Festival of Social Science 2019 at NIESR

The workshop be followed by an evening drinks reception for the launch of the NIESR IAA Parliament and Government Unit
 

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Venue: Girton College, Cambridge

Time: 9.00– 18.30

 

A one-day conference intended for a general audience with the aim to celebrate women in macroeconomics, offering a space where female macroeconomists can showcase their work while sharing their career. 

Inaugural Dow Lecture: Do economists expect too much from expectations?

Speaker: Martin Weale, Professor of Economics at King's College London and former NIESR Director 

 

Venue: NIESR
 

Watch a summary video of this event here and a full video here

 

Time: 17.30-18.30 followed by a drinks reception

 

This is the first of an annual series of lectures in honour of prominent economist Christopher Dow. In this lecture Martin Weale reviews some of the influences on firms’ key expectational variables as measured in the Confederation of British Industry’s Industrial Trends Survey. He focuses in particular on whether expectations of price changes affect outcomes, a relationship of particular importance in the economic models widely used in central banks. Finally he explores the relationship between expectations and outcomes, finding reasons to doubt that, as a generalisation, expectations are on average correct. He suggests some implications of the results for policy-making
 

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Open Lecture:  Is it a bad idea to be a football fan?  

 

Speaker: Prof Peter Dolton

 

Venue: NIESR

 

Time: 18.00 to 19.00 followed by a drinks reception

 

Using data from 40,000 people collected from frequent ‘pings’ to smart phones over 3 years, Prof Dolton's research finds that football – on average – makes us unhappier – so why would we anyone go through the psychological pain of following a football team? The lecture will attempt to explain this behavioural choice paradox and investigate why we go on following our teams, even though matches make us more unhappy on average.

 

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Friday 8th November  

Practitioner Workshop: Regional Disparities in the UK: Policy and Practice​​ 

Venue: NIESR

Time: 13.00 to 17.30 

In this event we will explore regional and other place-based disparities in the UK. We aim to discuss how spatial disparities are underpinned by processes of political marginalisation and inequality in economic opportunities, and whether the perceptions that they create are increasingly critical to Britain’s economic and political development. This half-day event will bring together researchers from NIESR, Glasgow and Cardiff universities as well as other research institutions, business and policy agencies from throughout the UK. It is our aim to describe ways in which current research is addressing regional issues to work out priorities for policy and forge new partnerships for future work.
 
This workshop will be followed by drinks to make the launch of the NIESR IAA Regional Unit.  
 
Earlier in the day Dr Stefan Speckesser will be giving a lecture as part of the Second North London Schools Economic Conference, Woodhouse College, Finchley on Economics and Career Earnings. [This event is closed to the public] 
 

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Saturday 9th November  

Conference : Evidence and Impact: Demonstrating the change LGBT+ groups make

Venue: NCVO, Regents Wharf

Time: 9.00 to 17.00

Our final event of the Festival is a one day conference in partnership with Consortium. The event seeks to explore the issues faced by the UK’s LGBT+ community, and the role the voluntary and community sector has in addressing them. Bringing together experts across research and policy, this event will outline the significant changes already being made by LGBT voluntary and community groups, in order to explore what can be done to best measure their impact and support the sector to achieve long-term sustainability.  .