil operations has generated no detectable improvement to employment, nor to a range of social indicators, nor educational attainment. The absence of quantifiable beneficial effects is coupled with negative impacts on other dimensions of development that are more difficult to estimate --the environment and human health. Taken together the evidence offers a sobering prospect over the potential of resource-based development for disadvantaged regions in developed countries.
Time: 26th January, 4pm
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