The Economics and Policy subject group

Growth, performance and quality of life

The Economics and Policy group analyses:

  • how economics can improve economic growth and business performance
  • how public policy can be improved to enhance economic growth, sustainability and the quality of life
Economics and Policy concept.

Key research and teaching areas

The research of the group falls broadly into the following categories:

  • Behavioural insights and economics (Lucia Reisch, Christos Genakos, Michael Pollitt and Jochen Runde) 
  • Circular economy (Khal Soufani) 
  • Competition policy and regulation (Christos Genakos) 
  • Consumer behaviour and policy (Lucia Reisch and David Reiner) 
  • Decision-making under extreme uncertainty (Jochen Runde) 
  • Energy and climate economics and policy (David Reiner, Kamiar Mohaddes and Michael Pollitt) 
  • Econometric and statistical methods (Paul Kattuman and Christos Genakos) 
  • Explanation in the social sciences (Jochen Runde) 
  • Health economics (Juliana Kozak Rogo) 
  • Impact investing (Khal Soufani) 
  • Industrial organisation (Christos Genakos, Juliana Kozak Rogo and Michael Pollitt) 
  • Innovation (Michael Kitson and Christos Genakos) 
  • Macroeconomic policy and performance (Michael Kitson and Kamiar Mohaddes) 
  • Productivity measurement and the regulation of utilities (Michael Pollitt and Christos Genakos) 
  • Social ontology and the ontology of technology (Jochen Runde) 

Research centres

Group members have leading roles in the following research centres: 

Teaching

The Economics and Policy subject group faculty teach across the full range of undergraduate, postgraduate and executive education programmes offered by the Business School. 

Members

Meet our members including faculty, research and teaching staff, PhD students, and honorary appointees.

View faculty

View research and teaching staff

View PhD candidates

View honorary appointments

Subject group head

Michael Pollitt

Professor of Business Economics

Publishing output

The members of the group publish in leading journals and disseminate their work through other channels to ensure the maximum impact on policy and practice. The Centre for Business Research (CBR) and the Energy Policy Research Group (EPRG) also produce a range of publications and presentations which are available via their websites: 

Selected publications

  • Aboulamer, A., Soufani, K. and Esposito, M. (2020) “Financing the circular economic model.” Thunderbird International Business Review, 62(6): 641-646 (DOI: 10.1002/tie.22123)
  • Ananya, K.L. and Pollitt, M.G. (2020) “Reactive power procurement: a review of current trends.” Applied Energy, 270: 114939 (DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.114939)
  • Chudik, A., Pesaran, M.H. and Mohaddes, K. (2020) “Identifying global and national output and fiscal policy shocks using a GVAR.” In: Pesaran, M.H., Li, T. and Terrell, D. (eds.) Advances in econometrics: vol.41: essays in honor of Cheng Hsiao. Bingley: Emerald Publishing, pp.143-190
  • Dimas, A. and Genakos, C. (2020) “Exploring the long-term impact of maximum markup deregulation.” Anali Pravnog Fakulteta u Beogradu, 68(4): 5-29 (DOI: 10.51204/anali_pfub_20401a)
  • Dolphin, G., Pollitt, M. and Newbery, D. (2020) “The political economy of carbon pricing: a panel analysis.” Oxford Economic Papers, 72(2): 472-500 (DOI: 10.1093/oep/gpz042)
  • Geissdoerfer, M., Pieroni, M.P.P., Pigosso, D.C.A. and Soufani, K. (2020) “Circular business models: a review.” Journal of Cleaner Production, 277: 123741 (DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123741)
  • Generoso, R., Couharde, C., Damette, O. and Mohaddes, K. (2020) “The growth effects of El Niño and La Niña: local weather conditions matter.” Annals of Economics and Statistics, 140: 83-126 (DOI: 10.15609/annaeconstat2009.140.0083)
  • Pollitt, M.G. (2020) Reforming the Chinese electricity supply sector: lessons from global experience. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Reiner, D.M. (2020) “The political economy of carbon capture and storage.” In: Bui, M. and Mac Dowell, N. (eds.) Carbon capture and storage. London: Royal Society of Chemistry, pp.536-558
  • Runde, J., Lewis, P. and Graça Moura, M. (2020) “Ontology and the history of economic thought: an introduction.” Cambridge Journal of Economics, 44(5): 981-990 (DOI: 10.1093/cje/beaa039)
  • Runde, J., Lewis, P. and Graça Moura, M. (eds.) (2020) “Special issue on ontology and the history of economic thought.” Cambridge Journal of Economics, 44(5)

Industry and policy engagement 

Regional, national and international organisations

The research of the group is informed and stimulated by regular interactions with a wide range of regional, national and international organisations such as:  

  • European Union 
  • Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy 
  • National Infrastructure Commission 
  • US Environmental Protection Agency 
  • UK Met Office and Committee on Climate Change 
  • Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem).  

