Department of Economics

About

The Department of Economics has a mission to produce innovative and impactful research that addresses important economic questions and to provide students with a rigorous education that prepares them for successful careers in academia, government, and industry.

The department's vision is to be a leading centre for economic research and education, where faculty and students collaborate to generate new insights and push the boundaries of economic knowledge.

At the heart of the department's mission is a commitment to advancing our understanding of economic phenomena through rigorous empirical and theoretical analysis. Staff in the department are actively engaged in research on a wide range of topics, including microeconomics, macroeconomics, econometrics, industrial organization, labour economics, development economics, and international economics.

The department's research is characterized by its innovative and interdisciplinary approach, as well as its focus on addressing real-world economic problems.

In addition to its research activities, the department is dedicated to providing a high-quality education to its students. Our undergraduate programmes (BSc in Economics & Management, and BSc in Economics) are designed to give students a strong foundation in economic theory and to equip them with the analytical and quantitative skills needed to pursue advanced study in economics or to succeed in a variety of careers.

The department's MSc in Economics & Finance provides students with rigorous training in economic theory, econometrics, and applied research methods. Graduates of the programme are well-prepared for successful careers in academia, government, and industry.

The Department of Economics is committed to advancing our understanding of economic phenomena and to training the next generation of leaders in the field. The department's mission and vision are reflected in its cutting-edge research, innovative teaching methods, and commitment to excellence in all aspects of its work.

Research

We conduct research across a wide range of areas in Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, and Econometrics – from Labour Economics to Growth & Development; Monetary Policy to Productivity Measurement; and from Health Economics to Political Economy.

Seminars

The King's Business School Seminar in Economics is a weekly seminar on Wednesdays from 14.00-15.15.

Publications

Faculty in the Department of Economics have published in leading economics publications, such as Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economics Studies, Journal of Political Economy, and many others. Below is a section of papers. For the full list, please see the department’s page on the King’s College London research portal.

Hopkins, E. (2024). Cardinal Sins? Conspicuous Consumption, Cardinal Status and Inequality. Journal of the European Economics Association.

Grosfeld, I, Madinier, E, Sakalli, SO & Zhuravskaya, E 2024, 'Independent Media, Propaganda, and Religiosity: Evidence from Poland’, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics.

Bell, B, Bukowski, P & Machin, S 2024, 'The Decline in Rent Sharing', Journal of Labor Economics, vol. 42, no. 3, pp. 683-716.

Coutts, A, Gerhards, L & Murad, Z 2024, 'What to Blame? Self-Serving Attribution Bias with Multi-Dimensional Uncertainty', Economic Journal, vol. 134, no. 661, pp. 1835-1874

Piffer, M., & Bruns, M. (2023). A New Posterior Sampler for Bayesian Structural Vector Autoregressive Models. Quantitative Economics.

Buggle, J., Mayer, T., Sakalli, S.O. and Thoenig, M. (2023). The Refugee’s Dilemma: Evidence from Jewish Migration out of Nazi Germany. The Quarterly Journal of Economics.

Brilon, S., Grassi, S., Grieder, M. and Schulz, J.F. (2023). Strategic competition and self-confidence. Management Science.

Bai, L. and Wu, L. (2023). Political Conflict and Development Dynamics: Economic Legacies of the Cultural Revolution. Journal of Economic History.

Bell, B., Costa, R., & Machin, S. (2022). Why Does Education Reduce Crime? Journal of Political Economy.

Kovacs, A., Attanasio, O., & Moran, P. (2022). Temptation and Commitment: A Model of Hand-to-Mouth Behavior. Journal of the European Economic Association.

Serafinelli, M. and Tabellini, G., 2022. Creativity over time and space: A historical analysis of European cities. Journal of Economic Growth, 27(1), pp.1-43.

Bell, B., Bloom, N., & Blundell, J. (2022). Income Dynamics in the UK and the Impact of the Covid-19 Recession. Quantitative Economics.

Bell, B., Bukowski, P., & Machin, S. (2022). The Decline in Rent Sharing. Journal of Labor Economics.

Anukriti, S., Bhalotra, S., & Tam, EHF. (2022). On the Quantity and Quality of Girls: Fertility, Parental Investments and Mortality. Economic Journal.

Bacchetta, P., Davenport, M., & Van Wincoop, E. (2022). Can Sticky Portfolios Explain International Capital Flows and Asset Prices? Journal of International Economics

Bell, B., Pedemonte, S., & Van Reenen, J. (2021). CEO Pay and the Rise of Relative Performance Contracts: A Question of Governance? Journal of the European Economic Association.

