Research
Overview
The School of Economics has a strong research culture and an established reputation in several fields, particularly applied microeconomics (labour and agri-environmental), quantitative macroeconomic theory, econometric forecasting, development, transport and European regional economics and is currently developing a reputation in behavioural and experimental economics partly in conjunction with the Psychology School. The active internal and external seminar programmes foster the overall research effort of staff.
The 2008 Research Assessment Exercise recognised the quality of the research in the School of Economics and placed it in the following categories: 4* 15% (world-leading); 3* 60% (internationally excellent) and 2* 25% (internationally recognised). The weighted GPA (grade-point average) score was 2.9 and on this measure places the School in the top five Schools at the University of Kent and equal 16th in comparison with all Universities that submitted to the Economics Unit of Assessment. More widely the School is placed in both the top 10% of Economics Schools in the UK and the top 10% of European Economics Schools under RePEc in December 2008.
The School has invested significantly in new staff in the last few years (including several new professors and a major expansion with the augmentation of a group of agri-environmental economists). All academic staff members of the School are research active and there has been a steady growth in external research funding with research income of £1.5 million in 2006/07. Over the last 6 years staff have published more than 120 refereed journal papers, 55 papers in edited collections and 20 books or substantive reports. The working paper series is a strong indicator of research output and in 2008 there were 22 papers produced by Schoolal staff. The School provides top-quality training for research students, with ESRC recognition for its research training programme and currently has 16 students at various stages of its PhD and doctoral programmes. Staff also regularly provide policy advice to national and international institutions.