We also provide advice and policy inputs at Prime Ministerial and Ministerial levels in the UK and abroad.

Academic institutions

The group maintains long-standing collaborations with leading academic institutions around the world including: 

  • Stanford University Energy Modelling Forum 
  • MIT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy
  • CSIRO. 

Research centres and initiatives

Members of the group are also actively engaged in business and policy engagement through the: 

  • Centre for Business Research (CBR), which conducts interdisciplinary research on enterprise, innovation and governance in contemporary market economies, and whose research is used by managers, policy-makers and regulators in numerous countries 
  • Circular Economy Centre, which collaborates with academic and non-academic institutions in the EU (e.g. the European Defence Agency) on issues relating to the enablers of circularity such digital technology and IoT, which was part of a University of Cambridge consortium on plastics, and which delivers an Executive Education programmes to executives in multiple organisations 
  • El-Erian Institute of Behavioural Economics and Policy, which collaborates with the behavioural teams of the OECD, the UN, the European Commission, the WHO and several national governments, and which has a close collaboration with the Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy at Harvard Law School 
  • Energy Policy Forum (EPF), which facilitates knowledge exchange between the Energy Policy Research Group (EPRG) and a range of organisations including government departments, regulators, energy companies and consumer organisations 
  • Centre for Science and Policy (CSaP), whose aim is to improve public policy through the more effective use of evidence and expertise. It does this by facilitating visits to the University of Cambridge of civil servants from various government departments and agencies, as well as leading private companies with technology policy interests. 

Research seminars

Upcoming seminars

Join our Economics and Policy seminar with Dr Christian Peukert, HEC Lausanne.

Past seminars

2024

Join our Economics and Policy seminar with Dr Joao Granja, University College London.

Join our Economics and Policy seminar with Dr Andre Veiga, Imperial College Business School.

Join our Economics and Policy seminar with Dr Dennis Verhoeven, SKEMA Business School.

Join our Economics and Policy seminar with Dr Luke Garrod, Loughborough University.

2023

An Economics and Policy seminar with Dr Helena Perrone, Mannheim University.

An Economics and Policy seminar with Néstor Duch-Brown, Joint Research Centre of the European Commission

An Economics and Policy seminar with Professor Imke Reimers, Cornell University.

An Economics and Policy seminar with Professor Nicholas de Roos, University of Liverpool Management School.

Join our Economics and Policy seminar with Dr Alessandro Iaria, University of Bristol.

An Economics and Policy seminar with Micha Arne Kaiser, El-Erian Institute.

A Behavioural Roundtable with Dr Michael Hallsworth, Behavioural Insights Team.

A Behavioural Roundtable with Professor Will Tiemeijer, Erasmus University Rotterdam.

A Behavioural Roundtable with Faisal Neru, Think.Test.Do and the El-Erian Institute.

2022

Lent term

2 February 2022 | 15:00-16:00, Online

Market structure, investment and technical efficiencies in mobile communications

Paul Scott, Assistant Professor of Economics, NYU Stern School of Business

9 February 2022 | 15:00-16:00, Online

Growth and the fragmentation of production

Johannes Boehm, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics at Sciences Po

16 February 2022 | 15:00-16:00, Online

Patent enforcement and subsequent innovation

Marek Giebel, Assistant Professor (tenure-track), Department of Economics, Copenhagen Business School

23 February 2022 | 15:00-16:00, Online

Race to the bottom: competition and quality in science

Ryan Hill, Assistant Professor of Economics, Brigham Young University

2 March 2022 | 15:00-16:00, Online

A tale of two networks: common ownership and product market rivalry

Bruno Pellegrino, University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business

9 March 2022 | 15:00-16:00, Online

Common ownership and competition in the ready to eat cereal industry

Matthew Backus, Associate Professor, Columbia Business School

16 March 2022 | 15:00-16:00, Online

How does price competition affect innovation? Evidence from US antitrust cases

Hyo Kang, Assistant Professor, USC Marshall School of Business

Michaelmas term

12 October 2022 | 15:00-16:00, Online

Innovation and competition: the breakup of IG Farben

Felix Poege, Postdoctoral Associate, Technology and Policy Research Initiative, Boston University

