Economics Observatory Phase 2
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Bristol
Department Name: Economics
Abstract
The Economics Observatory (ECO) bridges the gap between academia, policy and the public to provide balanced and reliable answers to the economic questions related to Covid-19 and other long-term economic and societal challenges including productivity, the environment and sustainability, regional disparities and levelling-up, and the cost of living and inflation. A distributed and nationwide project, the ECO's leadership is drawn from across the countries and regions of the UK. With a core-hub based in Bristol and leadership in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, the Observatory provides daily updates on policy-relevant questions.
The overarching aims of the ECO rest on two pillars.
First, to provide the highest-quality analysis of contemporary questions to policymakers, the public and other stakeholders and to be a trusted source for balanced and accessible material.
Second, to pursue impact for this work by building a tailored outreach plan that uses masterclasses, private policy seminars, public events, publications and our on-line "Hubs" for better communication of economic data and clearer economic writing.
Take together these two pillars are designed to help ECO drive improvements in public policymaking, discourse and understanding.
The overarching aims of the ECO rest on two pillars.
First, to provide the highest-quality analysis of contemporary questions to policymakers, the public and other stakeholders and to be a trusted source for balanced and accessible material.
Second, to pursue impact for this work by building a tailored outreach plan that uses masterclasses, private policy seminars, public events, publications and our on-line "Hubs" for better communication of economic data and clearer economic writing.
Take together these two pillars are designed to help ECO drive improvements in public policymaking, discourse and understanding.
Organisations
- University of Bristol (Lead Research Organisation)
- University of Glasgow (Collaboration)
- London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London) (Collaboration)
- OFFICE FOR NATIONAL STATISTICS (Collaboration)
- Scottish Economic Society (Collaboration)
- Economic and Social Research Council (Collaboration)
- National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) (Collaboration)
- Bristol Cultural Development Partnership (Collaboration)
- University of Bristol (Collaboration)
- Institute for Government (Collaboration)
- CARDIFF UNIVERSITY (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE (Collaboration)
- Bank of England (Collaboration)
- HM Treasury (Collaboration)
- QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY BELFAST (Collaboration)
- Civil Service (Collaboration)
- Royal Economic Society (Collaboration)
| Description | Adam Smith 300 events |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| Impact | Dissemination of ideas among policy stakeholder audience. |
| URL | https://www.gla.ac.uk/explore/adamsmith300 |
| Description | Festival of Economics |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Strengthened network between policy and academic stakeholder groups. |
| URL | https://www.economicsobservatory.com/festival-of-economics-2023 |
| Description | Masterclasses |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Direct delivery of technical training in both writing and data science skills among both policy and academic stakeholder audiences. |
| URL | https://www.economicsobservatory.com/courses |
| Description | Pipeline articles |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Dissemination of academic economic expertise among policy stakeholder audience. |
| URL | https://www.economicsobservatory.com |
| Description | Policy seminars/meetings |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Impact | Closer connection between policy and academic stakeholders, both in terms of specific policy issues and general access. |
| Description | Summer 2023 edition of ECO magazine (Adam Smith) |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| Impact | Dissemination of ideas to policy audience. |
| URL | https://www.economicsobservatory.com/issue-3-summer-2023 |
| Title | Data hub |
| Description | The Data Hub offers a large set of 248 live data series, from 24 countries. The dataset is unique in that it operates as an 'API of APIs', all unified under a common structure. This means that the dataset is constantly growing, and comes direct from each source. If the ONS, FRED or another stats agency updates their figures, the ECO API (within the Data Hub) will update automatically. |
| Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Creation of a unique, unified dashboard of charts, linked to live data sources where possible. A simplification and unification of multiple APIs, as well as a re-work of the Vega-Lite UX, converted into an easy 'point and slick' interface. This is a unique tool. No other organisation in our knowledge has created an 'API of APIs' in this way. In terms of impact, this public good has been advertised directly to both academics and policy-makers, through both the ECO website (and newsletters) and the data masterclasses. |
| URL | https://www.economicsobservatory.com/data-hub |
| Title | Economics Observatory GitHub repository. |
| Description | Code used for data visualisations is all open source, available via the charts themselves (on both the data hub and across ECO articles), and via the ECO GitHub organisation repo https://github.com/EconomicsObservatory. |
| Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Creation of an open source guide to data sourcing, cleaning and visualisation. Again, this is a public good, allowing users to see exactly how data visualisations are designed and deployed. |
| URL | https://github.com/EconomicsObservatory |
| Title | ONS data release stories |
| Description | Regular data stories are posted as part of the main ECO pipeline of articles. These take data releases from the Office for National Statistics (and other sources) and provide interactive charts, together with analysis from experts (as well as ECO interns): https://www.economicsobservatory.com/news-2. |
| Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Website page views, demonstrating engagement with topics. For example, a recent article covering new labour market, price and growth data received over 4,000 page views in just over a week. This demonstrates engagement with the topic among ECO's core audience. |
| URL | https://www.economicsobservatory.com/news-2 |
| Title | ONS data release stories |
| Description | Regular data stories are posted as part of the main ECO pipeline. These take data releases from the Office for National Statistics (and other sources) and provide interactive charts, together with analysis from experts (as well as ECO interns). |
| Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Available to the public via website. The code and data, as well as links to ONS data releases, are all open source. Impact measured by website page views, demonstrating engagement with topics. |
| URL | https://www.economicsobservatory.com/news-2 |
| Description | Data hub |
| Organisation | Bank of England |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Office for National Statistics - access to data and resources, advice on Application Programming Interface (API) configuration. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Creation and day to day running of hub, including maintenance of the 250 automatic data series from 24 national sources. Derive content, establish and maintain partnership with external data providers. Create and promote content on social media and to policy-makers and university course leaders. |
| Impact | A three-part tool - Explore, Build, Share - that brings together a unified API (drawing 248 live data series from 24 countries), a simplified Vega-Lite (JavaScript) interface, and a timeline for users to share their work. This tool requires accessing and cleaning data from a vast array of data sources, including the ONS, FRED and several other national statistics agencies and data aggregators. Data visualisation increased web traffic and engagement on social media, as well positive qualitive feedback from authors and collaborators. Feedback that this is also useful for teaching. • Increased data visualisation grew in web traffic and engagement on social media, as well as generating positive qualitive feedback from authors and collaborators. • Data presentation moving away from static images, and instead displaying interactive data. This enabled greater legacy and gives users access to the underlying data for their own work/research/general interest. • With the Data Hub, we have learned the value of working on projects in parallel. While our web developers were building the page, the core team developed material to populate the hub. This will be drip fed into the hub over the next few weeks to slowly build up the database of data visualisations. • Data Hub launch. May 2023, a new version of the Data Hub (built around the three tools) was launched as the ESCoE Conference at Kings College London. This launched the ECO-API, the chart builder and the chart sharer. A key lesson concerns the novelty of these tools, and the relatively basic level of understanding of data visualisation principles among ECO's main stakeholder groups, |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Data hub |
| Organisation | Office for National Statistics |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Office for National Statistics - access to data and resources, advice on Application Programming Interface (API) configuration. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Creation and day to day running of hub, including maintenance of the 250 automatic data series from 24 national sources. Derive content, establish and maintain partnership with external data providers. Create and promote content on social media and to policy-makers and university course leaders. |
