Economics » News

Fear of retaliation keeps workplace sexual harassment largely unreported, Warwick study finds

Fri, 30 Oct 2026 15:55:33 GMT

On the day that employers face new responsibilities to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace, 91Ӱ��ƽ�� researchers warn that nearly half of women surveyed have experienced harassment at work during their careers.

In a new policy briefing, Professor Sonia Bhalotra and Dr Matthew Ridley reveal key findings from their research: workplace sexual harassment is common, carries costs for women’s health and working lives, and is rarely reported to employers.

In recent survey work carried out by Warwick and presented in the briefing, 45% of women said they had experienced workplace sexual harassment at some point in their careers. Among women who said they’d experienced harassment in the previous year, 52% feared their employer would retaliate if they reported it, and 33% said their harasser had some power over their future career. Only 18% said they had reported the incident to their employer.

The policy briefing comes as the legal duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment strengthens on 30 October. Employers previously needed to take some ‘reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment, but they will now be expected to take all reasonable steps with no exceptions.

The Warwick study also records harms reported by women who have experienced harassment in the previous year:

39% said it had worsened their mental health
48% found it harder to do their job,
37% said they were absent from work more often,
6% said they had quit their job as a result.

Across the women surveyed, 46% said they would accept a 10% pay cut to avoid a job where a recent incident of harassment had occurred.

Dr Matthew Ridley from 91Ӱ��ƽ��’s Department of Economics said:

“Our study makes clear that enforcing the law in this area is a real problem and that low reporting should not be mistaken for low levels of workplace harassment. Only 1 in 5 women who experience sexual harassment report it to their employer, and 1 in 2 fear that their employer would retaliate if they spoke up.

“Enforcing sexual harassment law often relies on people bringing cases against their employer in tribunal - but this is difficult to do. Our research shows that 1 in 3 women experiencing workplace sexual harassment are harassed by someone with power over their career. The new law has added legal liability on employers but how much difference will that make in practice if victims feel they can't come forward to report what is happening to them?”

The Warwick study also found gaps in knowledge of legal rights: 26% of respondents did not know that employers could be liable for sexual harassment at work, while 56% incorrectly believed a person had to prove harassment beyond reasonable doubt for an employer to take action.

Dr Ridley continues, “People often don't know their own legal rights which makes it difficult to navigate the tribunal system. Our study shows that when members of the public learn about these barriers, support for stronger enforcement of sexual harassment law increases significantly.”

Professor Sonia Bhalotra added: “Nearly half of the women in our survey said they would accept a 10% pay cut to avoid a job where a recent incident of sexual harassment had occurred. That is a striking signal of the value people place on a safe workplace. Alongside the effects that victims are reporting on their health, attendance and ability to work, it shows why preventing harassment matters to employers as well as to workers.”

Notes

The research is by Professor Sonia Bhalotra and Dr Matthew Ridley. Perceptions of Workplace Sexual Harassment and Support for Policy Action, CAGE Working Paper No. 797/2026, conditionally accepted at the Journal of Political Economy: Microeconomics.
The 45% lifetime estimate comes from the study’s benchmark survey, which included 408 women. The figures on reported harms, fear of retaliation, perceived career power and reporting refer to women who said they had experienced harassment in the previous year; each of those measures is based on 43 responses. The 46% pay-cut figure was measured among all women in the benchmark survey.
The wider research included a main survey of 6,000 participants and a follow-up survey.
The survey measured participants’ reported experiences and perceptions; the reported harms are self-reported.
ACAS guidance on the law change: https://www.acas.org.uk/employment-rights-act-2025/harassment-law-changes/sexual-harassment

Party leaders widening Washington’s political chasm

Thu, 29 Oct 2026 11:09:41 GMT

Increasing political polarization is widely regarded as one of the most significant issues in contemporary politics, with the upcoming U.S. midterm elections expected to provide a key indication of the extent of partisan division on Capitol Hill.

Polarization in congressional behaviour is seen when politicians from different parties increasingly vote differently from each other, and more like other members of their own party.

Problematic consequences can include legislation being obstructed, holding up necessary economic or social reforms, or gridlock, when new policies or bills cannot be agreed upon and so fail to pass.

Previous studies have established that polarization in roll-call voting in the US Congress is "U-shaped": it is high now and it was so in the early 20th century, but reached its lowest points in the mid-century/1960s. This shape is closely associated with economic inequality, which seems to follow the same pattern.

But what influences politicians away from cross-party co-operation?

Most of the polarization currently roiling Congress is driven by political parties, as opposed to individual politicians, according to a new study co-authored by Professor Nathan Canen, Dr Chad Kendall (Associate Professor, University of Miami Business School) and Professor Francesco Trebbi (University of California, Berkeley).

In Political Parties as Drivers of U.S. Polarization: 1927-2018, forthcoming in the Journal of Political Economy, the researchers explore what contribution pressure from a legislator’s political party makes to their decision making – are they increasingly required to toe the party line in legislative voting? – and find that the U-shape in congressional behaviour is driven by the strength of party pressure, rather than due to personal political differences.

Professor Canen explains why this is important: “Our most significant policies are often written and approved by politicians in legislatures. But if desirable bills or reforms fail, there can be negative economic, financial and social outcomes. Do bills fail because individual representatives take an ideological position? Or are there other explanations?