19 October 2022 | 13:00-14:00, Room W4.05, Cambridge Judge Business School

The welfare consequences of urban traffic regulations

Isis Durrmeyer, Assistant Professor, Toulouse School of Economics

26 October 2022 | 15:00-16:00, Room W2.02, Cambridge Judge Business School

Manipulative consumers

Nikita Roketskiy, Assistant Professor, University College London

2 November 2022 | 15:00-16:00, Room W2.02, Cambridge Judge Business School

A BLP demand model of product-level market shares with complementarity

Ao Wang, Assistant Professor, University of Warwick

9 November 2022 | 15:00-16:00, Room W4.05, Cambridge Judge Business School

Climatarian diets: evaluating behaviour change interventions to accelerate the sustainable food transition

Paul Lohmann, Research Associate, El-Erian Institute of Behavioural Economics and Policy, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge

16 November 2022 | 15:00-16:00, Room W2.02, Cambridge Judge Business School

Understanding port performance and the role of infrastructure

Theodore Papageorgiou, Felter Family Associate Professor of Economics, Boston College

23 November 2022 | 16:00-17:00, Online

You can lead a horse to water: spatial learning and path dependence in consumer search

Charles Hodgson, Assistant Professor of Economics, Yale University

30 November 2022 | 15:00-16:00, Room W2.02, Cambridge Judge Business School

Private monopoly and restricted entry: evidence from the notary profession

Biliana Yontcheva, Assistant Professor, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics

2021

Michaelmas term

20 October 2021 | 15:00-16:00, Online

Algorithmic pricing and competition: empirical evidence from the German retail gasoline market

Daniel Ershov, Assistant Professor, Toulouse School of Economics

27 October 2021 | 15:00-16:00, Online

Search frictions and efficiency in decentralised transport markets

Myrto Kalouptsidi, Assistant Professor, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences

27 October 2021 | 15:00-16:00, Online

GDPR and the lost generation of innovative apps

Michael Kummer, Assistant Professor, University of East Anglia, Norwich

10 November 2021 | 15:00-16:00, Online

Price transparency, media and informative advertising

Itai Ater, Professor, Coller School of Management, Tel Aviv University

17 November 2021 | 15:00-16:00, Seminar Room 1 and online

The aggregate consequences of forbearance lending: evidence from Japan

Isabelle Roland, Associate Lecturer, St John’s College, University of Cambridge

24 November 2021 | 15:00-16:00, Online

The value of information in competitive markets: the impact of big data on small and medium enterprises

Ricard Gil, Associate Professor and Distinguished Faculty Fellow of Business Economics, Smith School of Business, Queen’s University

1 December 2021 | 15:00-16:00, Online

Licensing life saving drugs for developing countries: evidence from the medicines patent pool

Alberto Galasso, Professor of Strategic Management, Rotman Chair in Life Sciences Commercialisation, University of Toronto

2020

Lent term

22 January 2020 | 13:00-14:00, Lecture Theatre 4, Cambridge Judge Business School

Are consumers myopic? Evidence from handset and mobile services choices

Ambre Nicolle, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Munich

29 January 2020 | 12:30-14:00, Room W4.05, Cambridge Judge Business School

Evaluation of bidding groups in first price auctions

Christine Zulehner, Professor of Economics, University of Vienna

5 February 2020 | 12:30-13:30, Lecture Theatre 1, Cambridge Judge Business School

An aggregative games approach to merger analysis in multiproduct firm oligopoly

Nicolas Schutz, Professor of Economics, University of Mannheim

12 February 2020 | 12:30-13:30, Lecture Theatre 1, Cambridge Judge Business School

Natural monopoly in delivery services

Sean Ennis, Director, Centre for Competition Policy, Professor of Competition Policy, UEA Norwich Business School

19 February 2020 | 12:30-14:00, Room W2.01, Cambridge Judge Business School

Distracted from shopping: product design and advertisement with limited attention

Benson Tsz Kin Leung, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Cambridge

26 February 2020 | 12:00-13:30, Room W2.01, Cambridge Judge Business School

Shelving or developing? The acquisition of potential competitors under financial constraints

Massimo Motta, Professor of Economics, Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)

4 March 2020 | 12:30-14:00, Room KH107, Cambridge Judge Business School

The extensive margin of aggregate consumption demand

Andrea Pozzi, Associate Professor, Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance

11 March 2020 | 12:30-14:00 Room W4.05, Cambridge Judge Business School

Mergers and demand enhancing innovation

Yassine Lefouili, Assistant Professor, Toulouse School of Economics

2019

Lent term

30 January 2019 | 13:00-14:00, LT4, Cambridge Judge Business School

How well-targeted are soda taxes?