Bai, L., Handel, B., Miguel, E., & Rao, G. (2021). Self-Control and Demand for Preventive Health: Evidence from Hypertension in India. Review of Economics and Statistics.

Liu, L., Lockwood, B., Almunia, M., & Tam, EHF. (2021). VAT Notches, Voluntary Registration, and Bunching: Theory and UK Evidence. Review of Economics and Statistics.

Kovacs, A., Low, H., & Moran, P. (2021). Estimating Temptation and Commitment Over the Life-Cycle. International Economic Review.

Grosfeld, I., Sakalli, S., and Zhuravskaya, E. (2020). Middleman Minorities and Ethnic Conflict: Anti-Jewish Pogroms in the Russian Empire. Review of Economic Studies.

Hachula, M., Piffer, M., and Rieth, M. (2020). Unconventional Monetary Policy, Fiscal Side Effects, and Euro Area (Im)balances. Journal of the European Economic Association.

Gerhards, L., and Kosfeld, M. (2020). I (Don’t) Like You! But Who Cares? Gender Differences in Same-Sex and Mixed-Sex Teams. Economic Journal.

Bai, L. and Stumpner, S. (2019). Estimating US Consumer Gains from Chinese Imports. American Economic Review: Insights.

Hachula, M., Piffer, M. and Rieth, M. (2019). Unconventional Monetary Policy, Fiscal Side Effects, and Euro Area (Im)balances. Journal of the European Economic Association.

Serafinelli, M., 2019. “Good” firms, worker flows, and local productivity. Journal of Labor Economics, 37(3), pp.747-792.

Campa, P. and Serafinelli, M., 2019. Politico-economic regimes and attitudes: Female workers under state socialism. Review of Economics and Statistics, 101(2), pp.233-248.

Bell, B., Bindler, A. and Machin, S. (2018). Crime Scars: Recessions and the Making of Career Criminals. Review of Economics and Statistics.

Boneva, L, Cloyne, J, Weale, M & Wieladekc, T (2019). Firms’ Price, Cost and Activity Expectations: Evidence from Micro Data. Economic Journal.

Piffer, M. and Podstawski, M. (2018). Identifying Uncertainty Shocks Using the Price of Gold. Economic Journal.

Bell, B. and Machin, S. (2018). Minimum Wages and Firm Value. Journal of Labor Economics.

Hughes, N. and Fehrler, S. (2018). How Transparency Kills Information Aggregation: Theory & Experiment. American Economic Journal: Microeconomics.

Cozzi, G. and Davenport, M. (2017). Extrapolative expectations and capital flows during convergence. Journal of International Economics.

Chortareas, G. and Noikokyris, E. (2017). Federal Reserve's Policy, Global Equity Markets, and the Local Monetary Policy Stance. Journal of Banking and Finance.

Weale, M. and Wieladek, T. (2016). What Are the Macroeconomic Effects of Asset Purchases? Journal of Monetary Economics.

Grassi, S. and Ma, C.A. (2016). Information Acquisition, Referral, and Organization. RAND Journal of Economics.

Hughes, N. (2016). Voting in Legislative Elections under Plurality Rule. Journal of Economic Theory.

Engagement

The Department of Economics at King's Business School is enthusiastic about collaborating with other organisations to further research in economics and provide useful insights to policymakers. Several initiatives and partnerships have been established to promote engagement and foster research excellence.

One of these is Economics at King's, an initiative that brings together economists from the Department of Economics in the Business School, and the Department of Political Economy, and the Department of International Development in the Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy. The group jointly runs a biweekly research seminar series, providing a platform for collaboration and the exchange of ideas.

The Department of Economics at King's Business School also has a centre for Data Analytics for Finance and Macro. The centre aims to promote rigorous analysis in finance and macroeconomics using advanced and theoretically rigorous quantitative methods considering the continuously changing economy and society, as well as the use of complex and large datasets.

Since Spring 2023 King’s Business School has been the host of the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE). ESCoE is an established hub of expertise made up of a consortium of world-leading academic institutions to promote the generation and development of research on economic measurement for the modern world.

King’s Business School is also a partner institution of the £32 million Productivity Institute. The Institute brings together world-leading experts from a range of disciplines and backgrounds, including King’s academics, and will work directly with policymakers and businesses to better understand, measure, and enable improvements in productivity across the whole of the UK.

Overall, these collaborations and initiatives reflect the department’s commitment to producing high-quality research and engaging with policymakers and the wider academic community to drive innovation and support economic development.