Economic theory
Research Topic
Language: English
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- How might COVID-19 shape wider social attitudes towards trade and investment?
- In response to a trade shock, what innovative approaches to support data collection, dissemination and application can be taken, without burdening businesses and frontline staff?
- How can data flows be rapidly improved, promoting data sharing across research, government and industry to allow secure collaboration?
- What measures limit international trade restrictions on exports (including healthcare supplies) and investment resulting from global shocks?
- What principles should be used to delegate responsibilities to local communities, and how can these areas be empowered to deliver?
- How can we assess the longer-term structural changes to the global trading system following a shock, including the assessment of the long-term impacts of short-term responses to COVID-19?
- How can forecasting methods inform long-term total factor productivity growth?
- How can we best develop an inclusive societal vision for a just transition towards sustainability? At what spatial scale should such visions be developed and how to reconcile across scales? How can we best manage the polycentric governance to implement these visions?
- How can the economic, financial and social benefits of digital collaboration, knowledge-sharing platforms and information management be quantified?
- What can we learn about sequencing the levels of intervention and openness in an economy following a shock? How can economic theories, such as transition economics, inform this?
- What effect does COVID-19 have on business models and supply chain structure? How does the renewed focus on shortening or regionalisation vary by sector?
- As well as modelling and understanding major land use change (for example from agriculture to forestry), how can we understand the effects of more subtle changes in land management across wide areas (for example changing tillage practice)?
- How can we best establish which UK research and technology organisations are undertaking work for overseas companies, and which have operations outside of the UK?
- How can the UK best uphold the global rules-based system to support trade recovery?
- How do we incorporate the full spectrum of natural capital and the value of the benefits it provides into policy development, analysis, and appraisal? What are the tools we need to make use of robust economic values easier for everyone – across government and beyond?
- What are the influences on young people’s decision making at key education transition points, including subject and qualification choice at key stage 4 and 5? How do these choices influence their later economic outcomes?
- How will COVID-19 affect global technological adoption rates and what will that mean for disruptions to global trade and investment patterns?
- How can we effectively evaluate countries’ relative technology readiness levels (TRL), by technical area, sector and overall strategy? To what extent does the commercial, regulatory and legal environment impact on TRLs? To what extent can market access restrictions to some sectors have wider impacts on trade within other sectors?
- How can we measure the impact of a trade agreement on value added trade? How does this differ by sector?
- How can policy measures best encourage and support businesses to recover and return to international trade post-crisis, given differing attitudes to risk?
- Changing world: How have evolutions in our statistical system (such as the greater focus on administrative sources for statistics) influenced how statistics are produced, used, and valued? How may advances in wider society (such as the increasing sophistication of large language models) influence how statistics are produced, used, and valued?
- Do longer term funding packages result in better outcomes? What’s the evidence?
- How can government policy best foster supply chain resilience, and incentivise businesses to develop supply chain resilience strategies?
- What is the value of different elements of the natural environment in economic terms and more generally? How can we best capture and integrate intangible values into decision-making?
- What are the best ways to measure business perceptions of risk in relation to exporting post COVID-19?
- Analysis of social and economic interactions with the environment and natural resources. What are the links and trade-offs between biodiversity, climate, sustainable management of forestry, soils and peatland restoration, economic development, food, health, wellbeing, and global poverty?
- What are the implications and opportunities of demographic (e.g. ageing workforce), geographic (e.g. hubs) and technological (e.g. automation, robotics and machine learning - cognitive technologies) change for the ways in which the Civil Service is organised?
- How effective are marine protected areas and how can we monitor and evaluate the ecological, social, economic, and cultural costs and benefits of these areas?
- How can we better measure interactions of regulations and how they adapt in response to innovation?
- What actions would most effectively and efficiently improve the status of the natural environment and secure economic, social, and health benefits domestically and globally?
- How can insights from behavioural economics and nudge theory inform business engagement with DIT products and services?
- How can finance, logistics and other data be brought together to accurately track the ordering and delivery of emergency supplies through supply chains including medical supplies?
- How can open source data, big data and data science techniques inform us about the emerging trends in trade across different sectors?
- How do climate risks interact with socio-economic factors and vulnerabilities? Where do inequalities lie, and how can access to adaptive benefits be maximised for the most socially vulnerable/disadvantaged in society?
- Global drivers of declines in nature are well documented but we need to understand how drivers interact in the UK and globally, as well as the global impacts of UK activities. We also need to understand how our actions to address declines (such as policy responses, intervention and environmental management) impact drivers
- What challenges might developing economies face when engaging with the international economy that developed economies might not? How can the UK best support trade recovery in developing economies?
