Staff news
This year's Peston Lecture, given by Dr Richard Lipsey in the College's new Arts 2 building, is now available to watch online at http://ess.q-review.qmul.ac.uk:8080/ess/echo/presentation/c2b327b2-ae02-4fc8-8864-eaad647a44b6
The topic of the lecture is 'Policy Implications of Alternative Economic Paradigms: Some Surprises from Endogenous Technological Changes'.
Richard G. Lipsey, FRSC, OC, Fellow of the Econometric Society, and Professor Emeritus at Simon Fraser University, has held professorial posts at the London School of Economics and Essex University in England, and Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, as well as visiting professorships at Yale, the University of California at Berkeley, Manchester, and the University of British Columbia. He was Senior Economic Advisor, C.D. Howe Institute (1983-89) and Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (1989-2002).
Post date: 27th March 2012
The School is pleased to announce that Queen Mary will be part of the Russell Group from August 2012. The Russell Group is a group of 20, soon to be 24, research-intensive universities in the UK, committed to maintaining the best research, an outstanding teaching and learning experience, and unrivalled links with business and the public sector.
Professor Simon Gaskell, Principal of Queen Mary, said: “We are delighted to accept the invitation to join the Group."
Professor George Kapetanios, Head of the School of Economics and Finance, said: "We are particularly pleased about this as our RAE results and NSS results have been excellent, and being part of the Russell Group further solidifies our excellent standing in both the academic and business worlds."
Post date: 13th March 2012
Randi Hjalmarsson - "Jury Discrimination in Criminal Trials", is forthcoming in Quarterly Journal of Economics. (co-authored with Patrick Bayer and Shamena Anwar)
Francesca Cornaglia - "Productivity, Wages, and Marriage: The Case of Major League Baseball", published in the Wall Street Journal, The Economist and Forbes. The effect of marriage on productivity and, consequently, wages has been long debated in economics. A primary explanation for the impact of marriage on wages has been through its impact on productivity, however, there has been no direct evidence for this. In this paper, we aim to fill this gap by directly measuring the impact of marriage on productivity using a sample of professional baseball players from 1871 - 2007. Our results show that only lower ability men see an increase in productivity, though this result is sensitive to the empirical specification and weakly significant. In addition, despite the lack of any effect on productivity, high ability married players earn roughly 16 - 20 percent more than their single counterparts. We discuss possible reasons why employers may favour married men.
Post date: 1st February 2012
Once again we find ourselves at the end of yet another successful year for the School of Economics and Finance. All parts of the School have some pretty exciting developments to celebrate.
Starting with the undergraduate side, this year we were rewarded for all the efforts of the previous 3- 4 years by having the highest score in the National Student Survey for the School. It was also among the highest in the UK and the highest among all research intensive London Economics Schools and Departments. This achievement combined with our excellent research ranking, places the School at the pinnacle of Economics and Finance education in the UK for combined research and teaching. It also gives the School an ideal starting place for the forthcoming funding changes in the Higher Education landscape. We already have some pretty encouraging initial news on that front since student applications in early December have a clear upward trend compared to previous years and bucks the downward trend observed in general this year.
On the postgraduate side things again are looking extremely promising with a large, active and lively new cohort of MSc students. As ever our program of graded and ungraded modules is excellent with vocational modules focused, among others, on Electronic Trading, Computational Finance and Technical analysis and well designed and popular graded academic modules taught both by our full time staff and City practitioners. We also have the very exciting news of four new approved programmes for next year. These include a new M.Sc. in Business Finance with a focus on providing students a well rounded background in corporate finance that is ideal for working in both financial and no-financial corporations and a new MSc in Banking with a great emphasis on the ever more important topic of financial regulation. We also participate in two joint programmes. One is in Mathematical Finance offered jointly with the School of Mathematical Science, as well as an exciting new LLM in Law and Economics. The latter builds upon our collaboration with the Centre for Commercial Law Studies that has been driving the existing M.Sc. in Law and Finance which has proved very popular and successful both this year and in the past.Finally, it is also an exciting time for the Ph.D. programme where this year we start a new dedicated Ph.D. in Finance directed by Professor Erik Hjalmarsson, promising to fully embed our rapidly expanding research strengths in that area.