Professor Pierre Dubois, Toulouse School of Economics

6 February 2019 | 13:00-14:00, LT2, Cambridge Judge Business School

Mark-ups and concentration in the digital era

Chiara Criscuolo, OECD

13 February 2019 | 13:00-14:00, Lecture Theatre 4, Cambridge Judge Business School

Mental capabilities, heterogeneous trading patterns and performance in an experimental asset market

Dr Frédéric-Guillaume Schneider, Cambridge Judge Business School

20 February 2019 | 12:30-14:00, Room W2.01, Cambridge Judge Business School

Segmentation versus agglomeration: competition between platforms with competitive sellers

Professor Martin Peitz, University of Mannheim

27 February 2019 | 13:00-14:00, LT4, Cambridge Judge Business School

Market entry, fighting brands and tacit collusion: the case of the French mobile telecom market

Professor Frank Verboven, KU Leuven

6 March 2019 | 12:30-14:00, Room 107 (Keynes House), Cambridge Judge Business School

Regulatory in consumer search markets: the case of credit cards

Professor Alessandro Gavazza, London School of Economics

12 March 2019 | 12:30-14:00, Castle Teaching Room, Cambridge Judge Business School

Pass-through and firm behaviour in generalised economic models with an application to the trade cost puzzle of international trade

Professor Michal Fabinger, University of Tokyo

Easter term

2 May 2019 | 12:00-13:00, LT1, Cambridge Judge Business School

Targeted branding, price competition and consumer data 

Professor Lynne Pepall, Tufts University

8 May 2019 | 12:00-13:30, Room W2.01, Cambridge Judge Business School

Competition in the venture capital market and the success of startup companies: theory and evidence

Professor Konstantinos Serfes, Drexel University

Michaelmas term

7 October 2019 | 13:00-14:00, LT4, Cambridge Judge Business School

Data science: what is it not?

Professor Xiao-Li Meng, Harvard University

23 October 2019 | 13:00-14:00, LT4, Cambridge Judge Business School

From mad men to maths men: concentration and buyer power in online advertising

Dr Francesco Decarolis, Bocconi University

30 October 2019 | 13:30-14:30, LT4, Cambridge Judge Business School

Price or Variety? An Evaluation of Mergers Effects in Grocery Retailing

Professor Tomaso Duso, DIW Berlin

6 November 2019 | 13:00-14:00, LT4, Cambridge Judge Business School

Paying for what kind of performance? Performance pay, multitasking and sorting in mission-oriented jobs

Professor Michael Vlassopoulos, University of Southampton

13 November 2019 | 13:00-14:00, LT2, Cambridge Judge Business School

Common ownership, competition and top management incentives

Dr Martin Schmalz, Saïd Business School

20 November 2019 | 12:00-13:30, Room W4.05, Cambridge Judge Business School

Conflicts of interest, ethical rules and competition

Professor Jan Bouckaert, University of Antwerp

27 November 2019 | 12:00-13:30, Room W4.05, Cambridge Judge Business School

Long-term macroeconomic effects of climate change: a cross-country analysis

Dr Kamiar Mohaddes, Cambridge Judge Business School

4 December 2019 | 13:00-14:00, LT4, Cambridge Judge Business School

Insurance between firms: the role of internal labour markets

Dr Giacinta Cestone, Cass Business School

2018

Lent term

30 January 2018 | 17:00-18:30, Room W2.02, Cambridge Judge Business School

Pro-market regulatory reform: an applied method and impact analysis

Dr Sean Ennis, OECD Competition Division

6 February 2018 | 17:00-18:00, Room W2.02, Cambridge Judge Business School

Face-to-face communication in organisations

Dr Jordi Blanes i Vidal, London School of Economics

13 February 2018 | 17:30-18:30, Room KH107, Cambridge Judge Business School

Assessing the impact of mobile consolidation on innovation and quality

Serafino Abate, GSMA

20 February 2018 | 17:00-18:00, Room W2.01, Cambridge Judge Business School

Competition in London local bus tendering

Professor Michael Waterson, University of Warwick

27 February 2018  | 17:00-18:00, Fadi Boustany Lecture Theatre, Cambridge Judge Business School

Heterogeneous effects of performance pay with market competition: evidence from a randomised field experiment

