Economics at Sussex is a fast-growing department committed to high quality teaching and research within a friendly academic environment. We have about 500 undergraduates on a variety of degree courses, plus thriving masters courses and research degree courses.
About 40% of our undergraduate and over 70% of our postgraduate students are from overseas and enrich the learning environment in the Department. Our graduates have a strong record of obtaining high quality jobs, going on to work in a wide range of sectors including government, economics consultancy, banking and NGOs.
We specialise in research on international trade and trade policy, poverty and economic development, labour and education economics, and resources, environment and climate. Our research is supported by substantial research grants from the ESRC and other sources. We also work closely with all the major international agencies, from the World Bank to the European Commission, and this depth of experience is brought to the teaching of our degree courses. More details can be found by consulting the research or people pages of this site.
Professor Richard Dickens
Head of Department
Dr Peter Holmes
New article on G8 trade negotiations from Sussex economist
Dr Peter Holmes has written an article for new journalism project The Conversation on the prospects of the G8 meeting delivering progress in trade negotiations, titled 'The G8 talks trade, but the big deals are done elsewhere'.
Dr Holmes commented that whilst noone wants the WTO to collapse, there are not enough political and economic interests with a big stake in a successful conclusion for the Doha round. The result is that major traders are increasingly turning to bilateral and regional deals, but as shown by the row over the "cultural exception" in the EU-US context, these are not always so easy either.
'Discussing the UK supply side challenge' with Evan Davis, 9 April 2013
The Economics Society hosted a talk by Evan Davis, the BBC Economist, Journalist and Presenter of 'Dragons Den' and 'The Bottom Line' in the Jubilee lecture theatre on Tuesday 9 April.
During the talk, titled 'Discussing the UK supply side challenge', Evan spoke about the challenges facing industry, investors and entrepreneurs in the UK and the need to focus attention on the supply side. Batting aside questions about Dragon's Den, he reviewed the UK's industrial performance, from the 1980s and Margaret Thatcher's legacy to the changing role of China, and asked students to think about policies for boosting growth. The discussion that followed was typically wide-ranging, from HS2 and other infrastructure investment, internationalisation of UK education and regional income disparities. Drinks followed during which Evan was inundated with questions from students - we hope he made the last train back to London!
An audio recording from the talk is available below.
Photos by Stuart Robinson.