So for all these great success I would like to thank the academic and administrative staff in the School as well as our students for all their support and engagement.
Post date: 2nd January 2012
The Adviser of the Year award is a yearly award whose main aims are to acknowledge the important role played by advisers in supporting and enhancing the students' experience, and to support the sharing and spreading of examples of good practice.
Students views were collected through an online questionnaire circulated towards the end of the last academic year. After a detailed and thorough analysis of the the survey's results, the "Adviser of the Year" award has been awarded "ex aequo" to Stepana Lazarova and Rachel Male.
Students commented that Stepana "...was very helpful even outside office hours and was more than willing to help out when I required assistance. A great advisor." The School also feels that Stepana carries out a large amount of efficient and friendly advising work with Exchange and Erasmus students that often gets unnoticed.
Students commented that Rachel provided "good advice", "Information on where I could find relevant resources" and good advice "about modules and how to pick them".
Congratulations to both Stepana and Rachel!
Post date: 11th November 2011
The School of Economics and Finance recently awarded its prizes for excellence in teaching during the 2010/2011 academic year.
The Lecturer prize went to Radoslawa Nikolowa; whilst prizes for Teaching Assistants were awarded to Vessela Daskalova, Christina Scherrer and Mauricio Une.
Congratulations to all of the prize winners!
Post date: 12th October 2011
Senior Lecturer in Economics and Finance
Lecturers in Economics and Finance
Applications are invited for three full time permanent positions, one at Senior Lecturer level and two at Lecturer level in the School of Economics and Finance at Queen Mary, University of London. The School of Economics and Finance is a dynamic, research led School that was ranked joint sixth in the UK in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. As part of a continuing process of planned expansion it seeks to recruit internationally recognised scholars who can make a substantial contribution to the School’s research and teaching.
The successful applicants will develop a programme of research in their area of expertise and provide intellectual leadership to the School of Economics and Finance. They will contribute to the organisation, delivery and assessment of teaching of undergraduate and postgraduate students in the School. The Senior Lecturer position will have specific administrative responsibilities for the School’s new Masters in Public Administration.
The salary for the Lecturer positions will be in the range of £37,669 to £46,938, subject to experience and qualifications. The salary for the Senior Lecturer position will be in the range of £49,619 to £55,479, subject to experience and qualifications. Benefits for these full time, indefinite posts include 30 days annual leave, interest-free season ticket loans, childcare vouchers’ scheme and a contributory, final salary pension scheme. The posts are to commence in Spring 2012.
For further details and an application form please visit the Human Resources website at http://www.hr.qmul.ac.uk/vacancies. Completed application forms and CVs in hard copy should be returned via post or email to: Ms Elizabeth Price, School of Economics and Finance, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS e.a.price@qmul.ac.uk, quoting Reference number 11240/SW for the Lecturer positions and 11241/SW for the Senior Lecturer position. The closing date for completed applications is 5pm (BST) on 24/11/2011 with interviews expected to be held in February 2012. Arrangements should be made for two of the three referees to provide references shortly after the deadline on request.
Promoting excellence in teaching, learning and research
Working towards Equal Opportunities
Post date: 20th September 2011
Dear All,
I would like to wish to all of you a great new academic year. This year is starting with excellent prospects for our school on all fronts despite the tough environment in higher education.
First I would like to welcome our new academic staff: Dr. Ghazala Azmat, Dr. Paola Paiardini and Dr. Daniela Tavaschi who join us this September. I would also like to welcome James, who recently joined us as Undergraduate Manager, and Nick, who has recently become our new administrative assistant. My thanks also go to Jo Stiles who provided us with invaluable support on the undergraduate side during the transition period after the retirement of Joan McSweeney in the middle of last year. Finally, I am delighted to announce that Donald Wu has joined the school full time and that he will be working on the set-up and maintenance of our new trading floor.
On the undergraduate side, last year was a successful one with another set of good results for our finalist students during the exam period, and we hope that our continued successes in this area will persist as we move into the uncertain period, for higher education, starting next September when the fee increases will take effect.
