Nuffield College, Student Prospectus, Studying at Nuffield College, Economics

Nuffield College has by far the largest number of economists (researchers and graduate students) of any college in Oxford. The Economics Group at Nuffield thus lies at the heart of Economics in Oxford. Four of the six University chairs are located at Nuffield. Three Nobel Prize winners in Economics are former Fellows: John Hicks, Jim Mirrlees, and Amartya Sen. Among the current faculty are seven Fellows of the British Academy and eight Fellows of the Econometric Society. Nuffield Fellows currently serve as co-editors of the Review of Economic Studies, the Economic Journal, and the Econometrics Journal, as well as being associate editors on numerous editorial boards.

Economists at Nuffield work on a wide range of subjects, both applied and theoretical. This is reflected in the large number of seminar series and workshops organised by Nuffield economists. These include the Oxford seminar series in Economic Theory, Econometrics, and Finance. While the Nuffield faculty has broad interests, it has particular strengths in Applied Microeconomic Theory (Auctions, Industrial Economics, Regulation, Information Economics, Contract Theory, etc.) and Econometrics (Forecasting, Financial Econometrics, Quantitative Macroeconomics, etc.).

Most economics students at Nuffield enter by way of the MPhil, which is the only two-year taught Economics master's course in the UK. The course is similar to the first two years in a PhD programme at one of the top US universities, and students often stay on to complete a doctoral thesis (DPhil). In the first year of the MPhil programme, students take the core courses in Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, and Econometrics; in the second year, students write a thesis in addition to taking optional papers (available in a wide range of subjects). Those students who come to Oxford already possessing a master's qualification from a top Economics department may proceed directly to Probationary Research Student status, becoming full DPhil students in due course.

Research topics chosen by Economics students at Nuffield vary widely. The following list of recent DPhil and MPhil titles underlines the diversity of the research carried out in the College:

·	'Privatisation, Regulation and Exclusion: A Theoretical Analysis'
·	'Essays on Wage Determination: Some Empirical and Theoretical Aspects'
·	'A Study of Life After Auctions'
·	'An Economic Analysis of Pension Systems and Reforms'
·	'Co-ordination in Games: Learning, Voting and Attrition'
·	'Product Differentiation: A Survey and Some New Perspectives'
·	'Traders' Beliefs and the Formation of Asset Bubbles'
·	'Uncertainty and Strategic Behaviour'

The research interests in economics of Fellows of the College include:

Tony Atkinson

Public economics. Economics of income distribution and poverty, Microeconomics

Representative Papers:

·	'Multidimensional Deprivation: Contrasting Social Welfare and Counting Approaches', Journal of Economic Inequality, 2003.
·	'Developing Comparable Indicators for Monitoring Social Inclusion in the European Union', Reporting on Income Distribution and Poverty, Springer Verlag, 2003.
·	'Social Inclusion and the European Union', Journal of Common Market Studies, 2002.
·	'The Transatlantic Consensus on Rising Income Inequality', The World Economy, 2001.
·	'The welfare state, budgetary pressure and labour market shifts', Scandinavian Journal of Economics, vol 102, 2000.
·	'Income Distribution and Economics' in Handbook of Income Distribution, Elsevier, 2000.
·	'Bringing income distribution in from the cold', Economic Journal, vol 107, 1997.

Christopher Bliss

(Emeritus)

Economic theory and economic policy. International economics - particularly protection and trade policy. Macroeconomics. Development economics: including growth, convergence and income distribution.

Representative Papers:

·	'A Specific-Factors Model with Historical Application', Review of International Economics, 2003.
·	'Galton's Fallacy and Economic Convergence', Oxford Economic Papers, 51, 4-14, 1999 and 'Galton's Fallacy and Economic Convergence: A Reply', Oxford Economic Papers, 52, 420-2, 2000.
·	'Stolper-Samuelson and the Corn Laws', in Gary Cook (ed.), The Economics and Politics of International Trade, vol 2. London and New York: Routledge, 1998.
·	'The Real Rate of Interest: A Theoretical Analysis', Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 15, 1999.

Steve Bond

Company investment, behaviour and performance; corporate taxation; econometrcs of panel data.

Representative Papers:

·	'Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations' (with M. Arellano), Review of Economic Studies, 58, 1991.
·	'Dynamic Investment Models and the Firm's Financial Policy' (with C. Meghir), Review of Economic Studies, 61, 1994.
·	'Initial Conditions and Moment Conditions in Dynamic Panel Data Models' (with R. Blundell), Journal of Econometrics, 87, 1998.
·	'The Stock Market and Investment in the New Economy: Some Tangible Facts and Intangible Fictions' (with J. Cummins), Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 2000:1.