“If we want to understand and improve politics, we need to understand what influences politicians to take the positions they do. If polarisation is mainly down to individuals, that would suggest one set of actions, but if it is something about the legislature, then we may want to think about institutional reform.

“To answer these questions we set out to examine these mechanisms and establish how much each “lever” matters quantitatively.”

Dr Kendall describes this as "how much of the way politicians vote is driven by what they think," versus what their political party is "telling them to do."

The researchers studied the votes that congressional politicians made during roll calls, then compared those votes with the positions advocated by party leadership.

"The main takeaway is that political parties play a major role in polarizing members of Congress," Dr Kendall said. "And perhaps more concerning, the role of parties has been increasing steadily since the late 1980s.

“Anecdotally, the more that this continues, and the more that the parties continue to oppose each other — while getting better and better at disciplining their members — the more that nothing gets done. It's getting impossible to pass anything, and this is commonly referred to as 'gridlock.'"

The study also revealed that a fair number of congressional members would gladly embrace centrist positions if left to their own devices.

"There are Republicans that ideologically look identical to Democrats," Dr Kendall explains. "The reason they vote differently is because their parties are telling them to. And if you think of policy implications, the implication would be, well, if we want to undo some of this polarization, we need to think about ways of limiting party power."

This story is adapted with kind permission from an article first published by the University of Miami Business School, available here.

Expert Comment: CenTax reaction to Budget 2026

Thu, 29 Oct 2026 10:36:00 GMT

Professor Arun Advani, Director of CenTax and Professor of Economics at the 91Ӱ��ƽ�� said:

"As expected, this was a “small” budget. Small because forecasts for debt, deficit, overall tax and government spending are relatively unchanged. But also because, although there were many tax measures announced today, they were largely focused on patching up the existing system rather than solving underlying problems.

"The Chancellor also chose to increase tax complexity. Having explained that Business Asset Disposal Relief (BADR) was ineffective, he nevertheless chose to partially retain it, restricting it only enough to pay for the newly announced Founders’ Relief. Rather than having a clear administrative principle that small amounts of tax should be exempt from Self Assessment and covering these with a general relief, he added a new Pensions Tax Allowance and expanded the Trading Allowance. These will sit alongside separate allowances for property income, savings, dividends and Capital Gains Tax.

"This Budget also highlighted the costs of poor data quality within government. The desire to keep pensioners out of Self Assessment reporting for trivial amounts of tax is understandable, but a relief would not be needed if the DWP had the information needed to directly operate PAYE withholding. The information needed to target energy support based on household income and energy needs – instead of property value in 1991 – already exists across government but has not been adequately linked up. These problems were visible during the COVID-19 pandemic and when energy bill support was provided in 2022, but the government has continued not to invest in the underlying data infrastructure that would allow better targeting of policy.

"After last year’s Budget, we wrote that “For a government that’s supposedly obsessed with growth, we seem no closer to the realisation that our broken tax system is part of the UK’s growth problem, and that major structural reforms – not just rate-changes or more bolt-ons – are needed to fix it. Overall, the tax changes announced today are unlikely to move the needle on growth much one way or the other.” Despite the changes at the top of government, this year the picture looks much the same.”

Visit the CenTax website for more detailed analysis of the measures announced yesterday by Chancellor John Healey.

Warwick Economics alumnus awarded UK Finance Top Student Award 2026

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 09:43:00 GMT

We were delighted to hear that Warrick Scaife (BSc Economics, 2024), a graduate of the Department of Economics, received the UK Finance Top Student Award 2026 at the UK Finance Annual Awards Dinner on 10 September. The award recognises the student who achieves the highest marks in UK Finance examinations during the preceding year.

Since graduating, Warrick has built experience across several areas of business and finance. After initially joining Amazon as a Business Analyst, he moved to Lloyds Banking Group in September 2025 to join its Business and Commercial Banking Graduate Scheme. Through rotations in Invoice Finance Sales, Financial Markets and, most recently, Mid Market Credit, he has gained experience spanning client relationships, financial markets and credit risk.

Warrick's connection with Warwick began long before he enrolled as an undergraduate. Having attended The Westwood Academy in Coventry, he participated in several of the University's outreach programmes, including mathematics days and English Literature workshops. He subsequently completed the Sutton Trust's Pathways to Banking and Finance programme, which helped pave the way for his undergraduate studies and later involvement as a Warwick Scholar.

We asked Warrick about his experience since graduating from Warwick and this is what he said:

Your Warwick experience

How did your time studying Economics at Warwick shape the way you approach your current role?
Studying Economics at Warwick strengthened my analytical and critical-thinking skills, which are particularly valuable in credit risk, where you need to assess financial information, challenge assumptions and identify anything that doesn't quite add up. Modules such as EC226, alongside quantitative and programming work, helped me develop the ability to work confidently with data and interpret results effectively.

Beyond the technical skills, Warwick also encouraged a mindset of curiosity and persistence. Economics students are taught to look beyond the obvious answer, question their assumptions and work through complex problems. I have found that approach just as valuable in the workplace as the technical knowledge I gained during my degree.

How did studying economics at Warwick equip you with the analytical and professional foundations that helped you stand out at Lloyds Banking Group?
One of the most valuable skills I developed at Warwick was learning to question results rather than simply accept them. Modules such as EC346 encouraged me to challenge assumptions, consider alternative explanations and think critically about the conclusions drawn from data. These skills are particularly important when assessing business risks and making informed decisions.

