12/05-09   -   Press releases

University of Surrey hosts 2009 Royal Economic Society Conference

Some of the world’s leading economists were recently at the University of Surrey to attend the Royal Economic Society Annual Conference. Following a welcome to the University by Professor Nigel Seaton, the conference hosted by the Department of Economics opened with a keynote address given by Professor David Laibson of Harvard University which unsurprisingly dealt with ‘The Financial Crisis of 2008’.

Other keynote addresses focused on the topics of Trade and Economic Growth (Professor Pinelopi Goldberg, Princeton University), Occupational Choices (Professor Gilles Saint Paul, Toulouse/ Birkbeck) as well as Competition Policy and Property Rights (Professor John Vickers, University of Oxford and President of the Royal Economic Society).

Special sessions were held on a diverse range of issues including Access to, Finance of and Returns to Higher Education; Lessons on Economic Growth; Political Economy of Conflict and Terror; House Price Volatility and Household Behaviour; Development Policy; and an Evaluation of 10 years of the National Minimum Wage. Also Professor Nicholas Stern (London School of Economics) together with Michael Greenstone (MIT) discussed issues associated with confronting climate change.

Other issues discussed included the Economics of Education; Economics of Inequality and Happiness; Housing, Savings and Retirement; Work and Pay; Business Trade and Investment; Democracy and War; Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy.

Access to the papers presented at the conference as well as press releases of selected papers are available on the Royal Economic Society Conference at : http://www.resconference.org.uk
The Department of Economics will again host the Royal Economic Society Annual Conference at the University of Surrey, 29–31 March 2010.