Martin Browning

Applied microeconometrics, in particular, economics of the family, demand analysis, consumption and saving, design of social support systems.

Jurgen Doornik

Computational Econometrics and Time Series Econometrics: cointegration analysis, ARFIMA models, GARCH models.

Representative Papers:

·	with Nielsen, B. and Rothenberg, T.J. (2003), 'The Influence of VAR Dimensions on Estimator Biases: Comment', Econometrica, 71, 377-384.
·	with Ooms, M. (2003), 'Computational Aspects of Maximum Likelihood Estimation of Autoregressive Fractionally Integrated Moving Average Models', Computational Statistics and Data Analysis, 42, 333-348.
·	with Beyer, A., and Hendry, D.F. (2001). 'Constructing Historical Euro-Zone Data', Economic Journal, 111, 308-327.
·	(2001). Ox: An Object-Oriented Matrix Language (4th edition), London: Timberlake Consultants Press.
·	with S.J. Koopman and N. Shephard (1999). 'Statistical algorithms for models in state space form using SsfPack 2.2' (with discussion), Econometrics Journal, Vol 2, 107-160.
·	(1998). 'Approximations to the Asymptotic Distribution of Cointegration Tests', Journal of Economic Surveys, 12, 573-593.

David Hendry

Econometrics. Forecasting, methodology, and time series.

Representative Papers:

·	'J Denis Sargan and the Origins of LSE Econometric Methodology', Econometric Theory, 19, 2003, 457-480.
·	'Assessing Subsample-based Model Selection Procedures', (with H-M. Krolzig), Advances in Economics and Econometrics: Theory and Applications, Edward Elgar, 2003.
·	'Forecast Failure, Expectations Formation, and the Lucas Critique', Annales d'Economie et de Statistique, 67/68, 2002, 21-40.
·	'Modelling UK Inflation, 1875-1991', Journal of Applied Econometrics, 16, 2001, 255-275.
·	'Reformulating Empirical Macro-econometric Modelling', (with G.E. Mizon) Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 16, 2001, 138-159.
·	'Computer Automation of General-to-Specific Model Selection Procedures', (with H-M. Krolzig), Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 25, 2001, 831--866.
·	'On Detectable and Non-detectable Structural Change', Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 11, 2000, 45-65.

Ian Jewitt

Microeconomic theory, Contract theory, Iincentives in Organisations, Information and Stochastic Order.

Representative Papers:

·	'The Economics of Career Concerns, Part I: Comparison of Information Structures', (with Mathias Dewatripont and Jean Tirole), Review of Economic Studies, Jan 1999, 66, 183-198.
·	'The Economics of Career Concerns, Part II: Applications to Missions and Accountability of Government Agencies', (with Mathias Dewatripont and Jean Tirole), Review of Economic Studies, Jan 1999, 66, 199-217.
·	'Separability and Optimal Uniform Taxation', (with T. Besley), Journal of Public Economics, 1995, 73-85.
·	'Justifying the First-Order Approach to Principal-Agent Problems', Econometrica, 56, 1117-1190, 1988.

Paul Klemperer

Industrial economics theory and policy. Competition policy. Microeconomic theory, especially auction theory.

Representative Papers:

·	'Multimarket Oligopoly: Strategic Substitutes and Complements' JPE 1985, 93(3), 488-511 (with Bulow and Geanakoplos)
·	'Competition when Consumers have Switching Costs' REStud 1995, 62(4), 515-39
·	'Auctions with Almost Common Values' European Economic Review 1998, 42(3-5), 757-69
·	'The Generalized War of Attrition' American Economic Review, 1999, 89(1), 175-89 (with Bulow)
·	'Using and Abusing Economic Theory', Journal of the Economic Association, 2003, 1, 272-300.

Meg Meyer

Internal organization of firms; incentives and contracts; information transmission; industrial organization.

Representative Papers:

·	'Performance Comparisons and Dynamic Incentives' (with John Vickers), J. of Political Economy, June 1997
·	'Learning from Coarse Information: Biased Contests and Career Profiles', Review of Economic Studies, Jan. 1991
·	'Organizational Prospects, Influence Costs, and Ownership Changes' (with Paul Milgrom and John Roberts), J. of Economics and Management Strategy, Spring 1992
·	'Supply Function Equilibria in Oligopoly under Uncertainty' (with Paul Klemperer), Econometrica, Nov. 1989

John Muellbauer

Housing markets and the economy; consumer behaviour; productivity growth and employment fluctuations, the UK economy, monetary transmission and policy, macroeconometrics.