My quantitative foundations were strengthened through EC226 and EC350 (Data Science), while EC333 and other industrial economics modules helped me understand financial markets and the economic forces that influence them. Together, these modules gave me a strong grounding in both analytical thinking and economic theory, allowing me to pick up new concepts quickly and apply them throughout my placements at Lloyds.

In what ways did Warwick’s academic environment shape your ambition for the finance sector?
Before coming to Warwick, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in finance, but studying Economics there helped raise my ambitions and gave me a clearer idea of what I wanted to achieve. From the first term, I was surrounded by people who were motivated, curious and willing to challenge themselves. Conversations with peers often centred on career aspirations and the steps we could take to achieve them.

Being part of that environment encouraged me to think more ambitiously about my own future. It also showed me the value of being proactive, seeking out opportunities and learning from the people around me.

Were there particular modules, projects, or mentors at Warwick that had a lasting impact on your professional direction?
EC333 was a particular highlight, especially the topics covering options and derivatives. These sparked my interest in financial markets and contributed to my decision to return to that area during my second placement at Lloyds.

Another meaningful experience was the Secondary Maths Teaching module, which connected closely with my involvement in Warwick in Africa and reinforced how much I enjoy education and widening participation. The experience had a lasting impact on me, both personally and in how I think about creating opportunities for others.

I was also fortunate to have a mentor at Lloyds who had studied at Warwick. Their ambition, drive and support played an important role in helping me settle into my summer internship in 2023, after my second year. Having someone who understood both the university experience and the transition into banking was incredibly valuable.

Tell us about your work within Widening Participation (Warwick Scholars) as a mentor and how this has shaped your career choices.
Widening participation has been one of the most rewarding parts of my time at Warwick. Through the Warwick Scholars programme, I mentored students as they navigated university life and thought about their future careers, including an Economics student who has since gone on to work at Citi.

I also supported students through Pathways to Banking and Finance and worked across seven widening participation summer schools. These experiences gave me the opportunity to help students access opportunities that might otherwise have felt out of reach.

Having benefited from widening participation initiatives myself, I understand the difference that encouragement, guidance and access to the right opportunities can make. These experiences have reinforced my belief that talent exists everywhere, but opportunity does not always follow. Helping to bridge that gap is something I hope to continue throughout my career.

Were you involved in the work of student societies at Warwick? How important was it for building your confidence and for job hunting?
In my second year, I helped organise Warwick Economics Society tours to Bristol and Barcelona. I really enjoyed the experience, particularly the planning and coordination involved in bringing everything together.

Organising these trips helped me develop my communication, teamwork and organisational skills, as well as giving me practical examples to draw on during interviews. It also gave me the confidence to take responsibility for projects beyond my academic work and showed me the value of getting involved in university life outside the lecture theatre.

Looking back, what skills and knowledge developed at Warwick have proved most valuable in your career so far?
Above all, Warwick Economics helped develop my ambition, drive and willingness to challenge myself. The Department fostered a culture of academic excellence that encouraged me to aim high, work consistently towards my goals and keep looking for ways to improve.

The technical knowledge I gained has been valuable, but the mindset I developed alongside it has been just as important. Being willing to persevere when something is difficult, question what I don't understand and keep learning has helped me make the most of the opportunities I've had since graduating.

Professional insights and career journey so far

Can you tell us about your current or previous roles and what a typical day looks like for you?
My graduate scheme at Lloyds has given me the opportunity to experience several different areas of commercial banking, each offering a different perspective on how banks support businesses.

My first rotation was in Invoice Finance Sales, where I worked with small and medium-sized businesses and gained exposure to client relationships and funding solutions. Working in this area helped me develop my commercial awareness and understand how businesses manage their cash flow, access finance and support their growth.

My second rotation was in Financial Markets, which connected closely with my Economics degree. I gained experience in analysing market developments, interpreting economic data and supporting client communications around risks such as foreign exchange and interest rates. It was particularly interesting to see how economic developments translate into practical decisions for businesses managing financial uncertainty.

I am now in Mid Market Credit, where my work focuses on assessing the creditworthiness of medium-sized businesses and supporting lending decisions. This involves detailed financial analysis, evaluating risks and challenging assumptions to build a clear picture of a business's financial position and prospects.

Each rotation has helped me develop a different set of skills, and together they have given me a broader understanding of commercial banking, from understanding a client's needs to assessing the risks involved in providing finance.

How do you see the banking and finance sector evolving, and what excites you most about being part of that change?
Automation and artificial intelligence are already changing how banks operate, creating opportunities to streamline processes, improve efficiency and make better use of data.

What excites me most is the potential for these developments to give people more time to focus on the parts of banking where human judgement and relationships matter most. Understanding a client's business, navigating complex decisions and providing advice that reflects their long-term objectives are all areas where people can add significant value.

As someone at the beginning of my career, I find it exciting to be entering an industry that is evolving so quickly. I want to keep developing my technical knowledge while learning how to use new tools effectively, so that I can help clients navigate uncertainty and make informed financial decisions.

Your recent UK Finance recognition

What were the UK Finance exams you took and why were they important to you?
The UK Finance examinations were an important part of my professional development at Lloyds, helping me build my technical knowledge while balancing study alongside a demanding full-time role.

