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 American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economics Studies, and many others. Below is a selection of papers. For the full list, please see the department’s page on the King’s College London research portal.

Amior, M., & Manning, A., (forthcoming) Monopsony and the Wage Effects of Migration, The Economic Journal

Amior, M., (forthcoming) The Contribution of Immigration to Local Labor Market Adjustment, Journal of Labor Economics

González, F., Prem, M., & von Dessauer, C., (forthcoming) Empowerment or indoctrination? Female training programs under dictatorship, Journal of Economic History

Hughes, N., (forthcoming) Strategic Voting in Two-Party Legislative Elections, American Economic Review

Kovacs, A., Moran, P., & Bord, V., (forthcoming) Automated Credit Limit Increases and Consumer Welfare, Journal of Monetary Economics

Mizen, P., Yotzov, I., Bunn, P., Bloom, N., & Thwaites, G., (forthcoming) The Speed of Firm Response to Inflation, Journal of the European Economic Association

Eliaz, K., Galperti, S., & Spiegler, R., (2025) False Narratives and Political Mobilization, Journal of the European Economic Association

González, F., Miquel-Florensa, J., Prem, M., & Straub, S., (2025) The dark side of infrastructure: roads, repression, and land in authoritarian Paraguay, The Economic Journal

González, F., & Silva, H., (2025) Efficiency of bus priority infrastructure, Journal of Urban Economics

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

Grosfeld, I., Madinier, E., Sakalli, S. O., & 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

Coutts, A., Gerhards, L., & Murad, Z., (2024) What to Blame? Self-Serving Attribution Bias with Multi-Dimensional Uncertainty, The Economic Journal

Amior, M., (2024) Education and Geographical Mobility: The Role of the Job Surplus, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy

González, F., Martínez, L., Muñoz, P., & Prem, M., (2024) Higher education and mortality: legacies of an authoritarian college contraction, Journal of the European Economic Association

González, F., Atal, J. P., Cuesta, J. I., & Otero, C., (2024) The economics of the public option: evidence from local pharmaceutical markets, American Economic Review

González, F., & Prem, M., (2024) Police violence, student protests, and educational performance, Review of Economics and Statistics

Aldunate, F., González, F., & Prem, M., (2024) The limits of hegemony: U.S. banks and Chilean firms in the Cold War, Journal of Development Economics

Eliaz, K., Fershtman, D., & Frug, A., (2024) On Optimal Scheduling, American Economic Journal: Microeconomics

Eliaz, K., Oren-Kolbinger, O., & Weisburd, S., (2024) How Do Shoppers Respond to Noisy Signals on Price Changes? Evidence from a Field Experiment in Online Supermarket Shopping, Journal of Industrial Economics

Eliaz, K., & Caner, M., (2024) Should Humans Lie to Machines? The Incentive Compatibility of Lasso and GLM Structured Sparsity Estimators, Journal of Business & Economic Statistics

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

Buggle, J., Mayer, T., Sakalli, S. O., & 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., & Schulz, J. F., (2023) Strategic competition and self-confidence, Management Science

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

Bautista, M. A., Martínez, L., Muñoz, P., Prem, M., & González, F., (2023) The geography of repression and opposition to autocracy, American Journal of Political Science

Eliaz, K., & Frug, A., (2023) Toxic Types and Infectious Communication Breakdown, Games and Economic Behavior

Eliaz, K., & Eilat, R., (2023) Collective Information Acquisition, Journal of the European Economic Association

Eliaz, K., & Spiegler, R., (2023) Capability Building in Sluggish Organizations, Management Science

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., & Tabellini, G., (2022) Creativity over time and space: a historical analysis of European cities, Journal of Economic Growth

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

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

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

Abebe, G., McMillan, M., & Serafinelli, M., (2022) Foreign Direct Investment and Knowledge Diffusion in Poor Locations, Journal of Development Economics

Eliaz, K., & Spiegler, R., (2022) On Incentive Compatible Estimators, Games and Economic Behavior

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, E. H. F., (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

Cason, T. N., Friedman, D., & Hopkins, E., (2021) An Experimental Investigation of Price Dispersion and Cycles, Journal of Political Economy

Muñoz, P., Prem, M., & González, F., (2021) Lost in transition? the persistence of dictatorship mayors, Journal of Development Economics

González, F., & Vial, F., (2021) Collective action and policy implementation: evidence from Salvador Allende’s expropriations, Journal of Economic History

Eliaz, K., Spiegler, R., & Weiss, Y., (2021) Cheating with Models, American Economic Review: Insights

Eliaz, K., Eilat, R., & Mu, X., (2021) Bayesian Privacy, Theoretical Economics

Eliaz, K., de Clippel, G., Fershtman, D., & Rozen, K., (2021) On Selecting the Right Agent, Theoretical Economics

Eliaz, K., Spiegler, R., & Thysen, H., (2021) Strategic Interpretations, Journal of Economic Theory

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

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

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

Cuesta, J. I., González, F., & Larroulet Philippi, C., (2020) Distorted quality signals in school markets, Journal of Development Economics

González, F., (2020) Collective action in networks: evidence from the Chilean student movement, Journal of Public Economics

González, F., & Prem, M., (2020) Losing your dictator: firms during political transition, Journal of Economic Growth

González, F., Prem, M., & Urzúa, F., (2020) The privatization origins of political corporations: evidence from the Pinochet regime, Journal of Economic History

Eliaz, K., & Spiegler, R., (2020) A Model of Competing Narratives, American Economic Review

Eliaz, K., & Spiegler, R., (2020) Incentive Compatible Advertising on Non-Retail Platforms, The RAND Journal of Economics

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

Hachula, M., Piffer, M., & 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

Campa, P., & Serafinelli, M., (2019) Politico-economic regimes and attitudes: female workers under state socialism, Review of Economics and Statistics

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

Duffy, J., Hopkins, E., Kornienko, T., & Ma, M., (2019) Information Choice in a Social Learning Experiment, Games and Economic Behavior

Eliaz, K., & Spiegler, R., (2019) The Model Selection Curse, American Economic Review: Insights

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

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

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

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

Hopkins, E., (2018) Inequality and Risk-Taking Behavior, Games and Economic Behavior

Eliaz, K., & Wu, Q., (2018) A Simple Model of Competition Between Teams, Journal of Economic Theory

Eliaz, K., & Frug, A., (2018) Bilateral Trade with Strategic Gradual Learning, Games and Economic Behavior

Cozzi, G., & Davenport, M., (2017) Extrapolative Expectations and Capital Flows During Convergence, Journal of International Economics

Marshall, G., Naidu, S., & González, F., (2017) Start-up nation? slave wealth and entrepreneurship in Civil War Maryland, Journal of Economic History

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

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

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

Bhaskar, V., & Hopkins, E., (2016) Marriage as a Rat Race: Noisy Pre-Marital Investments with Assortative Matching, Journal of Political Economy

Eliaz, K., & Spiegler, R., (2016) Search Design and Broad Matching, American Economic Review

Eliaz, K., & Ortoleva, P., (2016) Multidimensional Ellsberg, Management Science

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.

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.