The impact of fiscal policy, housing market and inequality on growth

Project Description: The aim of the PhD project is to analyse the impact of fiscal policy, house price booms and inequalities on economic growth, which are the three crucial concerns regarding economic and social instability in the global economy.

The theoretical contribution is to develop a general theory of demandled growth with four novel contributions incorporating i) a detailed government sector, ii) wealth and debt effects in household consumption iii) a detailed model of private investment, disaggregating housinginvestment which is about half of total investment and is strongly determined by household behaviour, and firm investment in equipment, and iv) the impacts of financialization.

This yields a more realistic model beyond the simplifications of the existing post-Keynesian models. The second contribution is methodological. The UN’s framework of national accounts (System of National Accounts (SNA)) includes several data imputations, which do not correspond to any actually occurring expenditures in the economy. The methodological innovation is to create a set of adjusted series excluding these imputations and to assess how these imputations affect macroeconomic analysis.

For example in SNA series imputation of rental income, which is paid to a hypothetical business, creates an upward bias in the propensity to consume out of income in official. The third step is to use these adjusted as well as original SNA series to
econometrically estimate the theoretical model for two countries: the US and the UK.
Making an Application
Please read this information before making an application: http://www2.gre.ac.uk/research/study/studentships

Information on the application process is available at: http://www2.gre.ac.uk/research/study/apply/application_process

Applications need to be made online via this link. No other form of application will be considered. All applications must include the following information. Applications not containing these documents will not be considered.

• Scholarship Reference Number (Ref)– included in the personal statement section together with your personal statement as to why you are applying
• a research proposal related to the subject topic *
• a CV including 2 referees *
• academic qualification certificates/transcripts and IELTs/English Language certificate if you are an international applicant or if English is not your first language or you are from a country where English is not the majority spoken language as defined by the UK Border Agency *

*upload to the qualification section of the application form. Attachments must be a PDF format.

Before submitting your application you are encouraged to liaise with the Lead Supervisor on the details
above.