Preparing for the exams required discipline, consistency and careful time management. Completing them was rewarding in itself, as it gave me the opportunity to consolidate what I had learnt and demonstrate my understanding of the material. The experience also reinforced the importance of maintaining a commitment to learning alongside the day-to-day demands of work.

What does receiving the UK Finance Top Student Award mean to you?
Receiving the UK Finance Top Student Award is a milestone I am incredibly proud of, both personally and professionally. It recognises the work I put into studying alongside my role at Lloyds and is a great reflection of the effort that went into preparing for the examinations.

It is particularly rewarding to have that work recognised so early in my career. The award has given me confidence in what I can achieve through consistent effort, while motivating me to keep learning and building on that foundation. I am grateful to everyone who has supported me along the way.

What aspects of your Warwick experience do you feel most directly contributed to your success in receiving the UK Finance Top Student Award?
I think Warwick helped me develop the discipline and perseverance that contributed to this achievement. My degree was demanding, particularly in my second year, and taught me how to manage a heavy workload, stay focused under pressure and keep working towards a goal even when things became challenging.

Those habits have carried over into my professional life. Balancing work and study required a similar level of organisation and commitment, and I drew on the same approach I had developed at university: breaking down a challenging task, putting in consistent effort and taking responsibility for the outcome.

Reflections and advice to current students

What advice would you give to current Warwick Economics students who aspire to careers in banking and financial services?
My advice would be to start exploring opportunities early, be intentional about what you apply for and focus on roles that genuinely interest you. It is worth taking the time to understand the different areas of banking and finance, as the industry offers a much wider range of careers than you might initially expect.

At the same time, don't be discouraged if you don't secure your ideal role straight after university. There are many routes into the industry, and careers rarely follow a single, predictable timeline. Focus on building your skills, making the most of the opportunities available to you and staying open to possibilities you might not have considered before.

Most importantly, don't underestimate the value of experiences outside your degree. Getting involved in societies, mentoring others or taking on additional responsibilities can help you develop skills that are just as valuable in the workplace as your academic knowledge.

If you could share one lesson you’ve learned since graduating, what would it be?
One of the biggest lessons I've learnt is that your career is only one part of your life. It is easy to become caught up in targets, achievements and the next opportunity, particularly when you are surrounded by ambitious people.

While having goals and working hard towards them is important, I think it is equally important to invest in your relationships, interests and personal development outside work. Becoming a well-rounded person, rather than focusing solely on career progression, will ultimately make for a more fulfilling life.

What message would you share with prospective students considering Warwick Economics?
I loved my time studying Economics at Warwick, and I would choose it again without hesitation. The Department offers an excellent combination of academic rigour, opportunities to explore your interests and a community of people who encourage you to challenge yourself.

My advice would be to make the most of everything Warwick has to offer, both inside and outside the classroom. Take on opportunities that interest you, try things you haven't done before and make the most of the people you meet along the way. You don't need to have everything figured out when you arrive. If you approach your time at Warwick with curiosity and an open mind, it can be an incredibly rewarding experience.

We are grateful to Warrick for reflecting on his journey and are delighted to celebrate his achievements. We wish him every success for the future.

Three-year study of 19 million planning applications is changing the picture of England’s housing pipeline

Tue, 27 Oct 2026 16:02:00 GMT

A three-year study of 19 million planning applications is changing our understanding of England’s housing pipeline.
The new dataset reveals fewer distinct proposed homes than government figures suggest, alongside a much stronger upturn in 2025.
The increase follows a decade of decline from a peak in 2014 and comes after changes to England’s national planning rules in December 2024.
While the findings do not establish that the reforms caused the rebound, they suggest a stronger upturn in proposals than previously reported.

Researchers at the 91Ӱ��ƽ�� today release the first findings from Housing Pipeline, a new dataset that connects applications, revisions and phases belonging to the same development.

The project is needed because official planning figures are not designed to track the number of homes entering the planning system over time, and this has substantial implications for how we understand future supply.

By following individual projects across years, Dr Nikhil Datta and Dr Amrita Kulka’s dataset can distinguish new housing proposals from repeated applications for the same homes.

The first findings, released today in a briefing note, show that government figures for homes proposed through outline applications were, on average, 43% higher than the researchers’ estimates over 2022–2025.

The new data also reveals a sharper recent recovery: proposed homes rose by 107% in 2025, compared with 59% in the government series.

The briefing note published today is the first in a series of studies using the new dataset. Dr Datta and Dr Kulka say their next steps are to examine where delays occur, how developments change as they move through the planning system, and how often planning permissions translate into completed homes.

Dr Kulka comments:

“Given the severity of the housing crisis there is a need to understand which policies move housing supply. Yet, counting how many homes are being applied for is difficult due to the complexity of planning records. We have spent over three years collecting new data and developing methods to accurately measure applied-for units which are the foundation of future homes."

Dr Datta adds:

“Planning records were created to administer applications, not for tracking housing statistics and turning them into something reliable requires substantial work. We spent three years combining state-of-the-art machine learning and AI tools with thousands of hours of human checking to reconstruct and track individual developments from start to finish.”

If we cannot reliably count the distinct homes entering the planning system, it becomes much harder to judge whether reforms are working or understand where housing delivery is falling short. Reliable measurement needs to be the starting point.”

