Public Economics UK

About PEUK

Public Economics UK was started from a small base of like-minded economists in 1994 and over the years has expanded to include almost all public economists in the UK. We hold two internationally renowned conference known as Public Economics Weekends* per year, one of which is usually held at Warwick University whilst the other is held at an alternative host institution around the UK.

(* not necessarily held at the weekend)

The History

Public Economics UK has grown out of the UK Public Economics Working Group which was established in 1994 with , a one-and-a-half day conference held with the aim of cross-disseminating current research between UK public economists and their North American counterparts. The initial conference, which was funded by the University of Warwick, was very successful on its own terms but, more importantly, it created the recognition amongst the UK participants that cross-institution UK collaboration was needed and would be beneficial to both individual public economists and the international reputation of public economics in the UK. In 1995 the Institute for Fiscal Studies and Warwick University agreed to co-sponsor the group and a UK-based ‘Public Economics Working Group’ was formed with the aim of members meeting to present and discuss current research with other UK academics working in public economics By the end of the first year of the Warwick/IFS collaboration, not only had Warwick and the IFS strengthened their ties and broadened the scope of their partnership, but the members of the working group consisted of over thirty researchers and graduate students from a broad range of UK academic institutions including Oxford, the LSE, Bath, the IFS, UCL, Warwick University, Exeter University, Leicester University, the University of Essex, East Anglia, the National University of Ireland and Keele University, all of whom participated in meetings on a regular basis.

In 1996 the group was awarded an ESRC Research Seminar Competition grant to continue the meetings for the following two years. Efforts were made by the organisers of the group to expand membership and involve even more graduate students. An e-mail list was set up and a Web page established in order to advertise. The IFS and Warwick continued to underwrite some of the costs. In 1996 additional support for the Weekend was obtained from Barents a private sector financial corporation, while in 1997 Essex University hosted the Weekend and underwrote some of the costs. In 2000 the group was awarded an additional ESRC Research Seminar Competition grant , the aim of that was similar to the aim of the previous one. At the conclusion of this award, the group now has an international mailing list of over 100 individuals located at academic institutions all over the world and a homepage at the IFS. The UK-based heart of the group has representation from almost every academic institution in England with, we believe, all research students working on public economics in England having attended at least some of the meetings and/or been involved in presentations, or been made aware of group activities. At the end of the ESRC award, HM Treasury was approached for funding and they responded enthusiastically partially supporting the group for the next three years (again with the rest of the funding coming from Warwick), and after the period of Treasury support we were delighted to get funding from Inland Revenue (supplemented with help from STICERD at LSE, CMPO at Bristol and the University of Leicester).