| Impact | A three-part tool - Explore, Build, Share - that brings together a unified API (drawing 248 live data series from 24 countries), a simplified Vega-Lite (JavaScript) interface, and a timeline for users to share their work. This tool requires accessing and cleaning data from a vast array of data sources, including the ONS, FRED and several other national statistics agencies and data aggregators. Data visualisation increased web traffic and engagement on social media, as well positive qualitive feedback from authors and collaborators. Feedback that this is also useful for teaching. • Increased data visualisation grew in web traffic and engagement on social media, as well as generating positive qualitive feedback from authors and collaborators. • Data presentation moving away from static images, and instead displaying interactive data. This enabled greater legacy and gives users access to the underlying data for their own work/research/general interest. • With the Data Hub, we have learned the value of working on projects in parallel. While our web developers were building the page, the core team developed material to populate the hub. This will be drip fed into the hub over the next few weeks to slowly build up the database of data visualisations. • Data Hub launch. May 2023, a new version of the Data Hub (built around the three tools) was launched as the ESCoE Conference at Kings College London. This launched the ECO-API, the chart builder and the chart sharer. A key lesson concerns the novelty of these tools, and the relatively basic level of understanding of data visualisation principles among ECO's main stakeholder groups, |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | ECO magazines |
| Organisation | University of Bristol |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Coordinate and manage publication. Commission and copyedit articles and create charts. Liaise with authors, interviewees, designers, printers and distributors. Manage release events, distribution to stakeholders - print and online versions - and promotion. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Lead editor board - themes to explore, expert advice, recommended contacts, insight into contemporary research, accountability and challenge. |
| Impact | 3,000 copies of each issue printed and distributed to UK members of parliament, members of devolved governments, chief economic and scientific advisors, national and regional policy-makers, research centres, UK heads of university economics departments, university students and local schools. Magazines are also distributed at various events, including conferences, the Festival of Economics and in-person policy events. The summer 2023 issue of the magazine was a core component of the Adam Smith Tercentenary events at the University of Glasgow - drawing together research and insights from many speakers at the event. Copies of the magazine have also been requested by universities and used as promotional material at economics open days. The magazine helped elevate the project substantially and to attract high-profile contributors. This is a unique, policy-orientated and data-driven magazine that is sent to senior policy-makers across government (Westminster and devolved administrations), MPs, academics and the public. Contributors are leading academics, policy-makers and practitioners, but the magazine breaks the mould of a 'academic' publication with its design, style and accessibility to a wide general audience. • Interactivity: The magazine links back to the website through QR codes, and made a strong addition to and strengthened ECO's reputation for robust and balance economics and policy research, including insights from some of the world's leading experts. • Design: ECO magazine is unlike most other academic publications. It has design, style, accessibility at its core. It is research and data- driven but focuses on policy and is accessible and appealing to a broad audience. • Frontline stories: including non-economic voices strengthen the articles and contribution of the magazine to the issues it addresses. The magazine has featured a doctor, youth climate campaign, UN Messenger of Peace, senior economic advisor, social justice campaigner and food bank staff. This feature makes ECO stand out from other economics publications and has helped us reach audiences outside of academia. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | ECO reading lists |
| Organisation | Civil Service |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Bespoke reading lists of ECO articles for partners facilitating events or researching particular fields. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Demand from partners used to inform the curation of personalised lists of ECO articles. |
| Impact | Reading lists used by school teachers to deliver A-Level economics curriculum. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Economics Observatory internships |
| Organisation | University of Bristol |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Provide programme of work for student interns. Provide training (writing and data/chart creation), publication opportunities, initiate partnerships/mentoring with experts, access to seminars and other external sessions. |
| Collaborator Contribution | University of Bristol - pipeline exceptional students who perform in the top 5% on the third-year Communicating Economics module. |
| Impact | Embedding undergraduate students in ECO's day to day work has provided excellent learning opportunities for the students and support for their next steps into work and further study. It has also ECO with insight into how to improve engagement with students in schools and universities. o Two data interns have gone on to work full-time at the London School of Economics, as part of the ECO team. o One part-time social media intern based at Bristol continues to provide content for ECO. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Festival of Economics |
| Organisation | Bank of England |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Design event programme and topics for discussion in partnership with Bristol Ideas. Invite panels of experts to speak at the event, including academics, journalists and leading practitioners. Liaise with Bristol Ideas, University of Bristol and local media contacts to promote event. Disseminate outcomes on website and social media - commissioning summary articles from writers-in-residence, sharing links to relevant existing articles, recordings of events and publishing responses to questions arising. Data team develop interactive visualisations to share on large touchscreens at the event. |
| Collaborator Contribution | o Bristol Ideas: Partnered with Bristol Ideas to programme, organise and run the 12th annual Festival of Economics. o Bank of England: to organise and run a BoE citizens' panel as a key part of the event, bringing together BoE policy-makers and the public. |
| Impact | Our headline Festival, held in Bristol attracts 2,400+ attendees each year, with ticket sales at over 85% capacity. Speakers at the event are leading academics, acclaimed journalists and practitioners working at the frontline of the issues discussed. We have many attendees from the Government Economics Service - and regular slots with top officials from the Bank of England and local citizens. Collaboration with Bristol Ideas to organise and run a three-day public event that engaged all of ECO's audiences and extended the audience base and geographic reach of the existing Festival of Economics. Integrated data visualisation work via interactive touchscreens. Summary articles, written by journalists, published on ECO website and disseminated via newsletter and social media. Questions and discussion topics raised during the festival fed into the website pipeline for future publications. • Ran the 2023 Festival of Economics in collaboration with Bristol Ideas - the themes were food affordability and security, society and health and building the future (write-ups on each available on the website). The following articles cover the discussion: • Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/boes-pill-says-pay-growth-is-slowing-still-too-high-2023-11-14/ • Bloomberg: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-14/boe-chief-economist-pill-warns-uk-pay-growth-is-stubornly-high • Investment week: https://www.investmentweek.co.uk/news/4146673/boes-huw-pill-hints-rate-hikes-inflation-remains-stubbornly-reports • The Times: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/price-rises-likely-to-be-stubborn-warns-huw-pill-3lvjhg8mp • #economicsfest: What does food tell us about the economy? by Bethan Staton (Financial Times) • #economicsfest: How can we create an economy that cares for everyone? by Ma-rie Segger (The Economist) • #economicsfest: How can we build a better future? by Melissa Lawford (The Tel-egraph) Session recordings are also available on the ECO website: https://www.economicsobservatory.com/festival-of-economics-2023ECO • Over 2,400 tickets to 16 events, over 3 days including book talks, panel discus-sions, Bank of England citizens' panel and live podcast recordings - bookings in-cluded school and university students, journalists, policy-makers and members of the public. • Interactive data screen available in the venue to integrate data visualisations to in-form and engage attendees with an interactive map showing metrics including wellbeing, inequality, housing, productivity, income, across regions/cities of the UK. This event, with its mixed format of sessions, highlights the benefit of bringing together diverse audiences, including academics, journalists, practitioners and the general public under one roof. It enables these 'audiences' to learn from one another - for the public and policy-makers to hear from expert speakers and for academics, researchers, policy-makers and journalists to hear the public's questions and concerns. The Festival also has a no slides and no jargon rule, which means it is a great way for experts to learn and practice communicating their research and complex topics in an accessible way. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Festival of Economics |
| Organisation | Bristol Cultural Development Partnership |
