London Student Conferences: Economics Day Conference

Last week T and I took a trip up to Russell Square in London, accompanied by our fellow economics classmates, to attend a day of economics-based conferences. The conference was hosted by Jonathan Brill in the Royal National Hotel, and included lectures from four different speakers. 

The first of which was Alex Hurrell, who as a representative from Resolution Foundation, spoke about 'Economics in Professional Work: Examples from UK policy and International Development'. He spoke about the type of work that the foundation does, and what he in particular does. This included the application of economic frameworks to design and analyse policies and the application of statistical techniques to inform policy design and evaluate policy impact. Alex Hurrell told us about micro-simulation models which predict policy impact and the importance of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) , for example the placebo effect. He then continued on to ask us thought provoking questions, such as 'Why is government policy required at all? Why not leave it all to the market?' 
This talk was an appropriate opener to the day, it got us all thinking straight away and confirmed our thoughts that an interesting day would be to follow. This talk was especially appealing to me, as it gave me some ideas as to the type of career a degree in economics, specialising in public economics, can lead to. 

This was followed by a special conversation held between our host Jonathan Brill and journalist and political commentator Peter Kellner. Jonathan Brill asked intriguing questions about: J.M Keynes, the UK's deficit and the history behind Hayek's and Friedman's moral objections Keynes' theories. Peter Kellner enlightened us all with his intellectual and witty answers, and had us all gripped on his answers about the economics of higher education! 

Lunch (Nandos of course!) was followed by a third session with Simon Smethurst-McIntyre titled 'Economics experts – behavioural economics in action'. This session taught us about 'homo economicus' which, for those of you who are unaware,  is the 'economics man'. He spoke about the Rational Choice Theory, and the reasons behind the creation of 'bubbles'. A key reason behind the 2008 crash, according to Simon, was the 'Bystander Effect', which explains that how when more people are involved in something, the less are willing to intervene. 

The final session of the day was by Dr. Helen Paul on the topic of 'Economic history: what it is and what it can do.' Dr. Helen, who is a lecturer at Southampton University, firstly gave us some tips on applying to uni, and advice about what is best. She then continued to talk about the productivity of slavery and best was to analyse tools such as historical images.

Overall the day was very interesting, both T and I enjoyed it thoroughly, not only due to information we learnt, but it was also nice to have a break of the monotony of school life! 

Thanks for reading, please don't hesitate to comment below any questions or opinions!
K

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