Economics & Policy Subject Group

About the Group

The Economics & Policy group analyses how economics can improve economic growth and business performance; and how public policy can be improved to enhance economic growth, sustainability and the quality of life.

The group is concerned with a wide spectrum of challenges including: the creation, financing and growth of knowledge intensive businesses in both manufacturing and service sectors; management organisation and innovative business growth; how to improve innovation performance at company, sector, regional and national levels; how to understand and measure the impact of university research and government policy upon social and economic welfare; understanding university-industry knowledge exchange and the commercialisation of science; how modelling can contribute to policy decisions; developing econometric and statistical methods; decision-making under extreme uncertainty; theorising the nature and identity of different varieties of technology and developing the associated economic and organisational implications; and improving existing models of explanation in a management context; understanding the relationship between takeovers corporate governance and the innovative and financial performance of large and small business acquisitions.

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

• Decision-making under extreme uncertainty (Jochen Runde and Alberto Feduzi)
• Energy economics and policy (David Reiner and Michael Pollitt)
• Corporate governance, takeovers and executive pay (Alan Hughes, Andy Cosh and Panos Desyllas)
• Econometric and statistical methods (Paul Kattuman)
• Entrepreneurial finance and small business growth (Alan Hughes and Andy Cosh)
• Explanation in the social sciences (Jochen Runde)
• Innovation (Alan Hughes and Michael Kitson)
• Macroeconomic policy and performance (Michael Kitson)
• Policy evaluation: theory and methodology (Alan Hughes)
• Productivity measurement and the regulation of utilities (Michael Pollitt)
• Social ontology and the ontology of technology (Jochen Runde and Philip Faulkner)
• Science policy (Alan Hughes)
• The modelling of public policy, particularly concerning climate change (Chris Hope)

Members

• List alphabetically
• List by seniority

Publishing output

The members of the group publish in leading journals and also disseminate their work through other channels to ensure the maximum impact on policy and practice. The CBR, EPRG and UK-IRC also produce a range of publications and presentations which are available via their websites:

• Access publications from CBR
• Access publications from EPRG
• Access publications from UK-IRC

Seminars

Members of the Economics & Policy group organise a range of seminars, including:

• The Centre for Business Centre Seminar Series
• The Electricity Policy Research Group Seminar Series
• The St Catharine's Political Economy Seminars

Industry and policy engagement

The research of the group is informed and stimulated by regular interactions with a wide range of regional, national and international organisations such as: the European Union; the Department of Business Innovation and Skills; the US Environmental Protection Agency; the Department of Energy and Climate Change; and the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem). It provides advice and policy inputs at Prime Ministerial and Ministerial levels in the UK and abroad.

The group also 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 and CSIRO.

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.
• the Energy Policy Forum (EPF), which facilitates knowledge exchange between the Electricity Policy Research Group (EPRG) and a range of organisations including government departments, regulators, energy companies and consumer organisations.
• the UK Innovation Research Centre (UK-IRC), a collaboration between the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London that is undertaking cutting-edge research and knowledge exchange activities on how innovation can make businesses more competitive, improve public services delivery and help the UK meet its social, environmental and economic challenges.