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MacCaLM 2019

We have had a fantastic year in 2019 at MacCaLM, with a busy schedule of seminars and events, as well as new leading researchers joining the team to contribute to our goal to find out how malfunctions in labour and financial markets contribute to macroeconomic failure. Find out more in our round up of the year and what you can expect from us in 2020.

Conferences

One of the highlights of 2019 was the annual MacCaLM Summer Programme which took place from Monday 17th – Thursday 20th June at the University of Edinburgh. Featuring talks from MacCaLM Principle Investigator John Moore, David Miles (Imperil College London), Gabor Pinter & Angus Foulis (Bank of England) and Christina Romer & David Romer (Berkeley), the conference offered a unique perspective on defining economic issues such as income risk, employment mobility and the decline in the labour share.

We’re already planning the MacCaLM Summer Programme 2020, be sure to add the 15th – 18th June 2020 to your calendar and subscribe to our mail list to stay up to date.

Seminars

Our 2019 series of research seminars started in January and continued throughout the year. Over 36 leading researchers in the field of macroeconomics visited MacCaLM HQ at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Economics in Scotland to present their latest papers.

Seminars were given by researchers from a range of institutions, including universities in the UK, Europe, China and the US and beyond. The series has given students and academics the opportunity to find out more about the latest research in macroeconomics and fostered project partnerships and collaboration across the globe.

Thank you to all of the excellent researchers who came to visit us and shared their research in 2019!

We already have a busy seminar schedule for the New Year, find out more or add some dates to your calendar.

Publications

In December 2019, John Moore and Nobuhiro Kiyotaki published their paper ‘Liquidity, Business Cycles, and Monetary Policy” in the Journal of Political Economy. This paper builds on Moore and Kiyotaki’s long collaboration on a new model of a monetary economy, and opens questions such as can the government be trusted more than the private sector? To what extent do future tax liabilities crowd out a private agent’s ability to issue credible promises to others?

View paper

New Faces

Our MacCaLM research team continued to grow in 2019, particularly among early career researchers (ECRs) in the field of macroeconomics.

We welcomed Dr Yulia Moiseeva (pictured, top left) as a new MacCaLM Annual Fellow in early 2019. She is an assistant professor at the University of St Andrews and completed her PhD in Edinburgh under the supervision of MacCaLM Investigator, Mike Elsby. Yulia’s research is exploring the interaction of credit and labour markets, with a focus on the impact of limited credit availability on firms’ labour demand policies.

The MacCaLM team were also delighted to welcome Axel Gottfries (pictured, bottom left) as an Annual Fellow. Axel joined the project in 2018 as a post-doctoral fellow after completing his PhD in Economics at the University of Cambridge with a research focus on macroeconomics, labour economics and economic theory. Axel is co-author of MacCaLM Investigator, Mike Elsby, and recently presented their new work ‘Firm Dynamics, On-The-Job Search and Labour Market Fluctuations’ at the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Macro Perspectives Conference in July 2019.

Another addition to the team was the appointment of Rafael Lopes de Melo (pictured, right) who became a MacCaLM Fellow in 2019. Rafael is a lecturer at the School of Economics at the University of Edinburgh having completed his PhD in Economics at Yale University in the US. His research focuses on macroeconomics, particularly firm wage differentials and labour market sorting. We are thrilled to welcome Rafael to the team.

Find out more about the MacCaLM researchers.

Events:

"An Evening with John Moore"

Over the course of 2019, the MacCaLM project has held a series of engaging events in coordination with the University of Edinburgh’s School of Economics. This includes the new “An Evening with . . .” series headed by the School of Economics. These events, in which prominent members of the school give special lectures to economics students at Edinburgh were launched to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the school.

The series was kick started in March by MacCaLM Principal Investigator, John Moore, who presented his paper “Evil is the Root of all Money” to 180 staff and students. The lecture showcased Moore’s unpublished ideas that he developed in the early 2000’s alongside his colleague, and MacCaLM Investigator, Nobuhiro Kiyotaki at the London School of Economics and proved to be an insightful and immensely popular event for students and academics alike.

Next in the series was MacCaLM Executive Director, Robert Zymek who presented “An Evening with Robert Zymeck: The US-China Trade War”. In this sold out event, Robert used insight from recent research to explain why the US has a large trade deficit with China and gave an overview of the state of the US-China trade war and what consequences it may have on their respective economies, a topic which has dominated news cycles in 2019. This event was a fantastic opportunity for students to hear research at the “front-lines” of economics.

Another highlight of the year was the “Intangibles, Inequality and Stagnation” event in November, in which Professor Nobuhiro Kiyotaki visited Edinburgh to present his latest paper of the same name. This highly anticipated work examines how aggregate output and income distribution interact with accumulation of intangible capital over time and across individuals, illuminating the economic systems behind key issues such a wealth inequality and stagnation. A celebratory dinner was also held with the MacCaLM team and members of the Scottish economic community. The keynote after-dinner speech will be given by MacCaLM Principal Investigator, John Moore.

Keep an eye on our events page and follow us on Twitter @maccalm_project for updates on all our 2020 events.

Award Winners:

We are delighted that 2019 also brought some awards and accolades to the work being done by MacCaLM researchers. This includes the 2019 IZA Young Labour Economist Award which was won by Philipp Kircher (pictured below, right). This honour, shared with Leah Platt Boustan (Princeton University), was awarded for his work on search, sorting and matching in labour markets. Professor Kircher’s recent work analyses the efficiency in search markets where workers apply for multiple jobs simultaneously. Professor Kircher currently leads the MacCaLM data project, which provides advice to job seekers. Congratulations to Philipp on this award.

Find out more about Philipp’s work.

Another award winning moment was when MacCaLM researcher Nobuhiro Kiyotaki (pictured above, left) received the Doctor of Science Honorary Degree from the University of Edinburgh in November for his astonishing contribution to the field of economics. Previous recipients of the Honorary Doctorate are Professor James Mirrlees and Professor Angus Deaton, both of whom went on to win the Nobel Prize in Economics. Massive congratulations to Professor Kiyotaki.

Congratulations were also in order for MacCaLM co-investigator Mike Elsby (pictured above), who in 2019 was appointed as a Director of the Review of Economic Studies, one of the most prestigious journals in the world. Founded in 1933 by a group of young British and American Economists, the Review is published quarterly with the objective of encouraging research in theoretical and applied economics, especially by young economists. The Review of Economic Studies is essential reading for economists and is consistently ranked among the top five titles. Many congratulations to Professor Elsby.

Finally. . .

In 2019 the MacCaLM team enjoyed meeting and working with a range of organisations and individuals who helped contribute to our research and we look forward to another year of research and collaboration in 2020. Thank you to everyone who helped make 2019 such a success for the project.

Find out more

If you have any questions about MacCaLM, please get in touch by emailing maccalm@ed.ac.uk.

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @maccalm_project and subscribe to our mail list to stay up to date with all the latest news from the project.