| Department | Bristol Festival of Ideas |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Design event programme and topics for discussion in partnership with Bristol Ideas. Invite panels of experts to speak at the event, including academics, journalists and leading practitioners. Liaise with Bristol Ideas, University of Bristol and local media contacts to promote event. Disseminate outcomes on website and social media - commissioning summary articles from writers-in-residence, sharing links to relevant existing articles, recordings of events and publishing responses to questions arising. Data team develop interactive visualisations to share on large touchscreens at the event. |
| Collaborator Contribution | o Bristol Ideas: Partnered with Bristol Ideas to programme, organise and run the 12th annual Festival of Economics. o Bank of England: to organise and run a BoE citizens' panel as a key part of the event, bringing together BoE policy-makers and the public. |
| Impact | Our headline Festival, held in Bristol attracts 2,400+ attendees each year, with ticket sales at over 85% capacity. Speakers at the event are leading academics, acclaimed journalists and practitioners working at the frontline of the issues discussed. We have many attendees from the Government Economics Service - and regular slots with top officials from the Bank of England and local citizens. Collaboration with Bristol Ideas to organise and run a three-day public event that engaged all of ECO's audiences and extended the audience base and geographic reach of the existing Festival of Economics. Integrated data visualisation work via interactive touchscreens. Summary articles, written by journalists, published on ECO website and disseminated via newsletter and social media. Questions and discussion topics raised during the festival fed into the website pipeline for future publications. • Ran the 2023 Festival of Economics in collaboration with Bristol Ideas - the themes were food affordability and security, society and health and building the future (write-ups on each available on the website). The following articles cover the discussion: • Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/boes-pill-says-pay-growth-is-slowing-still-too-high-2023-11-14/ • Bloomberg: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-14/boe-chief-economist-pill-warns-uk-pay-growth-is-stubornly-high • Investment week: https://www.investmentweek.co.uk/news/4146673/boes-huw-pill-hints-rate-hikes-inflation-remains-stubbornly-reports • The Times: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/price-rises-likely-to-be-stubborn-warns-huw-pill-3lvjhg8mp • #economicsfest: What does food tell us about the economy? by Bethan Staton (Financial Times) • #economicsfest: How can we create an economy that cares for everyone? by Ma-rie Segger (The Economist) • #economicsfest: How can we build a better future? by Melissa Lawford (The Tel-egraph) Session recordings are also available on the ECO website: https://www.economicsobservatory.com/festival-of-economics-2023ECO • Over 2,400 tickets to 16 events, over 3 days including book talks, panel discus-sions, Bank of England citizens' panel and live podcast recordings - bookings in-cluded school and university students, journalists, policy-makers and members of the public. • Interactive data screen available in the venue to integrate data visualisations to in-form and engage attendees with an interactive map showing metrics including wellbeing, inequality, housing, productivity, income, across regions/cities of the UK. This event, with its mixed format of sessions, highlights the benefit of bringing together diverse audiences, including academics, journalists, practitioners and the general public under one roof. It enables these 'audiences' to learn from one another - for the public and policy-makers to hear from expert speakers and for academics, researchers, policy-makers and journalists to hear the public's questions and concerns. The Festival also has a no slides and no jargon rule, which means it is a great way for experts to learn and practice communicating their research and complex topics in an accessible way. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Festival of Economics |
| Organisation | University of Bristol |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Design event programme and topics for discussion in partnership with Bristol Ideas. Invite panels of experts to speak at the event, including academics, journalists and leading practitioners. Liaise with Bristol Ideas, University of Bristol and local media contacts to promote event. Disseminate outcomes on website and social media - commissioning summary articles from writers-in-residence, sharing links to relevant existing articles, recordings of events and publishing responses to questions arising. Data team develop interactive visualisations to share on large touchscreens at the event. |
| Collaborator Contribution | o Bristol Ideas: Partnered with Bristol Ideas to programme, organise and run the 12th annual Festival of Economics. o Bank of England: to organise and run a BoE citizens' panel as a key part of the event, bringing together BoE policy-makers and the public. |
| Impact | Our headline Festival, held in Bristol attracts 2,400+ attendees each year, with ticket sales at over 85% capacity. Speakers at the event are leading academics, acclaimed journalists and practitioners working at the frontline of the issues discussed. We have many attendees from the Government Economics Service - and regular slots with top officials from the Bank of England and local citizens. Collaboration with Bristol Ideas to organise and run a three-day public event that engaged all of ECO's audiences and extended the audience base and geographic reach of the existing Festival of Economics. Integrated data visualisation work via interactive touchscreens. Summary articles, written by journalists, published on ECO website and disseminated via newsletter and social media. Questions and discussion topics raised during the festival fed into the website pipeline for future publications. • Ran the 2023 Festival of Economics in collaboration with Bristol Ideas - the themes were food affordability and security, society and health and building the future (write-ups on each available on the website). The following articles cover the discussion: • Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/boes-pill-says-pay-growth-is-slowing-still-too-high-2023-11-14/ • Bloomberg: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-14/boe-chief-economist-pill-warns-uk-pay-growth-is-stubornly-high • Investment week: https://www.investmentweek.co.uk/news/4146673/boes-huw-pill-hints-rate-hikes-inflation-remains-stubbornly-reports • The Times: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/price-rises-likely-to-be-stubborn-warns-huw-pill-3lvjhg8mp • #economicsfest: What does food tell us about the economy? by Bethan Staton (Financial Times) • #economicsfest: How can we create an economy that cares for everyone? by Ma-rie Segger (The Economist) • #economicsfest: How can we build a better future? by Melissa Lawford (The Tel-egraph) Session recordings are also available on the ECO website: https://www.economicsobservatory.com/festival-of-economics-2023ECO • Over 2,400 tickets to 16 events, over 3 days including book talks, panel discus-sions, Bank of England citizens' panel and live podcast recordings - bookings in-cluded school and university students, journalists, policy-makers and members of the public. • Interactive data screen available in the venue to integrate data visualisations to in-form and engage attendees with an interactive map showing metrics including wellbeing, inequality, housing, productivity, income, across regions/cities of the UK. This event, with its mixed format of sessions, highlights the benefit of bringing together diverse audiences, including academics, journalists, practitioners and the general public under one roof. It enables these 'audiences' to learn from one another - for the public and policy-makers to hear from expert speakers and for academics, researchers, policy-makers and journalists to hear the public's questions and concerns. The Festival also has a no slides and no jargon rule, which means it is a great way for experts to learn and practice communicating their research and complex topics in an accessible way. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | HM Treasury Fellowship |
| Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Responding to ESRC fellowship programme and requirements from HM Treasury |
| Collaborator Contribution | HMT are the host organisation for the primary 12 months of the fellowship. Training has been provided by UKRI through their partner, Institute for Government. |
| Impact | This macroeconomics and fiscal sustainability fellowship Opportunity to build a macro-economic model to improve the government's understanding about the interaction between fiscal policy and the economy and the impact on the UK's fiscal position. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | HM Treasury Fellowship |
| Organisation | HM Treasury |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Responding to ESRC fellowship programme and requirements from HM Treasury |
| Collaborator Contribution | HMT are the host organisation for the primary 12 months of the fellowship. Training has been provided by UKRI through their partner, Institute for Government. |
| Impact | This macroeconomics and fiscal sustainability fellowship Opportunity to build a macro-economic model to improve the government's understanding about the interaction between fiscal policy and the economy and the impact on the UK's fiscal position. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | HM Treasury Fellowship |
| Organisation | Institute for Government |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Responding to ESRC fellowship programme and requirements from HM Treasury |
| Collaborator Contribution | HMT are the host organisation for the primary 12 months of the fellowship. Training has been provided by UKRI through their partner, Institute for Government. |