Professor Tobias Kretschmer, LMU Munich

12 March 2018 | 17:00-18:00, Lecture Theatre 4, Cambridge Judge Business School

The law of large populations: the return of the long-ignored N and how it can affect our 2020 vision

Professor Xiao-Li Meng, Harvard University

13 March 2018 | 17:00-18:00, Room W2.02, Cambridge Judge Business School

Competition in a differentiated product market with individualised pricing: the case of the UK brick industry

Professor Howard Smith, Oxford University

Michaelmas term

9 October 2018 | 12:30-14:00, Room W2.02, Cambridge Judge Business School

Electric power distribution in the world: today and tomorrow

Dr Sinan Kufeoglu, Cambridge Judge Business School

10 October 2018 | 18:00-19:30, Ramsden Room, St Catharine’s College, University of Cambridge

Fiscal space: what have we learnt since the crises?

Professor Jagjit Chadha, National Institute of Economic and Social Research

17 October 2018 | 12:30-14:00, Room W4.05, Cambridge Judge Business School

Experience markets: an application to outsourcing and hiring

Dr Catherine Thomas, London School of Economics

23 October 2018 | 12:30-14:00, Keynes Room, Faculty of Economics

The technical, environmental and economic implications for power systems of phasing out coal and nuclear

Professor Pedro Linares, Comillas Pontifical University

24 October 2018 | 13:00-14:00, LT2, Cambridge Judge Business School

Competition and pass-through: evidence from the Greek islands

Dr Christos Genakos, Cambridge Judge Business School

31 October 2018 | 12:30-14:00, LT2, Cambridge Judge Business School

Multiproduct intermediaries

Dr Andrew Rhodes, Toulouse School of Economics

6 November 2018 | 12:30-14:00, Keynes Room, Faculty of Economics

The solar revolution: who made it happen?

Professor Felix Muesgens, Brandenburg University of Technology

7 November 2018 | 12:30-14:00, Fadi Boustany Lecture Theatre, Cambridge Judge Business School

Cheap trade credit and competition in downstream markets

Dr Emanuele Tarantino, University of Mannheim

14 November 2018 | 13:00-14:30, Room KH107, Cambridge Judge Business School

Competitive cross-subsidisation

Dr Patrick Rey, Toulouse School of Economics

21 November 2018 | 13:00-14:00, Fadi Boustany Lecture Theatre, Cambridge Judge Business School

Welfare effects of R&D support policies

Dr Otto Toivanen, Aalto University Business School

2017

Michaelmas term

17 October 2017 | 17:45-18:45, Lecture Theatre 1, Cambridge Judge Business School

Internet and politics: evidence from UK local elections and local government policies

Tommaso Valletti, Chief Competition Economist at the Directorate General for Competition, European Commission, and Professor of Economics at Imperial College Business School

24 October 2017 | 17:30-18:30, Lecture Theatre 2, Cambridge Judge Business School

The dynamics of technology adoption and vertical restraints: an empirical analysis

Professor Michelle Sovinsky, University of Mannheim

31 October 2017 | 17:30-18:30, Lecture Theatre 2, Cambridge Judge Business School

Carbon pricing and firm profits: theory and estimates for US airlines

Dr Robert Ritz, University of Cambridge

7 November 2017 | 17:30-19:00, Lecture Theatre 2, Cambridge Judge Business School

Heterogenous time preferences and hyperbolic discounting: evidence from the UK mortgage market

Dr Pasquale Schiraldi, London School of Economics

14 November 2017 | 18:00-19:30, Lecture Theatre 3, Cambridge Judge Business School

Incentives and rank concerns in managerial tournaments

Dr Julia Shvets, University of Cambridge

21 November 2017 | 17:30-19:00, Lecture Theatre 2, Cambridge Judge Business School

Do tax incentives for research increase firm innovation? An RD design for R&D

Dr Ralf Martin, Imperial College Business School

Easter term

17 May 2017 | 15:00-16:00, Room W2.02, Cambridge Judge Business School

The decline of science in corporate R&D

Dr Andrea Patacconi, Norwich Business School

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