Economics Applied macroeconomics
Our research examines how the economy performs and evolves at a national level, with a particular focus on applications to real-world challenges facing policymakers and business.
Research in applied macroeconomics has been a key activity of the Department of Economics for almost four decades. Our aim is to develop evidence-based theoretical models and to provide theory-informed and policy-relevant research, which is associated with high-level, high impact knowledge exchange.
Researchers in the Department have extensive expertise in applied multi-sectoral macroeconomic modelling, especially at the regional level such as Input-Output and Computable General Equilibrium, economic accounts, regional nowcasting and Vector Autoregression models. Recent applications include the distributional impact of fiscal policies and fiscal devolution, tourism, trade, regional GDP measurement, and the links between energy, environment and the economy.
Example publications
- Allan, G., Figus, G., McGregor, P. G., & Swales, J. K. (2021). “Resilience in a behavioural/Keynesian regional model.” Environment and Planning A, 53(4), 858-876.
- Byrne, J.P., Sakemoto, R. and Xu, B., (2020), “Commodity Prices Co-movement: Heterogeneity and the Time-Varying Impact of Fundamentals.” European Review of Agricultural Economics, vol. 47, pp. 499-528.
- Comerford, D., Mora, S., Watts, M. (2022) “Meritocracy and the inheritance of advantage”, Journal of Economic Growth
- Connolly, K., Eiser, D., Kumar, A., McGregor, P.G., & Roy, G. (2021). “Universal Basic Income as an instrument of regional development policy: a micro-macroeconomic analysis for Scotland.” Regional Studies, 56(6), 1043-1055
- Darby, J., McIntyre, S. & Roy, G. (2022) “What can analysis of 47 million job advertisements tell us about how opportunities for homeworking are evolving in the United Kingdom?” Industrial Relations Journal, 53:4, 281-302.
- Davidson, S.N., (2022) Regional Integration and Decoupling in the Asia Pacific: A Bayesian Panel VAR Approach, IMF Economic Review
- Duparc-Portier, G., & Figus, G. (2022). “The impact of the new Northern Ireland protocol: can Northern Ireland enjoy the best of both worlds?” Regional Studies, 56:8, 1404-1417
- Koop G., McIntyre S., Mitchell J., Poon A., (2022), “Reconciled Estimates of Monthly GDP in the United States”, Journal of Business & Economic Statistics
Funding
- Building a Suite of Subnational Socioeconomic Indicators for the United Kingdom: Opportunities, Challenges and Recommendations, Principal Investigator: Davidson, S.N., Co-Investigators: Connolly, K and Spowage, M, Funded by the: Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence
- Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy. Investigators: James Black, Gioele Figus, Mairi Spowage, Ian Wooton, in collaboration with Sussex University. Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (2022-2027)
- The sectoral economic impacts of COVID-19 on the tourism economy: a regional analysis focussed on Scotland, Principal Investigator: Grant Allan, Co-Investigator Gioele Figus. Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (2021-2022)
- Regional Nowcasting in the UK, Principal Investigator Gary Koop, Co-Investigator Stuart McIntyre. Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence a centre funded by the Office for National Statistics, (Awards covering: 2017-2019; 2019-2021; and 2021-2023)
Knowledge Exchange Projects
- Davidson, S.N. (2020) Consultant with the European Central Bank’s Directorate General Macroprudential Policy and Financial Stability on a project assessing the Nonlinear Effects of Bank Vulnerability Shocks on Euro Area Countries
- Davidson, S.N. and Spowage, M. (2021) Improving the Quality of Regional Economic Indicators in the UK: A Framework for Interregional Trade Data Collection & Estimation, ESCoE Technical Report Series [ESCoE TR 13] Funded by the: Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence
