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Research at Oxford by members of the International Growth Centre (IGC), funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Department for International Development (DFID), has played an important role in shaping two key areas of monetary and exchange rate policy formulation in East Africa.
Research on food prices and inflation in Tanzania is providing the technical basis for the discussions of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of Tanzania, and has contributed to current thinking by the African Development Bank (ADB) on policy responses to global food price volatility in East Africa.
Work on exchange rate policy has helped shape the Draft Protocol on East African Monetary Union currently being negotiated between the East African Community (EAC) partner states (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi).
Chang's research has covered a wide range of public policy, including industrial policy, trade policy, privatisation, and agricultural policy, as well as theories of state intervention. By successfully challenging the then prevailing orthodoxy on economic development, his research has had significant influence on the actions of many national governments, multilateral institutions (e.g., the UN, the World Bank) and NGOs (e.g., Oxfam). Chang's research has also had substantial impact on public debate concerning economic policies, especially but not exclusively those regarding development issues. He has had two best-selling mass-market books (together sold 1.15 million copies as of December 2012) and gained worldwide media exposure for his views.
In the early 2000s the increasing Chinese, Brazilian, Indian and South African multinational enterprise investments into advanced economies were greeted with genuine concern by policy makers in these emerging economies, where the fear was that this was a prelude to disinvestment and relocation to advanced economies. Many of these policy makers and their advisors went to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) for guidance, which in turn harnessed the specialist expertise of University of Reading professors John H Dunning (joined Reading in 1964, now deceased) and Rajneesh Narula (at Reading since 2004).
Narula and Dunning wrote a key report, which transformed UNCTAD's technical assistance programme and reassured emerging market policy makers that this pattern of MNE investment was entirely predictable and not a prelude to disinvestment. The policy response in these countries was duly moderated.
John Moore's Edinburgh-based research (1993-) on the role of trust and liquidity in the amplification and propagation of business cycles has informed both the understanding of, and the policy response to, the recent financial crisis in central banking circles around the world. His insight into the self-reinforcing effect of a decline in asset prices via the collateral multiplier has been instrumental in making sense of the crisis. Moore's work has also provided intellectual underpinning for the unconventional monetary policy — quantitative easing — that central banks, including the Federal Reserve (over US$1.5 trillion) and the Bank of England (over £375 billion) have undertaken in response to the crisis.
Professor Ben Fine's scholarship has demonstrated how networks of capital organised within and around mining and energy have exercised decisive influence over the character and trajectory of the South African economy. Although extending beyond analysis of these sectors, central to his research has been the notion that South Africa incorporates a minerals-energy complex. This notion, and the insights it provides, has been enthusiastically taken up by government departments, including the South African Department of Trade and Industry, by trade unions, political parties, intellectuals and commentators such that it has influenced policy debate, policy in practice and entered popular discourse.
Research by Surrey's Centre for International Macroeconomic Studies (CIMS) has had significant impact on monetary policy in several emerging economies.
This case study highlights impact in Nigeria and Pakistan. Both are important emerging economies: Nigeria is the second largest economy in Africa and ranks 30th by world GDP (adjusted for purchasing power parity), while Pakistan ranks 27th; yet GDP per capita is relatively low in both.
Since 2008, Surrey research has: (1) led to the establishment of a new Centre for Survey Research at the State Bank of Pakistan, collecting data that have directly influenced the Bank's monetary policy; (2) steered reform of the macroeconomic models used by the State Bank and the Central Bank of Nigeria; and (3) helped develop a new approach to monetary policy Nigeria.
Research by Professor Mark Casson and colleagues at the University of Reading demonstrated that the net benefits of inward investment to the UK economy had been systematically overstated by HM Treasury (HMT) up until 2007. The research findings overturned the Treasury's view that all foreign direct investment (FDI) by multinational enterprises (MNEs) was equally beneficial to the UK economy, and so equally merited special efforts to attract it. Instead the University of Reading research was able to show that UK-located SMEs would provide a bigger return to any subsidy either by increasing export sales, or by building stronger links within the supply chains of overseas MNEs. The research team's report led to a change in Government policy after 2007, with measures to attract FDI since that date being targeted only towards those types of investment which are most likely to unambiguously benefit the UK economy.
The role and operations of the IMF are of central importance to the efficient functioning of the world economy. Via a US$360 billion budget, its policies exert a significant effect on the well-being of billions of people worldwide.
Research at Surrey has challenged conventional thinking at the IMF and has been a key influence on changes to several of its policies involving participation in IMF programmes, their implementation, and their effects on other international capital flows. This case study focuses in particular on policy relating to IMF conditionality and lending, as well as the Fund's relationship with low income countries. It is often cited in IMF documents and has been used extensively by the IMF, central banks and aid agencies.
Bradford research led to the development of the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) model which fed into the formulation of international policy tools: namely the Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment (PRAI) and the Indicators for Measuring and Maximizing Economic Value Added and Job Creation from Private Investment in Specific Value Chains (IMMEV). PRAI was adopted by the Group of 20 (G20) Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in 2010 and is currently in use to determine relevant national policies aiming to attract investment in agriculture, in Africa and South East Asia. IMMEV is used to support the Development Pillar of G20 and its use is currently implemented in six countries (Bangladesh, Cambodia, Dominican Republic, Laos, Mongolia and Mozambique).
An enhanced appreciation of entrepreneurship, innovation and new enterprise growth has become crucial to economic policy around the globe. Led by Professor Gordon Murray OBE, research at the University of Exeter continues to play a significant role in broadening understanding of this increasingly important area. Murray's research and expertise have assisted in shaping policy in several countries, including the UK, and have underpinned the formation of an influential international academic policymaker forum. The effective delivery of Murray's research to the world of business and industry has strengthened the vital links with academia, and through consistent engagement with a wider audience in high-profile media appearances, Murray's research continues to influence economic policy.