Representative Papers:

·	'The UK and EMU: Lessons from Europe', Economic Outlook, 27, 2003.
·	'Personal and Corporate Saving in South Africa', (with Janine Aron), World Bank Economic Review, 14, 2000, no.3, 509-544.
·	'Asymmetries in Housing and Financial Market Institutions and EMU', (with Duncan Maclennan and Mark Stephens), Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 14, 1998, no 3, 54-80. Revised version in T. Jenkinson (ed), Readings in Macroeconomics, OUP, 2000.
·	'Booms and Busts in the UK Housing Market', (with Anthony Murphy), Economic Journal, 107, 1997, pp. 1701-1727.
·	'Income Persistence and Macropolicy Feedbacks in the US', Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 58, 1996, pp. 703-733.

David Myatt

Specialist expertise lies in game theory, political economy, formal political science, and industrial organization.

Bent Nielsen

Research Fellow. Econometric theory. Cointegration models. Asymptotic and finite sample analysis.

Representative Papers:

·	'Likelihood Analysis of a First Order Autoregressive Model with Exponential Innovations', (with N. Shephard), Journal of Time Series Analysis, 2003, 24, p. 337-344.
·	'The Asymptotic Distribution of Unit Root Tests of Unstable Autoregressive Processes'. Econometrica 2001, vol. 69, p. 211-219.
·	'Cointegration analysis in the presence of structural breaks in the deterministic trend' (with Søren Johansen and Rocco Mosconi). Econometrics Journal 2000, vol. 3, p. 216-249.
·	'The likelihood ratio test for rank in bivariate canonical correlation analysis'. Biometrika 1999, vol. 86, p. 279-288 .
·	Asymptotic inference on cointegrating rank in partial systems' (with Ingrid Harbo, Søren Johansen and Anders Rahbek). Journal of Business and Economic Statistics 1998, vol. 16, p. 388-399.

Kevin Roberts

Microeconomic theory. Welfare Economics and Social Choice Theory.

Representative Papers:

·	'Interpersonal Comparability and Social Choice Theory', Review of Economic Studies, 1980.
·	'The Limit Points of Monopolistic Competition', Journal of Economic Theory, 1980.
·	'Effective Policy Tools and Quantity Constraints', (with R Guesnerie), Econometrica, 1984.
·	'Objective Interpersonal Comparisons of Utility', Social Choice and Welfare, 1997.

Neil Shephard

Econometrics. Simulation, finance and statistics.

Representative Papers:

·	'Dynamics of Trade-by-Trade Price Movements: Decomposition and Models' (with Tina H. Rydberg), Journal of Financial Econometrics, 1, 2003.
·	'Estimating Quadratic Variation using Realised Variance' (with Ole E. Barndorff-Nielsen), Journal of Applied Econometrics, 17, 2002.
·	'Likelihood inference for discretely observed non-linear diffusions' (with Ola Elerian and Siddhartha Chib), Econometrica, 69, 2001.
·	'Non-Gaussian Ornstein-Uhlenbeck-based models and some of their uses in financial economics (with discussion)' (with Ole E. Barndorff-Nielsen), Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B, 63, 2001, 167-241.
·	'Filtering via simulation: auxiliary particle filter' (with Michael K. Pitt). Journal of the American Statistical Association, 94, 1999, 590-9.
·	'Stochastic volatility: likelihood inference and comparison with ARCH models' (with Sangjoon Kim and Siddhartha Chib). Review of Economic Studies, 65, 1998, 361-93.

Richard Spady

Econometrics, especially nonparametric and semiparametric theory and applications; higher-order asymptotic theory; empirical likelihood and related methods.

Representative Papers:

·	'Information theoretic approaches to inference in moment-condition models', Econometrica, 1998, 66: 333-357 (with G. Imbens and P. Johnson).
·	'An efficient semiparametric estimator for binary response models,' Econometrica, 1993, 61: 387-421 (with R. W. Klein).
·	'Asymptotic expansions of the information matrix test statistic,' Econometrica, 1991, 59: 787-815 (with A.D. Chesher).
·	'Saddlepoint approximations for regression models,' Biometrika, 1991, 397-416.

Peyton Young

Diffusion of innovations. Evolution of norms, conventions and other forms of social institutions.


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Studying at Nuffield College - Economics