Improving the Accuracy of Housing Supply Data from Planning Applications. Edoardo Badii, Nikhil Datta and Amrita Kulka. CAGE Policy Brief, October 2026,

New network for behavioural and environmental economists launched with workshop

Tue, 27 Oct 2026 11:54:00 GMT

A new network for researchers and practitioners working on behavioural and environmental economics with a policy focus held its inaugural workshop in London last month.

The Behavioural Environmental Economics and Policy (BEEP) initiative has been created by Dr Lory Barile and Dr Sanchayan Banerjee (KCL).

They wanted to create a space where behavioural and environmental economists, practitioners and policymakers can come together to exchange ideas, develop collaborations and contribute to the growing research agenda at the intersection of behavioural economics, environmental economics and policy.

Dr Barile explains:

“I’m incredibly proud to have co-founded BEEP and to see something that started as a conversation between two colleagues growing into a community.

“BEEP reflects my long-standing academic interest in this field, going back to my PhD more than 15 years ago. At that time the intersection of behavioural economics, environmental economics and policy was much less prominent than it is today.

“Sanchayan and I have been developing the BEEP concept for four years. Seeing our idea come to life, with close to 70 colleagues joining us at King's, was incredibly rewarding.

“We are now looking forward to developing BEEP further and to our first annual conference next year.”

Co-founder Dr. Banerjee said:

“I’m really thrilled to have kicked off BEEP (Behavioural Environmental Economics and Policy) with Lory Barile at King’s College London!

“BEEP has been a thriving subfield for nearly five decades, but it’s never really had a home of its own. We think it’s time to change that: to come together as a community, learn from each other, and create space for younger colleagues to grow.

“We were proud to host the first BEEP workshop at King’s, and we’ll be hosting the first annual BEEP conference there in 2027, after which it will rotate with Warwick. Our hope is that BEEP builds bridges across disciplines and helps us better understand how behavioural insights can tackle our most pressing environmental challenges. If this is your area, we’d love to have you involved!”

Workshop delegates enjoyed keynote addresses from Professor Leonhard Lades (University of Stirling) and Professor Lorraine Whitmarsh (University of Bath), as well as the opportunity to make new contacts.

The workshop was co-sponsored by the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (JEEM) and by the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE).

If you'd like to register interest in joining the network, please email Dr. Sanchayan Banerjee and Dr. Lory Barile .

Warwick Economics co-hosts leading international conference on religion, economics and culture

Tue, 27 Oct 2026 11:02:00 GMT

Leading scholars from around the world gathered at the 91Ӱ��ƽ��’s Venice Centre for ASREC Europe 2026, a major international conference exploring the connections between religion, economics, culture and society.

The two-day conference, held on 25-26 September at Warwick’s Palazzo Giustinian Lolin on the Grand Canal, was organised by Professor Sascha Becker of the 91Ӱ��ƽ�� and Associate Professor Valeria Rueda of the University of Nottingham.

A highlight of the programme was a keynote lecture by Joel Mokyr, winner of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, who spoke on Religious Tolerance and Diversity.

The conference featured two further keynote speakers. Saumitra Jha (Stanford University), who spoke on The Making and Breaking of Religious Tolerance, and Mara Squicciarini (Bocconi University) who presented research on De-Polarizing Politics: Jesuit-Educated MPs in the French Third Republic.

Alongside the keynote lectures, 48 papers were presented across 12 thematic sessions. The programme showcased the breadth of new research in the field, covering topics including migration and assimilation, diversity and backlash, nation-building and identity, religion and fertility, innovation, the diffusion of ideas, gender and social norms, state formation and ethnic conflict, and the relationship between markets and cultural change.

Professor Becker said:

My co-organizer Valeria Rueda and I were delighted to host this extraordinary group of scholars, bringing together economics, economic history and political economy with questions about religion and culture. The discussions were every bit as stimulating as the papers themselves.

Having three such outstanding keynote speakers, including Nobel Laureate Joel Mokyr, made the meeting particularly special. And it is difficult to imagine a better setting for these conversations than Warwick’s Venice Centre. Looking out onto the Grand Canal between sessions certainly added something unique to the conference.

Professor Bryan Brazeau, Director of the Warwick Venice Centre, added:

We are thrilled to have been able to host ASREC Europe 2026 to the Warwick Venice Centre. We were particularly honoured to have been able to welcome Nobel Laureate Joel Mokyr as part of the conference. This high-calibre conference demonstrates how the WVC operates as a global intellectual crossroads: a site for collaboration and interdisciplinary scholarship, bringing together the groundbreaking research of Warwick academics, their colleagues, and their professional networks in an extraordinary venue.

The conference was the European meeting of the Association for the Study of Religion, Economics, and Culture (ASREC), an international association bringing together researchers interested in the economic and social dimensions of religion and culture.

How Warwick Shaped My Journey as an Economist: Professor Rigissa Megalokonomou

Thu, 22 Oct 2026 14:08:00 GMT

From Warwick PhD student to Professor of Economics at Monash University, Rigissa Mehalokonomou has built an international academic career researching education, labour markets and gender gaps in STEM. Recently recognised as a Monash 70th Anniversary Fellow, she reflects on her journey, research and lasting connection to Warwick.