| Impact | This macroeconomics and fiscal sustainability fellowship Opportunity to build a macro-economic model to improve the government's understanding about the interaction between fiscal policy and the economy and the impact on the UK's fiscal position. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | HM Treasury Fellowship |
| Organisation | London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Responding to ESRC fellowship programme and requirements from HM Treasury |
| Collaborator Contribution | HMT are the host organisation for the primary 12 months of the fellowship. Training has been provided by UKRI through their partner, Institute for Government. |
| Impact | This macroeconomics and fiscal sustainability fellowship Opportunity to build a macro-economic model to improve the government's understanding about the interaction between fiscal policy and the economy and the impact on the UK's fiscal position. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Macroeconomic Modelling Review (MMR) |
| Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | responding to ESRC request for detailed assessment of future funding and research needs for macroeconomic modelling in the UK. |
| Collaborator Contribution | A Review: ESRC requested the work and offered feedback on report drafts. Stakeholders across BoE, NIESR and universities were interviewed to further understand the modelling landscape. |
| Impact | Draft report submitted alongside interview summary document. Final report submitted on 8th March. The desk research and interviews provided an overview of developments in macroeconomic modelling and the opportunities for further investment. Interviewees were keen to share their experiences and to build an active macroeconomic community. • This paper provides a review of macroeconomic modelling in the UK, including the current models used by principal forecasting institutions, the latest academic and non-academic approaches to modelling and the current developments in data, coding, and computer power. Macroeconomic modelling has been changing over the past 60 years, driven by the introduction of new technologies and the availability of better data. • The objective of this paper is to explore the opportunities to improve macroeconomic modelling to inform the ESRC's strategy and activities in relation to this topic and provide areas where the UK should strategically focus to push the frontier of UK macro research. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Macroeconomic Modelling Review (MMR) |
| Organisation | London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | responding to ESRC request for detailed assessment of future funding and research needs for macroeconomic modelling in the UK. |
| Collaborator Contribution | A Review: ESRC requested the work and offered feedback on report drafts. Stakeholders across BoE, NIESR and universities were interviewed to further understand the modelling landscape. |
| Impact | Draft report submitted alongside interview summary document. Final report submitted on 8th March. The desk research and interviews provided an overview of developments in macroeconomic modelling and the opportunities for further investment. Interviewees were keen to share their experiences and to build an active macroeconomic community. • This paper provides a review of macroeconomic modelling in the UK, including the current models used by principal forecasting institutions, the latest academic and non-academic approaches to modelling and the current developments in data, coding, and computer power. Macroeconomic modelling has been changing over the past 60 years, driven by the introduction of new technologies and the availability of better data. • The objective of this paper is to explore the opportunities to improve macroeconomic modelling to inform the ESRC's strategy and activities in relation to this topic and provide areas where the UK should strategically focus to push the frontier of UK macro research. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Policy seminars/meetings |
| Organisation | Civil Service |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | respond directly to questions from policy-makers. Assemble panel of academic experts based on the content of the enquiry. These include 'public' seminars, which are designed for policy audiences, as well as closed-door events which can enable more open engagement and discussion. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Lead editors contribute to these seminars as speakers and in terms of organisation, and advise on relevant research and other academic experts to invite/consult on policy questions. Teams from across government inform ECO on topics and research questions for discussion. The research questions provided by the team are fed into the publication pipeline together with other questions and topics that arising during the seminar. |
| Impact | The appetite for closed policy seminars between government departments and academic networks is even greater than expected. There is interest across levels of seniority within institutions and both within national government departments and devolved administrations. Articles related to each of the themes published on ECO website and disseminated to event attendees and other ECO stakeholders. Discussions at seminars also inform commissioning of other articles/data visualisations and interactions with policy stakeholders. - Policy seminar focused on inequality and education (January) o Speakers and attendees from Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities, Scottish Government, Institute for Education, University of Glasgow, University of Strathclyde, University of Surrey, Scottish Centre for Social Research, University of Sheffield, University of Bristol, University of Essex, University of Dundee, Department for Education, Scottish Government Learning Directorate, Big Urban Data Centre - Policy seminar focused on rural economies and tourism (March) o Speakers and attendees from University of Glasgow, University of Strathclyde, Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal, Dumfries and Galloway Council, The Usual Place, Economic Development Association Scotland, Better Lives Partnership, Scotland's Rural College (SRUC), University of Swansea South of Scotland Destination Alliance, National Centre for Resilience, South of Scotland Enterprise - Policy roundtable focused on economic inactivity - with the International Public Policy Observatory (September) - ECO lead editor contribution to online IPPO event - Policy seminar focused on fiscal rules and frameworks (September) o Speakers and attendees from Scottish Fiscal Commission, Irish Fiscal Council, Office for Budget Responsibility, Birkbeck University of London, Institute for Government, University of the West of England and Centre for Economics and Business Research Other discussions/collaborations: - Scottish Government - Fair Work evidence group, plans to collaborate with the Scottish Economic Society and GES in Scotland to restart the policy lab events, discussions with Chief Economist - Irish Fiscal Council - discussions around articles and policy events - Welsh Centre for Public Policy -collaboration to share insights/articles and on future events - Welsh Treasury - Public Health Wales - Centre for Public Policy, University of Glasgow - HM Treasury - Government Economic Service - Information Commissioners Office - Office for National Statistics - Office for Statistics Regulation - Competitions and Markets Authority - collaboration with the microeconomics research unit to share articles - Financial Conduct Authority • ECO's policy engagement - both closed-door and more public events - brings leading experts from universities and research institutions around the country together with policy-makers, focusing on live policy issues and drawing evidence from across the UK and internationally. To date, we have run 17 policy seminars (both online and in person). This includes sessions for the Cabinet Office, HM Treasury, the Department for Education, the Scottish Government and many more. • Our distributed model puts us in Cardiff, Belfast, Glasgow and Edinburgh as regularly as we are in London. We have run eight events in the devolved nations and have a further three planned before the summer. We also ensure that we include regional voices in our 'nationally' focused events, including the Festival of Economics. • The quality of these events has lead to other collaborations and requests for future sessions, as well as contributed questions that feed into the website pipeline. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Public engagements |
| Organisation | Royal Economic Society |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Contribute to public events and conferences. This can take the form of organising sessions with panels of experts, providing briefings, promoting ECO at external events and commissioning/authoring and disseminating outcomes on website and social media, such as articles on relevant topics, links to relevant papers, recording of events and responses to questions that arose during the event discussions. |
| Collaborator Contribution | engagement with individual academics, academic organisations and learned societies, including the Royal Economic Society (RES), Scottish Economic Society (SES), Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE), Conference of Heads of University Departments of Economics, Scottish Graduate Programme in Economics, Economics Network, Data Visualisation Society and Federal Reserve of St Louis. |