On the postgraduate side this year we see the introduction of a number of new MSc degrees that make our provision of postgraduate finance education among the best in the country. In particular, our new MSc in Finance is launched, directed by Professor Francis Breedon, who has invaluable experience from his time at Imperial Business School. We also launch the joint MSc degree in Finance and Accounting with the School of Business and Management. Further, we have exciting plans for two new offerings for next year, but I don't want yet to spoil the surprise!
Linked to our provision of finance education, it is great to note that we have now been using a set of the most extensive financial datasets available, for the past 6 months with great success. Further, we are in the final stages of setting our virtual trading floor in one of our computer rooms that will enable postgraduate and undergraduate students to hone their trading skills in the safety of our virtual environment!
All the best for the new academic year!
George
Post date: 20th September 2011
Marg Buckley - IT Manager Marg Buckley is sadly leaving us at the end of September following 25 years of loyal service to the College, within both the School of Economics and Finance and the School of Geography.
We invited Marg's friends and colleagues from over the years to share their views .
Hemant Deshmukh
I was in the Computer Centre of Queen Mary College as a micro support officer when I started back in January 1981 then, I think before Margaret Buckley started in the Economics Department. However, it feels like that we have known each other for a long time as we both had a shared passion to help students and our respective departments on IT related matters. Margaret has always been calm, collected and eager to get problems resolved in a professional manner for both her Economics & Geography departments. We worked together intensively when the Economics Department got funding to refurbish the 3rd floor of the Queens building to set up PC labs for undergraduates and MSc students of the Economics Department. We also shared the common hassle of moving and refurbishment of the Geography PC labs when the college decided to build a bridge between the geography building and the then BMS building. The design of the bridge at the Geography end was where we used to have our PC lab!! Whenever I rang Marg from my office on the 2nd floor of Queens building, I used to hear the bell ringing in her office before she picked up the telephone as her office was just in the opposite corner of my office but on the 3rd floor!! We mostly shared our meetings during lunch time in green room and SCR.
Margaret is a wonderful person and I wish her a very happy retirement and happy life in the future.
Sandra Adams
Finally, the time has come. I have known Marg since 2004, I have always found her to be very helpful. She always has a smile on her face and would sort out any situations that arose that could quite easily frustrate you. I could always depend on her to sort out any IT issues that could send me up the wall, I have the upmost respect for her.
It has been a pleasure working with Marg. She surely has set an example of calmness and mild manners, I am definitely doing to miss her. Marg, enjoy all those walks you love going on especially after eating all that chocolate you love so much, enjoy your retirement!
Sarah Riley
I have been lucky enough to have worked with Marg since 2008 and she has made my time in Economics a lot of fun. Marg is always up for a pub quiz and thank goodness for that as we would not have done as well as we have without her. Marg has also been a massive help to me over the years and I will be forever grateful to her for her fantastic exam board reports! Marg has put up with my sheer ignorance of anything technical and she is the first person to go to for anything from a problem, a gossip or a good laugh.
Marg, the School will not be the same without you. I know you will make the most of your retirement, whether it's going rambling or staying in with a huge piece of chocolate cake! You have become a great friend and I wish you all the best for the future.
Odetta Graves
I have known her for many years having been here 31 years myself, and Margaret has always greeted us in the department with a cheery smile, she always seems cool calm and collected and is a genuine, lovely person.
Kathy Whelan
Marg has been one of the most helpful & knowledgeable colleagues I have had the good fortune of working with. I appreciate her patience, good humour and her ability to get along with everyone.
Getting to know Marg over the years and developing a friendship has been a real pleasure. I will miss you Marg!
Post date: 12th September 2011
His talk was entitled: "Social Assistance and Labor Market Outcomes Lessons from the evaluation of the Uruguayan PANES".This was the fifth meeting of the IMPACT EVALUATION NETWORK (IEN), and it was held by the Latin American and the Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA) in Buenos Aires, August 22-23 2011. More information can be found at http://www.depeco.econo.unlp.edu.ar/cedlas/ien/
Post date: 5th September 2011