Profile

Professor of Economics, Monash University
Warwick PhD graduate (2016)
Monash 70th Anniversary Fellow
Research affiliate of CESifo and IZA
Research interests: Education, Labour and Migration Economics

Introduction

When Rigissa Megalokonomou arrived at Warwick to begin her PhD in Economics, she knew she wanted to deepen her understanding of economics and explore research more seriously. What she could not have predicted was that, a decade later, she would be a Full Professor of Economics at Monash University in Melbourne, leading a research team and receiving recognition as a Monash 70th Anniversary Fellow.

Since graduating from Warwick in 2016, Rigissa has built an internationally recognised research career spanning education, labour and migration economics. Her work has examined some of the most important questions facing society today, including educational inequality, teacher bias, gender gaps in STEM and how people’s early experiences shape later opportunities and outcomes.

In this alumni spotlight, Rigissa reflects on the mentors and experiences that shaped her at Warwick, the challenges and opportunities that defined her career journey, and the research questions that continue to drive her work. She also shares advice for current and prospective PhD students and early-career researchers considering a future in academia.

“My PhD training at Warwick taught me to be ambitious about the questions I ask but also disciplined about how I answer them.”

In this interview

Jump to section

Recognition and reflection

Q: What did the recognition mean to you?
It was a genuinely moving recognition. The Fellowship was conferred by the Vice-Chancellor’s Group and announced across the University, and it recognises not just individual papers but a sustained research agenda. I was part of the inaugural cohort of 123 Fellows recognised across education, research, and commercialisation & enterprise, from a university community of roughly 15,000 staff. It also made me reflect on the journey—from arriving at Warwick as a PhD student to now leading a research team at Monash. Honours like this are never individual achievements; they reflect the wonderful co-authors, students, and mentors who have been part of the journey.

Q: Did it make you reflect on your journey from Warwick PhD to Professor at Monash University?
Absolutely. It is quite remarkable to look back and realise how much has happened in just ten years since completing my PhD at Warwick. The journey has been much less linear than it might appear on a CV, with a move from Europe to Australia, new research directions, setbacks, and many unexpected opportunities along the way. When I arrived at Warwick as a PhD student, I certainly could not have imagined that ten years later I would be a Full Professor leading a research team on the other side of the world. It made me appreciate how much of where I am today was shaped by the training, people, and experiences I had at Warwick.

Why Warwick?

Q: Can you tell us about your journey to Warwick and what first attracted you to pursue a PhD in Economics here?
When I was considering PhD programmes, I knew that I wanted to deepen my understanding of economics and explore research more seriously, but I did not yet have a clear idea of where that would ultimately take me. Warwick stood out because of the strength and international reputation of its Economics Department, as well as the combination of rigorous economics training and a very active research environment. Coming to Warwick ultimately gave me much more than technical training - it was where I really learned what it meant to think and work as a researcher, and where an academic career gradually became something, I could see myself pursuing.

Mentors and PhD experience

Q: Looking back on your time at Warwick, what are your strongest memories of being a PhD student in the Department of Economics?
What I remember most is the intellectual environment, the constant exposure to new ideas, excellent seminars, and conversations with people doing very different kinds of economics. I also remember the friendships and the strong sense of community among PhD students; many of the people I met at Warwick remain close friends and colleagues today. It was an intense period, but also an incredibly formative and enjoyable one, both professionally and personally.

Q: Were there any academics, mentors or fellow students at Warwick who had a particularly significant influence on your development as a researcher?
Absolutely. I was extraordinarily lucky with mentors at Warwick. My supervisors were Victor Lavy, who introduced me to the economics of education and remains a close collaborator to this day - we have published together, continue to work on new papers, and he has even visited me in Australia twice, and Fabian Waldinger, who helped me enormously during my PhD and set the bar extremely high; I still hear his standards in my head when I write. Sascha Becker has been a mentor ever since Warwick and is now both a co-author and, wonderfully, a colleague at Monash, while Dan Bernhardt, as Placement Director, guided me through all difficult career decisions - advice I still draw on now that I serve as Placement Director at Monash myself. Looking back,

Warwick taught me that becoming a researcher is very much a collective process, shaped as much by the people around you as by the formal training you receive.

Q: How did your PhD training at Warwick help shape the way you approach research and academic life today?
My PhD training at Warwick taught me to be ambitious about the questions I ask but also disciplined about how I answer them. I learned to think carefully about identification, to invest in collecting new data when existing data could not answer the question, and to expose my work to feedback early and often. Being surrounded by people approaching economics in very different ways also taught me to remain open to new methods and ideas. Just as importantly, I learned to be patient and resilient as good research often takes much longer than you expect, and setbacks are part of the process. Those lessons still shape how I approach research and academic life today.

Building an international academic career

Q: Since completing your PhD, you’ve built an impressive international academic career. What have been some of the key milestones along the way?
After completing my PhD, I moved to Australia to take up a position at the University of Queensland, where I was promoted from Lecturer to Senior Lecturer before being recruited to Monash University as an Associate Professor in 2023. A defining milestone was winning a solo ARC Discovery Project grant, one of Australia's most competitive research schemes, to lead a major research programme on women in STEM as sole investigator. Earlier this year I was promoted to Full Professor, and I was also named one of just 123 Monash 70th Anniversary Fellows selected from a university of some 15,000 staff - in recognition of research excellence. But perhaps the achievement that means the most is less visible on a CV: building, from the ground up, my own research agenda, a network of long-term international collaborations, and a team of around fifteen researchers: PhD students, pre-doctoral fellows, and research assistants - working on questions I care deeply about.