| Impact | ECO is a recognised organisation among academic and policy circles and regularly runs and contributes to sessions with academics and policy-makers to discuss key policy issues with the public. These engagements enable us to build and strengthen these broad networks. o American Economic Association ASSA annual meeting, 6-8 January. Promot-ed ECO and made contacts for commissioning articles. o Scottish Graduate Programme in Economics, 12-13 January. Presentations to Heads of Departments and students/academics, focused on the work of the Ob-servatory, effective writing and data masterclass. Run in 2023 and 2024. o Scottish Economic Society/Royal Economic Society joint conference, 3-5 April. ECO distributed magazines and resources at the conference. The team al-so presented to the Conference of Heads of Department of Economics. o Outlier 2023, 3-5 May. ECO Data Editor, Denes Csala, presented work at the Data Visualisation Society annual conference in Porto, Portugal. o ESCoE Conference on Economic Measurement, 17-19 May. ECO exhibited and promoted the beta version of the new Data Hub, as well as wider ECO services. In addition to the data masterclass (above), ECO Director Richard Davies also presented as part of the programme. o American Economic Association Conference on Teaching and Research in Economics Education, 1-3 June. Promoted ECO articles and data hub as teach-ing tools. o Adam Smith 300, 5-10 June. ECO took part in the Adam Smith tercentenary week at the University of Glasgow. ECO co-hosted the student book cover competition, and sponsored the wider event. The event also provided the set-ting the for the launch of the latest edition of ECO Magazine. Copies were giv-en to both delegates and speakers, including keynotes. ECO was also promoted at the tercentenary launch at the Scottish Parliament in January. o Developments in Economics Education Conference, 4-5 September. Promot-ed ECO as teaching resources for economics university courses. o Government Economic Service Conference, 13 October. Attended conference sessions, stand to promote ECO to government economists. o Federal Reserve of St Louis Conference for Professors, 1-3 November. Pre-sented on best practice and guidance for data visualisation and introduced ECO Data Hub as teaching tool. • Adam Smith 300: 2023 marked the tercentenary of the birth of Adam Smith, with celebrations focused around a week of events at the University of Glasgow in June. ECO used this occasion to draw together research and insight on the influence of Adam Smith and the lessons that can be drawn for today. From this, we published an issue of ECO magazine, which was launched at the Adam Smith 300 events, and we also organised and ran a student competition with the University of Glasgow. • Conferences: Builds ECO visibility and reputation among diverse audiences. Enables us to contribute to academic, policy and public debates and to build our networks. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Public engagements |
| Organisation | Scottish Economic Society |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Contribute to public events and conferences. This can take the form of organising sessions with panels of experts, providing briefings, promoting ECO at external events and commissioning/authoring and disseminating outcomes on website and social media, such as articles on relevant topics, links to relevant papers, recording of events and responses to questions that arose during the event discussions. |
| Collaborator Contribution | engagement with individual academics, academic organisations and learned societies, including the Royal Economic Society (RES), Scottish Economic Society (SES), Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE), Conference of Heads of University Departments of Economics, Scottish Graduate Programme in Economics, Economics Network, Data Visualisation Society and Federal Reserve of St Louis. |
| Impact | ECO is a recognised organisation among academic and policy circles and regularly runs and contributes to sessions with academics and policy-makers to discuss key policy issues with the public. These engagements enable us to build and strengthen these broad networks. o American Economic Association ASSA annual meeting, 6-8 January. Promot-ed ECO and made contacts for commissioning articles. o Scottish Graduate Programme in Economics, 12-13 January. Presentations to Heads of Departments and students/academics, focused on the work of the Ob-servatory, effective writing and data masterclass. Run in 2023 and 2024. o Scottish Economic Society/Royal Economic Society joint conference, 3-5 April. ECO distributed magazines and resources at the conference. The team al-so presented to the Conference of Heads of Department of Economics. o Outlier 2023, 3-5 May. ECO Data Editor, Denes Csala, presented work at the Data Visualisation Society annual conference in Porto, Portugal. o ESCoE Conference on Economic Measurement, 17-19 May. ECO exhibited and promoted the beta version of the new Data Hub, as well as wider ECO services. In addition to the data masterclass (above), ECO Director Richard Davies also presented as part of the programme. o American Economic Association Conference on Teaching and Research in Economics Education, 1-3 June. Promoted ECO articles and data hub as teach-ing tools. o Adam Smith 300, 5-10 June. ECO took part in the Adam Smith tercentenary week at the University of Glasgow. ECO co-hosted the student book cover competition, and sponsored the wider event. The event also provided the set-ting the for the launch of the latest edition of ECO Magazine. Copies were giv-en to both delegates and speakers, including keynotes. ECO was also promoted at the tercentenary launch at the Scottish Parliament in January. o Developments in Economics Education Conference, 4-5 September. Promot-ed ECO as teaching resources for economics university courses. o Government Economic Service Conference, 13 October. Attended conference sessions, stand to promote ECO to government economists. o Federal Reserve of St Louis Conference for Professors, 1-3 November. Pre-sented on best practice and guidance for data visualisation and introduced ECO Data Hub as teaching tool. • Adam Smith 300: 2023 marked the tercentenary of the birth of Adam Smith, with celebrations focused around a week of events at the University of Glasgow in June. ECO used this occasion to draw together research and insight on the influence of Adam Smith and the lessons that can be drawn for today. From this, we published an issue of ECO magazine, which was launched at the Adam Smith 300 events, and we also organised and ran a student competition with the University of Glasgow. • Conferences: Builds ECO visibility and reputation among diverse audiences. Enables us to contribute to academic, policy and public debates and to build our networks. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Website pipeline |
| Organisation | Cardiff University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| PI Contribution | Creation and day to day running of website. Collecting questions and topic suggestions from stakeholders - primarily policy-makers but also students and the public (through courses, events and the website). These topics are collected through various channels, including direct communication with policy-makers, via our lead editor board and other academic and research partners, and submissions to the website. Coordinate pipeline, commission articles (synthesis of current available evidence, and themed weeks with topic focus), manage relationships with authors, copyedit content, align with data work/insert relevant visualisations, determine publication schedule, publish on website and create social media content to promote articles and charts. Coordinate lead editor board meetings and engagement to maintain partnerships. Commission newsletter content (published on website and sent out to mailing list) that draws together topics addressed in articles, highlights data/charts and promotes upcoming events or content. Commissioning also includes themed weeks and summary articles to focus on particular topic or policy area. |
| Collaborator Contribution | multilateral collaborative partnership with lead editor board. Partners: University of Cambridge; Cardiff University; Centre for Economic Performance (LSE); Institute for Fiscal Studies; Imperial College London; National Institute of Economic and Social Research; University of Oxford; Queen's University Belfast; University of Bristol; University of Glasgow; University of Manchester; University of Strathclyde. |
| Impact | Topical and new articles published daily. Total of 795 articles across 25 topics - this includes 83 news articles. These articles have been written by 525 authors based across the UK and internationally. All articles available here: www.economicsobservatory.com. On the website we have had 3.5 million page views since launch in May 2020. Traffic is steadily rising - we are currently seeing over 100k views per month from over 70k users. Agile pipeline using a flexible and responsive approach to commissioning new material has supported our engagement with policy contacts and generated high demand for policy engagement seminars. Themed weeks and summary pieces (which synthesise evidence from other articles published) are particularly useful mechanisms through which ECO can channel research to inform policy. The quality of articles and experts engaged with ECO also means that it has become key point of contact for journalists. • Website traffic. Web traffic was slightly reduced over Christmas for both academic and policy audiences but recovered strongly from January 2024. • Total page views: We have achieved 3.5 million page views and continue to draw over 75,000 users per month. The website currently gets about 4k views per day. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Website pipeline |
| Organisation | National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Creation and day to day running of website. Collecting questions and topic suggestions from stakeholders - primarily policy-makers but also students and the public (through courses, events and the website). These topics are collected through various channels, including direct communication with policy-makers, via our lead editor board and other academic and research partners, and submissions to the website. Coordinate pipeline, commission articles (synthesis of current available evidence, and themed weeks with topic focus), manage relationships with authors, copyedit content, align with data work/insert relevant visualisations, determine publication schedule, publish on website and create social media content to promote articles and charts. Coordinate lead editor board meetings and engagement to maintain partnerships. Commission newsletter content (published on website and sent out to mailing list) that draws together topics addressed in articles, highlights data/charts and promotes upcoming events or content. Commissioning also includes themed weeks and summary articles to focus on particular topic or policy area. |