- Assess socio-economic information to support and incentivise a change to secure the long-term sustainability of seafood exploitation whilst reducing the environmental impact of exploitation
- How do England’s general, technical and academic education systems compare to systems in other developed economies in terms of status, structure, operation and performance? How can the performance of England’s systems be monitored relative to systems in these other countries?
- How can we better understand future flood and coastal erosion risk? Including assessing the impact of climate change, and wider social, political, or economic factors
- How has the COVID-19 pandemic influenced how people engage with and value environmental systems (including nature, wildlife, and farming and food supply)? What opportunities does this present to lock-in positive behaviour change and secure environmental objectives in the longer term?
- How can the UK protect and increase its standing stock of organic carbon: trees, peat, soil, and salt marshes? How can these habitats most efficiently be distributed spatially given limited land and other needs (for example urban space, food production, recreation)? How can increases in carbon stocks be achieved while maximising co-benefits such as biodiversity, clean water, and nutrient balance?
- How can we develop pathways towards net zero that are socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable? What is the range of viable solutions, and what are the associated co-benefits and trade-offs? This includes developing spatially explicit models and tools to inform decisions at the landscape level, including prioritisation of conflicting land use demands
- Which techniques are best for estimating the effects of interacting risks? How do we ensure that communication of risk is relevant and effective? What lessons can we take from the response to the coronavirus pandemic about the communication of risk and of the need for behavioural change?
- What are the long-term impact of provisions that bind in existing market access and reduce uncertainty?
- How can global demand shocks (including for emergency and medical supplies) be best modelled, accounting for uncertainty?
- In the event of a trade shock, how can data requirements for taking rapid decisions be met using real time indicators (RTIs) and non-traditional sources of data? How can data science evaluate and improve the quality and reliability of RTIs?
- How can we make the most of participatory/ co-design approaches with different groups in society, including digital engagement, to generate new ideas, learn from existing practice, and build consensus for the future of policy?
- What can international best practice tell us about using data to manage the shock and recovery?
- How can we assess how much value is created in each stage of a global supply chain and how do “smile curves” vary across products and sectors? For example, how can we estimate the value of intellectual property within global supply chains?
- How can comparative advantage inform future trade and investment interests across regions and sectors? What are the limits of comparative advantage here?
- What are the competing pressures, trade-offs, and synergies of different land-uses in relation to climate change in a post COVID-19 world?
- How have different sectors (aerospace, financial services, telecoms), sizes of business, regions and the self-employed been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, and how might they be impacted differently by the recovery phase?
- How can we develop and exploit new methodologies to ensure cost-effective monitoring of climate change and adaptation actions and impact on climate risk? How do we measure resilience to test the success and cost effectiveness of actions, and incorporate resilience indicators into decision making?
- How can we understand the value of provisions on mutual recognition of conformity assessment in trade agreements?
- What is the best way to model trade-offs and synergies across multiple environmental, social, and economic goals resulting from land use and land management?
- What is the emerging evidence of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economies and productivity of cities and regions, coastal/rural, and deprived areas? How does this vary across the different parts of the UK?
- How can ‘systems science’ be used by government and regulators to improve their understanding, making their policies better targeted and more effective? How can ‘behavioural science’ be used to influence the behaviour of key stakeholders (regulators, businesses and/or policymakers) to achieve better policy outcomes?
- Interactions: How does the way that statistics are produced influence the value that users get from them, and how can this be addressed to maximise value? To what degree to statistics need to be directly used for them to provide value (or do people value outcomes from others using them instead)?
- Development of models to support decision making on complex and wicked problems (for example on land use, environmental trade-offs, food systems)
- What long-term trade opportunities and risks may arise from changes in the use of technology and ways of working resulting from COVID-19?/
- What is international best practice to define and measure trade in services? This may include digital trade, e-commerce and cross-border data flows.
- What impact do further education, technical education and apprenticeships have on improving earnings and career progression for learners? What is the best way to assess the longevity/durability of impact and how does it vary by qualification and learner demography?
- What factors make countries and regions attractive as destinations for investment in high potential, early stage, technology-based entrepreneurs?
- How to model supply chains using real-time data to ensure effective supply chain security management?
- Development of systems approaches that can be used to inform policymaking. This includes approaches to provide insights into complex systems, identify points of intervention, account for multiple perspectives, and frame policy decisions