Q: You are now a Professor at Monash University and a research affiliate of CESifo and IZA. What aspects of your current role do you find most rewarding?
The most rewarding part for me is the research. I love the process of developing a new idea - starting with an interesting question, figuring out how to answer it convincingly, and then seeing where the evidence leads. The early stages of a project, when you are exchanging ideas with co-authors and discovering something unexpected, are especially exciting. I also really value the freedom that academia gives me to keep exploring new questions and moving into new areas.

That constant opportunity to learn, collaborate, and pursue ideas that can have real-world impact is what I find most rewarding about my role.

Q: What has surprised you most about your career path since graduating from Warwick?
If you had told me when I graduated from Warwick that I would become a Professor of Economics in Australia, I am not sure I would have believed you! At the time, I was much more focused on the immediate next step - getting my first academic job, finishing papers, and establishing myself as a researcher. It is only looking back that I can see how all those relatively small steps accumulated into a career that has taken me much further than I imagined at the time.

Research and impact

Q: What research did you do for your PhD at Warwick?
My PhD was in applied microeconomics, focusing primarily on questions in the economics of education. I became particularly interested in understanding how educational environments and institutions affect people's choices and their later outcomes. Many of the questions that interested me then - about human capital, inequality and how early experiences shape later trajectories - continue to run through my research today.

Q: Your recent research focuses on education, labour and migration economics. What drew you to these areas, and why do you think they matter today?
What attracts me to these areas is that they allow us to study decisions that have enormous consequences for people’s human capital development and future opportunities: what degree they study, what careers they pursue, and how they respond to the choices available to them. Small differences early in life can accumulate into very large differences in educational attainment, earnings and wellbeing. Understanding where those differences come from is essential if we want to design policies that expand opportunities and ensure that people’s trajectories are shaped by their potential.

Q: Much of your work uses large administrative datasets and innovative research methods to study people’s behaviour and decision-making. What excites you most about this type of research?
What excites me most is collecting novel data and finding new ways to answer questions that we could not answer before. That is really what gets me out of bed in the morning as a researcher. This started during my PhD at Warwick, when I personally visited around 150 high schools in Greece to collect data and then returned for follow-up data collections over several years. I remember my supervisors asking me to keep a piece of paper outside my office where I would update the number of schools I had collected data from - it became a running count of my progress! It was incredibly challenging, but also one of the most rewarding parts of my PhD, and it taught me both how valuable it can be to build your own data from the ground up and how much patience and persistence good research can require. I still get the same excitement today from creating new datasets, combining different sources of information, and using them to uncover patterns that we have not been able to observe before.

Q: Is there particular research finding from your work that has had the greatest impact on policy, practice or public debate?
One finding that has had a particularly strong impact comes from our work on gender bias among teachers. Victor Lavy and I show that teachers can evaluate boys and girls differently even when their underlying performance is similar, and that these biases can have long-lasting effects on educational choices and participation in STEM. The work received considerable public attention, including coverage in VoxEU and a public event and video produced with the Women in Economics Network and the Economic Society of Australia, and led to direct engagement with schools and other organisations. More broadly, it has become part of a larger strand of my research on the factors shaping gender gaps in STEM and how educational environments can help reduce them.

Women in Economics and STEM

Q: Many of your recent studies have examined gender gaps and pathways into STEM. What are some of the most important lessons emerging from this research?
A lesson from my research is that small differences in experiences early in education can accumulate into much larger differences in later choices. Girls and boys may perform similarly, but differences in how they are evaluated, who they see succeeding around them, or how they assess their own strengths can gradually push them towards different educational paths. This means that by the time we observe a gender gap in university STEM enrolment, some of the forces behind it have been operating for years. Understanding when these gaps first emerge, and which experiences reinforce or reduce them, is therefore crucial for designing effective interventions.

Q: We would like to attract more female PhD students in Economics at Warwick. What advice would you give us? What interventions would be of particular importance for us to introduce?
I would think about the entire pipeline rather than recruitment to the PhD programme alone. By the time students are deciding whether to apply for a PhD, many of the relevant choices have already been made.

Women need to be able to see themselves succeeding in economics.

My own research has made me particularly conscious of the importance of role models and of the signals students receive about whether they belong in a field. I would therefore invest in visible female role models but also create meaningful opportunities for female students to interact with faculty, PhD students, and researchers at earlier stages of their studies. Mentoring programmes, research assistantships, research events aimed at undergraduate and Master's students, and direct encouragement from faculty could all be valuable.

Teaching and mentoring

Q: What’s the most rewarding part of teaching?
I teach programme design and evaluation, and the most rewarding part is a shift that happens somewhere around mid-semester. Students often come in taking evidence at face value, and then at some point they start pushing back: Compared to what? Who actually ended up in this programme, and who didn't? Would we find the same thing if we ran it again? Once they start asking those questions, they don't stop - and they take that way of thinking with them into government, consulting, research, and whatever they do next. That's the real payoff for me: not just teaching them how to evaluate a programme but changing the way they think about evidence and the quality of the decisions they make long after the course is over.

Q: How do you balance research with teaching?
I try not to think of research and teaching as separate activities. My research often provides examples for the classroom, while teaching forces me to explain ideas clearly and sometimes make me see familiar research questions differently. In practical terms, I try to protect blocks of uninterrupted time for research, although I am not sure I would ever claim to have found the perfect balance!