| Collaborator Contribution | multilateral collaborative partnership with lead editor board. Partners: University of Cambridge; Cardiff University; Centre for Economic Performance (LSE); Institute for Fiscal Studies; Imperial College London; National Institute of Economic and Social Research; University of Oxford; Queen's University Belfast; University of Bristol; University of Glasgow; University of Manchester; University of Strathclyde. |
| Impact | Topical and new articles published daily. Total of 795 articles across 25 topics - this includes 83 news articles. These articles have been written by 525 authors based across the UK and internationally. All articles available here: www.economicsobservatory.com. On the website we have had 3.5 million page views since launch in May 2020. Traffic is steadily rising - we are currently seeing over 100k views per month from over 70k users. Agile pipeline using a flexible and responsive approach to commissioning new material has supported our engagement with policy contacts and generated high demand for policy engagement seminars. Themed weeks and summary pieces (which synthesise evidence from other articles published) are particularly useful mechanisms through which ECO can channel research to inform policy. The quality of articles and experts engaged with ECO also means that it has become key point of contact for journalists. • Website traffic. Web traffic was slightly reduced over Christmas for both academic and policy audiences but recovered strongly from January 2024. • Total page views: We have achieved 3.5 million page views and continue to draw over 75,000 users per month. The website currently gets about 4k views per day. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Website pipeline |
| Organisation | Queen's University Belfast |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Creation and day to day running of website. Collecting questions and topic suggestions from stakeholders - primarily policy-makers but also students and the public (through courses, events and the website). These topics are collected through various channels, including direct communication with policy-makers, via our lead editor board and other academic and research partners, and submissions to the website. Coordinate pipeline, commission articles (synthesis of current available evidence, and themed weeks with topic focus), manage relationships with authors, copyedit content, align with data work/insert relevant visualisations, determine publication schedule, publish on website and create social media content to promote articles and charts. Coordinate lead editor board meetings and engagement to maintain partnerships. Commission newsletter content (published on website and sent out to mailing list) that draws together topics addressed in articles, highlights data/charts and promotes upcoming events or content. Commissioning also includes themed weeks and summary articles to focus on particular topic or policy area. |
| Collaborator Contribution | multilateral collaborative partnership with lead editor board. Partners: University of Cambridge; Cardiff University; Centre for Economic Performance (LSE); Institute for Fiscal Studies; Imperial College London; National Institute of Economic and Social Research; University of Oxford; Queen's University Belfast; University of Bristol; University of Glasgow; University of Manchester; University of Strathclyde. |
| Impact | Topical and new articles published daily. Total of 795 articles across 25 topics - this includes 83 news articles. These articles have been written by 525 authors based across the UK and internationally. All articles available here: www.economicsobservatory.com. On the website we have had 3.5 million page views since launch in May 2020. Traffic is steadily rising - we are currently seeing over 100k views per month from over 70k users. Agile pipeline using a flexible and responsive approach to commissioning new material has supported our engagement with policy contacts and generated high demand for policy engagement seminars. Themed weeks and summary pieces (which synthesise evidence from other articles published) are particularly useful mechanisms through which ECO can channel research to inform policy. The quality of articles and experts engaged with ECO also means that it has become key point of contact for journalists. • Website traffic. Web traffic was slightly reduced over Christmas for both academic and policy audiences but recovered strongly from January 2024. • Total page views: We have achieved 3.5 million page views and continue to draw over 75,000 users per month. The website currently gets about 4k views per day. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Website pipeline |
| Organisation | University of Glasgow |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Creation and day to day running of website. Collecting questions and topic suggestions from stakeholders - primarily policy-makers but also students and the public (through courses, events and the website). These topics are collected through various channels, including direct communication with policy-makers, via our lead editor board and other academic and research partners, and submissions to the website. Coordinate pipeline, commission articles (synthesis of current available evidence, and themed weeks with topic focus), manage relationships with authors, copyedit content, align with data work/insert relevant visualisations, determine publication schedule, publish on website and create social media content to promote articles and charts. Coordinate lead editor board meetings and engagement to maintain partnerships. Commission newsletter content (published on website and sent out to mailing list) that draws together topics addressed in articles, highlights data/charts and promotes upcoming events or content. Commissioning also includes themed weeks and summary articles to focus on particular topic or policy area. |
| Collaborator Contribution | multilateral collaborative partnership with lead editor board. Partners: University of Cambridge; Cardiff University; Centre for Economic Performance (LSE); Institute for Fiscal Studies; Imperial College London; National Institute of Economic and Social Research; University of Oxford; Queen's University Belfast; University of Bristol; University of Glasgow; University of Manchester; University of Strathclyde. |
| Impact | Topical and new articles published daily. Total of 795 articles across 25 topics - this includes 83 news articles. These articles have been written by 525 authors based across the UK and internationally. All articles available here: www.economicsobservatory.com. On the website we have had 3.5 million page views since launch in May 2020. Traffic is steadily rising - we are currently seeing over 100k views per month from over 70k users. Agile pipeline using a flexible and responsive approach to commissioning new material has supported our engagement with policy contacts and generated high demand for policy engagement seminars. Themed weeks and summary pieces (which synthesise evidence from other articles published) are particularly useful mechanisms through which ECO can channel research to inform policy. The quality of articles and experts engaged with ECO also means that it has become key point of contact for journalists. • Website traffic. Web traffic was slightly reduced over Christmas for both academic and policy audiences but recovered strongly from January 2024. • Total page views: We have achieved 3.5 million page views and continue to draw over 75,000 users per month. The website currently gets about 4k views per day. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Website pipeline |
| Organisation | University of Strathclyde |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Creation and day to day running of website. Collecting questions and topic suggestions from stakeholders - primarily policy-makers but also students and the public (through courses, events and the website). These topics are collected through various channels, including direct communication with policy-makers, via our lead editor board and other academic and research partners, and submissions to the website. Coordinate pipeline, commission articles (synthesis of current available evidence, and themed weeks with topic focus), manage relationships with authors, copyedit content, align with data work/insert relevant visualisations, determine publication schedule, publish on website and create social media content to promote articles and charts. Coordinate lead editor board meetings and engagement to maintain partnerships. Commission newsletter content (published on website and sent out to mailing list) that draws together topics addressed in articles, highlights data/charts and promotes upcoming events or content. Commissioning also includes themed weeks and summary articles to focus on particular topic or policy area. |
| Collaborator Contribution | multilateral collaborative partnership with lead editor board. Partners: University of Cambridge; Cardiff University; Centre for Economic Performance (LSE); Institute for Fiscal Studies; Imperial College London; National Institute of Economic and Social Research; University of Oxford; Queen's University Belfast; University of Bristol; University of Glasgow; University of Manchester; University of Strathclyde. |
