Our seminars are held on Wednesday afternoons from 3:30 pm to 4.45pm (approx). The venue is Portobello Centre room B59.
Congratulations to University of Sheffield Economics student Sophie Petrie who won an award at the Rate My Placement Awards in London last week.
Sophie who is in her final year of her degree in Economics and is co-president of the EconSoc (the Economics Society) was awarded Best Intern for her work at HSBC.
Sophie was presented the award by Olympian and former World Record Holder Steve Backley.
Sponsored by PwC and supported by AGCAS and AGR, the Awards were attended by over 300 representatives from both the corporate and higher education world, showcasing the outstanding achievements of all stakeholders involved in undergraduate placements & internships.
To view more photos of the event and to find out more on the Awards, visit the website at www.rmpawards.co.uk.
Professor Paul Collier Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies
University of Oxford
Tuesday, 6th March 2012
5pm – 6pm
St George’s Lecture Theatre
Please click the link below for Professor Paul Collier’s online lecture.
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/economics/research/knoop-collier
Professor Sarah Brown
Professor Sarah Brown has been awarded a prestigious Major Research Fellowship by the Leverhulme Trust for 2 years for a project on ‘Household Finances, Intergenerational Attitudes and Social Interaction’. These awards are very competitive, and hence this is a very significant achievement – so congratulations on her success.
This research project aims to further our understanding of household finances by bringing together three strands of existing research on: household finances; intergenerational skill transmission; and social interaction. The project aims to: firstly, explore the relationship between attitudes towards saving between parents and their off-spring; secondly, explore the existence and persistence of financial problems at the household level; and, finally, to explore the relationship between social interaction and household finances. The project aims to make an empirical contribution to each of these areas, serving to inform the existing theoretical frameworks employed in related areas by identifying additional influential factors.
In the Sheffield area, about forty thousand people are trapped in a spiral of debt and poverty because they cannot borrow from the high-street banks, and so they are forced into much more expensive ways of borrowing simply to afford day-to-day necessities. Perfectly legitimate ‘home credit’ companies such as National Provident charge up to 500% APR; ‘ payday loan’ companies such as Quick Quid and Wonga charge even more, often well into the thousands. Anyone paying those rates will find it difficult to ever escape from the debt trap, and as living standards, especially for those on welfare benefits, have gone down during the recession, so the number of people paying those rates has increased -to include nearly all of the 40,000 now paying ‘sub-prime’ borrowing rates.
It need not be like this. Across the developing world, alternative banking institutions, known as microfinance institutions, lend to millions of poor people with no savings, charging 30 to 50% interest rather than 500%. The most famous of these is the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, whose founder Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. Microfinance institutions have now spread to Britain, to supplement organisations such as credit unions, which already offer fair-priced credit. Will this model work here? University of Sheffield authors, Pamela Lenton and Paul Mosley, decided to find out. Drawing on research in the cities of Glasgow, Birmingham and Derby, as well as their home base of Sheffield, they interviewed a sample of clients of community development finance institutions (CDFIs – the UK name for microfinance institutions) in 2007 and again in 2009, as the UK slid into recession. Their aim was to find out whether this new weapon against financial exclusion worked, and what could be done to make it work better.
Tom Warke is the Postgraduate Tutor.
Tom will be able to give help on: Study skills, especially those of particular relevance to PGT study; Study issues relating to the unfamiliar nature of study conditions in the UK for overseas students. Specific help on basic skills e.g. those covered in the introductory maths and stats lectures.
Tom can also be used as an additional source of pastoral support if you have personal issues that are likely to affect your studies, in addition to the support offered by your personal tutors.
Students can see Tom by visiting his office on Monday 11-1 in room 105 Management and Economics Building. Please feel free to pop along.
Tom will also be monitoring the “Questions for the PG tutor” discussion forum on MOLE.
Tom’s email address is:
t.warke@sheffield.ac.uk
EconSoc is the University of Sheffield’s Economics Society, and was voted ‘Society of the Year’ & ‘Departmental Society of the Year’ 2009/10
The following PGT students will act as representatives on the PGT staff student forum.
If you would like an issue raised at the SSF, please raise this with a Rep prior to the forum.
The first meeting of the PGSSF will be Wednesday 12th October, 3pm-4pm.
The Economics Staff Student Forum meets twice a semester with departmental staff to discuss course related issues.
WHY JOIN:
Undergraduate Intro Week 2011 in the Department of Economics.
To all students holding a confirmed place on a Single or Dual Honours Programme involving Economics.
We are pleased that you will be joining the University of Sheffield later this month to begin your studies for a degree involving Economics.
You should have already received information from the University’s central administration describing the procedures you should follow during Intro Week (19-23 September). You will see from this material that you will be attending an Introductory Meeting with the Department of Economics on Monday, 19 September (and, additionally, if you are a dual degree student, a meeting with your other department).
View the times and location of the Department of Economics Introductory Meetings.
The Introductory Meeting is very important but if you are unavoidably prevented from arriving in Sheffield in time for the meeting, you must visit the Economics Department desk at Module Enrolment in the Octagon Centre on Tuesday 20 or Wednesday 21 September, or the Enquiry Office on the ground floor of the Economics and Management Building, 9 Mappin Street as soon as you arrive at the University.
At the Introductory Meeting you will be given information about your degree programme and advice on choosing your optional modules, if you have any. We will also tell you about the other events the department has arranged for Intro Week including meeting your personal tutor and IT and Study Skills sessions. You will be given lots of opportunities during these events for asking questions about everything to do with the department and your studies but if you have any urgent queries in the meanwhile, please contact the Departmental Administrator, Jane Mundy, on jane.mundy@sheffield.ac.uk.
The following material will be included in the Departmental Intro Pack which you will receive at the Introductory Meeting on 19 September, but it can be viewed before your arrival by clicking on the links below.
Level 1 Degree Programmes & Modules Guide 2011-12
Department of Economics Level One Modules 2011-12
Department of Economics Level One Timetable 2011-12 – Lectures and Workshops
The following staff run our first year modules. Click on their names to find out more about them.
| Module Leader | Module (Unit) Name | Semester |
| Professor Paul Mosley | ECN102 Economic History of Modern Britain | Autumn |
| Professor Paul Mosley | ECN103 Evolution of the Global Economy | Spring |
| Dr Gaia Garino | ECN104 Introductory Finance for Economics | Spring |
| Dr Pamela Lenton | ECN105 Economic Analysis and Policy 1 | Autumn |
| Mr Simon Tebbutt | ECN107 Economic Analysis and Policy 2 | Spring |
| Dr Pamela Lenton | ECN118/9 Mathematical Methods for Economics. | Both |
| Mr Simon Tebbutt | ECN120 Statistical Methods for Economics | Both |
We all look forward to welcoming you to Sheffield.