Future research and AI

Q: What motivates you as a researcher, and what questions are you most excited to explore in the years ahead?
I am most motivated by questions where economics can help us understand why people with similar potential end up on very different trajectories. I remain particularly interested in how we can reduce inequalities in access to and outcomes in higher education, and in understanding the impacts and mechanisms of teacher biases. More recently, I have become very interested in how new technologies, particularly AI, are changing education and decision-making. We are at a particularly exciting moment because these technologies are changing behaviour much faster than we currently understand their consequences, creating a whole new set of questions for researchers.

Advice for PhD students and early career researchers

Q: What advice would you give to current Warwick PhD students and early-career researchers who hope to follow a similar academic path?
Choose questions you genuinely care about, because good research almost always takes much longer than you expect. Be ambitious about the questions you ask and seek feedback early. Most importantly, learn to become resilient. Academia involves a lot of rejection—papers will be rejected, grant applications will fail, and ideas you are excited about will sometimes go nowhere. That is a normal part of the process, and you have to learn to keep going. Some of the projects I am most proud of went through multiple rounds of rejection and reinvention before finding their place. And try not to compare your timeline too closely with those of others; academic careers rarely develop in a straight line.

Staying connected to Warwick

Q: What does being part of the Warwick Economics alumni community mean to you today?
Warwick is where I learned how to become an economist, so I still feel a strong connection to the Department. It is particularly nice now to encounter Warwick economists around the world as collaborators, colleagues, conference participants and former classmates, and to feel that I remain part of that community many years after leaving. There is something very special about meeting another Warwick economist somewhere in the world and immediately having that shared connection.

We are grateful to Rigissa for taking the time to reflect on her journey from Warwick PhD student to Professor at Monash University. We wish her continued success in her research, teaching and leadership.

Rebalancing Economics Scholarship launched for 2027/28 entry

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 07:30:00 GMT

The Department of Economics is pleased to launch the Rebalancing Economics Scholarship, a new initiative for students joining our MSc Economics programmes in 2027/28. Funded through Warwick’s philanthropic Set the Pace campaign, the scholarship will support talented female British students who wish to progress to postgraduate study in economics.

The scholarship has been established in response to the continued under-representation of women in economics. National evidence highlights a persistent gender imbalance across the discipline, and this is reflected in our MSc Economics programmes. The new scholarship forms part of our commitment to rebalancing participation in economics and encouraging more women to pursue advanced study in the subject.

Recipients will receive a full tuition fee scholarship, alongside opportunities to engage in networking, mentoring and career development activities designed to support women in economics. By reducing financial barriers to postgraduate study, the initiative aims to help create a more diverse and representative pipeline of future economists.

Professor Jeremy Smith, Head of Department of Economics said:

“We are committed to ensuring that talented students from all backgrounds can thrive in economics. Thanks to the generosity of supporters of Warwick’s Set the Pace campaign, the Rebalancing Economics Scholarship will help more women continue their economics education at postgraduate level, while supporting our wider efforts to improve gender balance within the discipline. We hope this initiative will encourage the next generation of female economists to pursue advanced study and fulfil their ambitions.”

Applications are now open for the MSc programmes which offer a strong foundation for varied career pathways:

MSc Economics
MSc Economics and International Financial Economics
MSc Economics and Data Science
MSc Behavioural and Economics Science (Economics)
MSc Economics and Environmental Policy

Prospective students can find full details of the scholarship, eligibility criteria and application process on our MSc Scholarship 2027/28 page.

Other MSc Economics scholarships for 2027/28 are also available.

Remembering Professor Chuck Blackorby

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 08:28:00 GMT

The Department is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Charles (Chuck) Blackorby, a distinguished economist and former member of the Department whose research made a lasting impact on microeconomic theory, welfare economics, social choice and the study of inequality. He was internationally recognised for the rigour and influence of his scholarship and was elected a Fellow of the Econometric Society in 1988.

Chuck joined Warwick following an eminent academic career that included appointments at the University of California, the London School of Economics, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, and the University of British Columbia, where he spent nearly three decades as Professor of Economics. He retired from Warwick in 2010.

His research spanned a wide range of areas in economic theory and through his publications and influential books, he helped shape generations of scholarship and advanced understanding of the ethical and theoretical foundations of economics.

Mike Waterson, Emeritus Professor in the Department of Economics, has shared his personal reflection about Chuck:

"Charles (Chuck) Blackorby was a professor in the department from 2002 to 2010, when he retired. Appointing him was a major coup for the department, as Andrew Oswald pointed out at the time. Chuck was a major economic theorist and Fellow of the Econometric Society with many papers in the top journals.

His intellectual interests were mainly in public and welfare economics, in particular normative aspects such social choice. Intellectually, he was completely rigorous, critical of others who were not. However, as an individual, he was a maverick, no follower of rules. This makes him sound like an austere, aloof figure, whereas in fact the opposite was the case- he was warm hearted, kind and generous as a person, keen to work with junior scholars and good fun. He enjoyed a beer; his regular haunt was a relatively rough corner pub in Leamington Spa. He was a Europhile who had enjoyed time in Britain prior to Warwick and spent a lot of time in GREQAM; he spoke French well and loved Provence."