| Impact | Topical and new articles published daily. Total of 795 articles across 25 topics - this includes 83 news articles. These articles have been written by 525 authors based across the UK and internationally. All articles available here: www.economicsobservatory.com. On the website we have had 3.5 million page views since launch in May 2020. Traffic is steadily rising - we are currently seeing over 100k views per month from over 70k users. Agile pipeline using a flexible and responsive approach to commissioning new material has supported our engagement with policy contacts and generated high demand for policy engagement seminars. Themed weeks and summary pieces (which synthesise evidence from other articles published) are particularly useful mechanisms through which ECO can channel research to inform policy. The quality of articles and experts engaged with ECO also means that it has become key point of contact for journalists. • Website traffic. Web traffic was slightly reduced over Christmas for both academic and policy audiences but recovered strongly from January 2024. • Total page views: We have achieved 3.5 million page views and continue to draw over 75,000 users per month. The website currently gets about 4k views per day. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Writing/data masterclasses |
| Organisation | Bank of England |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Writing course is led by ECO's director and editor-in-chief. Writing and communication training for professional and academic economists of various experience levels (from first year of professional experience to 10+ year civil servants). Participants receive tailored feedback on a writing sample submitted before the class together with a pack of communication resources after the session. Data masterclasses led by ECO director and data team. The one-day class introduces policy economists to a suite of programming skills and languages, including HMTL, CSS, JavaScript and Python. |
| Collaborator Contribution | endorsement of the programmes and publicity across government departments. Participants are permitted work time to complete the programme and the hours count towards the participants' continuous professional development time. |
| Impact | Over 140 participants have attended a writing/data masterclass. Both masterclasses have a 100% satisfaction rate with all participants that responded to the evaluation survey either being satisfied or strongly satisfied. Across the board, around 90% of participants that responded to the anonymous survey would recommend the programme to a colleague. Writing/data masterclasses added substantial value to the wider professional and academic economics community by enhancing communication. ECO's reputation as a trusted information hub attracted applications to the class. Both writing and data classes are substantially oversubscribed, suggesting high levels of demand for this kind of service. • Writing masterclasses added substantial value to the wider professional and academic economics community by enhancing communication. ECO's reputation as a trusted information hub attracted applications to the class. • Data masterclasses are in high demand. In terms of feedback, across the cohort taught over the past year, around 90% would recommend the class to a colleague, and 100% said the class helped them identify new tools and methods for data analysis. One challenge concerns system access: some government laptops block software downloads and even some online tools. This means the ECO teaching team must react to restrictions on a case-by-case basis. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Writing/data masterclasses |
| Organisation | Civil Service |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Writing course is led by ECO's director and editor-in-chief. Writing and communication training for professional and academic economists of various experience levels (from first year of professional experience to 10+ year civil servants). Participants receive tailored feedback on a writing sample submitted before the class together with a pack of communication resources after the session. Data masterclasses led by ECO director and data team. The one-day class introduces policy economists to a suite of programming skills and languages, including HMTL, CSS, JavaScript and Python. |
| Collaborator Contribution | endorsement of the programmes and publicity across government departments. Participants are permitted work time to complete the programme and the hours count towards the participants' continuous professional development time. |
| Impact | Over 140 participants have attended a writing/data masterclass. Both masterclasses have a 100% satisfaction rate with all participants that responded to the evaluation survey either being satisfied or strongly satisfied. Across the board, around 90% of participants that responded to the anonymous survey would recommend the programme to a colleague. Writing/data masterclasses added substantial value to the wider professional and academic economics community by enhancing communication. ECO's reputation as a trusted information hub attracted applications to the class. Both writing and data classes are substantially oversubscribed, suggesting high levels of demand for this kind of service. • Writing masterclasses added substantial value to the wider professional and academic economics community by enhancing communication. ECO's reputation as a trusted information hub attracted applications to the class. • Data masterclasses are in high demand. In terms of feedback, across the cohort taught over the past year, around 90% would recommend the class to a colleague, and 100% said the class helped them identify new tools and methods for data analysis. One challenge concerns system access: some government laptops block software downloads and even some online tools. This means the ECO teaching team must react to restrictions on a case-by-case basis. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Writing/data masterclasses |
| Organisation | HM Treasury |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Writing course is led by ECO's director and editor-in-chief. Writing and communication training for professional and academic economists of various experience levels (from first year of professional experience to 10+ year civil servants). Participants receive tailored feedback on a writing sample submitted before the class together with a pack of communication resources after the session. Data masterclasses led by ECO director and data team. The one-day class introduces policy economists to a suite of programming skills and languages, including HMTL, CSS, JavaScript and Python. |
| Collaborator Contribution | endorsement of the programmes and publicity across government departments. Participants are permitted work time to complete the programme and the hours count towards the participants' continuous professional development time. |
| Impact | Over 140 participants have attended a writing/data masterclass. Both masterclasses have a 100% satisfaction rate with all participants that responded to the evaluation survey either being satisfied or strongly satisfied. Across the board, around 90% of participants that responded to the anonymous survey would recommend the programme to a colleague. Writing/data masterclasses added substantial value to the wider professional and academic economics community by enhancing communication. ECO's reputation as a trusted information hub attracted applications to the class. Both writing and data classes are substantially oversubscribed, suggesting high levels of demand for this kind of service. • Writing masterclasses added substantial value to the wider professional and academic economics community by enhancing communication. ECO's reputation as a trusted information hub attracted applications to the class. • Data masterclasses are in high demand. In terms of feedback, across the cohort taught over the past year, around 90% would recommend the class to a colleague, and 100% said the class helped them identify new tools and methods for data analysis. One challenge concerns system access: some government laptops block software downloads and even some online tools. This means the ECO teaching team must react to restrictions on a case-by-case basis. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Writing/data masterclasses |
| Organisation | London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Writing course is led by ECO's director and editor-in-chief. Writing and communication training for professional and academic economists of various experience levels (from first year of professional experience to 10+ year civil servants). Participants receive tailored feedback on a writing sample submitted before the class together with a pack of communication resources after the session. Data masterclasses led by ECO director and data team. The one-day class introduces policy economists to a suite of programming skills and languages, including HMTL, CSS, JavaScript and Python. |
| Collaborator Contribution | endorsement of the programmes and publicity across government departments. Participants are permitted work time to complete the programme and the hours count towards the participants' continuous professional development time. |
| Impact | Over 140 participants have attended a writing/data masterclass. Both masterclasses have a 100% satisfaction rate with all participants that responded to the evaluation survey either being satisfied or strongly satisfied. Across the board, around 90% of participants that responded to the anonymous survey would recommend the programme to a colleague. Writing/data masterclasses added substantial value to the wider professional and academic economics community by enhancing communication. ECO's reputation as a trusted information hub attracted applications to the class. Both writing and data classes are substantially oversubscribed, suggesting high levels of demand for this kind of service. • Writing masterclasses added substantial value to the wider professional and academic economics community by enhancing communication. ECO's reputation as a trusted information hub attracted applications to the class. • Data masterclasses are in high demand. In terms of feedback, across the cohort taught over the past year, around 90% would recommend the class to a colleague, and 100% said the class helped them identify new tools and methods for data analysis. One challenge concerns system access: some government laptops block software downloads and even some online tools. This means the ECO teaching team must react to restrictions on a case-by-case basis. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Writing/data masterclasses |
| Organisation | Office for National Statistics |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Writing course is led by ECO's director and editor-in-chief. Writing and communication training for professional and academic economists of various experience levels (from first year of professional experience to 10+ year civil servants). Participants receive tailored feedback on a writing sample submitted before the class together with a pack of communication resources after the session. Data masterclasses led by ECO director and data team. The one-day class introduces policy economists to a suite of programming skills and languages, including HMTL, CSS, JavaScript and Python. |
| Collaborator Contribution | endorsement of the programmes and publicity across government departments. Participants are permitted work time to complete the programme and the hours count towards the participants' continuous professional development time. |
| Impact | Over 140 participants have attended a writing/data masterclass. Both masterclasses have a 100% satisfaction rate with all participants that responded to the evaluation survey either being satisfied or strongly satisfied. Across the board, around 90% of participants that responded to the anonymous survey would recommend the programme to a colleague. Writing/data masterclasses added substantial value to the wider professional and academic economics community by enhancing communication. ECO's reputation as a trusted information hub attracted applications to the class. Both writing and data classes are substantially oversubscribed, suggesting high levels of demand for this kind of service. • Writing masterclasses added substantial value to the wider professional and academic economics community by enhancing communication. ECO's reputation as a trusted information hub attracted applications to the class. • Data masterclasses are in high demand. In terms of feedback, across the cohort taught over the past year, around 90% would recommend the class to a colleague, and 100% said the class helped them identify new tools and methods for data analysis. One challenge concerns system access: some government laptops block software downloads and even some online tools. This means the ECO teaching team must react to restrictions on a case-by-case basis. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Festival of Economics |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 13-16 November 2023, Bank of England Citizens' Panel and and 3-day public event. Over 2,400 tickets to 16 events, including book talks, panel discussions, Bank of England citizens' panel and live podcast recordings - bookings included school and university students, journalists, practitioners, policy-makers and members of the public. The Government Economic Service have a block-booking each year. In a continuing partnership with Bristol Ideas, ECO brought together economists, policy-makers, academics, practitioners and the public at the Festival of Economics to discuss the key economic and social questions and challenges facing the UK . Audience members attended from across the UK for a three-day programme of panel discussions, interviews, book talks, podcast recordings, networking and debates. Over 2,400 tickets were sold aross 16 events. Themes included food affordability and security, society and health and building the future (write-ups on each available on the website). This is the leading, and biggest, Festival of Economics in the country and has come to be seen as a key event in calendar for policy-focused academics and policy-makers. It also has a diverse audience of members of the public in Bristol. The event offers an excellent opportunity for these stakeholders to discuss and debate these topics and learn from one another. There are a number of elements that make this event unique: - Mix of session formats - book talks, podcast recordings, expert panels - Panels are chaired by leading journalists and consist of expert economists, other academics and practitioners (for example, a recent panel on food costs and insecurity included a representative from a local food bank). - Writers in residence - Data visualisations incorporated into event - large, interactive touchscreens available with maps and charts relevant to topics and audience (audience can interact themselves or discuss the data with members of ECO team) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.economicsobservatory.com/festival-of-economics-2023 |
| Description | Masterclasses |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The Economics Observatory writing masterclasses are led by director, Professor Richard Davies, and editor-in-chief, Romesh Vaitilingam. The masterclass offers academic economists and policy-makers an opportunity to receive tailored advice and guidance on how to advance their written and communication skills - to support a career in economics. Richard and Romesh have extensive experience in journalism, publishing, policy, and communications - experience they draw on during the seminar to provide participants with the tools to write effectively for a public audience. Ahead of the session participants are asked to prepare a short piece of writing for a public audience. This could be something nearly ready to go in terms of a research paper to publi-cise, a policy briefing or a research proposal (or indeed a past publication). The piece should be in the form of an elevator pitch, consisting of a headline and a few paragraphs describing the key findings, why they are important, and what should be done as a result. Participants receive an edited copy of this piece, with bespoke feedback on how they can improve the quality and impact of their work. Turning to the data classes, participants are taken from complete beginners to having an in-troductory understanding of multiple coding languages, including HMTL, CSS, JavaScript and Python and best practice in data visualisation. The course is centred around practical skills for economic and policy analysis, with a wide range of tools and ideas demonstrated and explained over a one-day session. Ahead of the session participants are asked to watch a short introductory set-up video, to help familiarise them with the key tools. They are also invited to bring their own datasets to the class, to ensure that the practical elements of the course are relevant to the poli-cy/research areas they work in day-to-day. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023,2024 |
| URL | https://www.economicsobservatory.com/courses |
| Description | Policy seminars |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | - Policy seminar focused on inequality and education (January) o Speakers and attendees from Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities, Scottish Government, Institute for Education, University of Glasgow, University of Strathclyde, University of Surrey, Scottish Centre for Social Research, University of Sheffield, University of Bristol, University of Essex, University of Dundee, Department for Education, Scottish Government Learning Directorate, Big Urban Data Centre - Policy seminar focused on rural economies and tourism (March) o Speakers and attendees from University of Glasgow, University of Strathclyde, Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal, Dumfries and Galloway Council, The Usual Place, Economic Development Association Scotland, Better Lives Partnership, Scotland's Rural College (SRUC), University of Swansea South of Scotland Destination Alliance, National Centre for Resilience, South of Scotland Enterprise - Policy roundtable focused on economic inactivity - with the International Public Policy Observatory (September) - ECO lead editor contribution to online IPPO event o Speakers and attendees were national and local policy-makers, particular focus on Belfast and Glasgow - Policy seminar focused on fiscal rules and frameworks (September) o Speakers and attendees from Scottish Fiscal Commission, Irish Fiscal Council, Office for Budget Responsibility, Birkbeck University of London, Institute for Government, University of the West of England and Centre for Economics and Business Research |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023,2024 |
| Description | Public engagements |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | ECO's presence and engagement with public events and academic conferences has a number of benefits: - Raises the profile of our work - both data focused and articles highlighting research evidence - increasing readership and engagement. - Helps ECO team to be aware of new and cutting-edge research and to make connections with academic experts, including to commission articles for pipeline and for future policy seminars. - Enables ECO team to identify topics of interest on which they can commission evidence synthesis articles - To engage and network with researchers at different stages of their careers and highlight ECO as a resource and an output for their research. o Promoted ECO to various stakeholders including academics, policy-makers and students at a number of conferences and public events including: American Economic Association ASSA annual meeting (January), Scottish Graduate Programme in Economics (January), Conference of Heads of University De-partments of Economics (January and April), Scottish Economic Society, Roy-al Economic Society joint conference (April), Outlier 2023 (May), ESCoE Con-ference on Economic Measurement (May), American Economic Association Conference on Teaching and Research in Economics Education (June), De-velopments in Economics Education Conference (September), Government Economic Service Conference (October), Federal Reserve of St Louis Con-ference for Professors (November). o Adam Smith 300 (June). Promoting ECO outputs on lessons from Adam Smith for the 21st century, including launching ECO4 magazine. Co-hosting and run-ning student book cover competition. ECO was also promoted at the tercen-tenary launch at the Scottish Parliament in January. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023,2024 |
| URL | https://www.gla.ac.uk/explore/adamsmith300 |