Research:

Phil Lawler's principal research interests lie in the areas of macroeconomics and monetary policy. He has papers published or forthcoming in many leading economics journals including: the American Economic Review, Economica, the Economic Journal, Economics Letters, Oxford Economic Papers, and the Scandinavian Journal of Economics. Issues which provide the focus of both recent and ongoing research include: interaction between unionised labour markets and monetary policy; the appropriate design of central bank objectives; and the factors influencing the degree to which central banks should disclose their own information to the wider public.

PhD Areas and Topics in Economics

Administration:

Assessment and Examinations Coordinator (Economics)
Member, School of Business and Economics Teaching Committee

Other Information

Awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship (2007-8) for research into ‘Central Bank Transparency and Monetary Policy’.
External Examiner, Loughborough University

Selected recent publications:

• 'Union Wage Setting and Exchange Rate Policy', Economica 67, January 2000, pp91-100. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-0335.00197]
• ‘Centralized Wage Setting, Inflation Contracts, and the Optimal Choice of Central Banker’, Economic Journal 110, April 2000, pp559-575. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-0297.00537]
• ‘Monetary Policy, Central Bank Objectives and Social Welfare with Strategic Wage Setting’, Oxford Economic Papers 53, January 2001, pp94-113. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oep/53.1.94]
• ‘Monetary Uncertainty, Strategic Wage Setting and Equilibrium Employment’, Economics Letters 77, September 2002, pp 41-45. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0165-1765(02)00112-X]
• ‘Monetary Uncertainty, the Appropriate Choice of Central Banker and Social Welfare’, Economic Issues 9 (Part 2), September 2004, pp43-49.
•  ‘Central Bank Inflation Contracts and Strategic Wage Setting in a Multi-union Economy’, Economics Letters 88, March 2005, pp323-329. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2004.08.004]
•  ‘Productivity, Indexation and Macroeconomic Outcomes: the Implications of Goods Market Competition and Wage Bargaining Structure’, Journal of Economics and Business 58, September 2006, pp 465-479 (with Jonathan James). [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconbus.2006.06.005]
• ‘Might a Conservative Central Banker Reduce Employment Variability?’, Economics Letters 93, December 2006, pp367-373 (with Jonathan James). [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2006.06.012]
•  ‘Supply Shocks, Private Sector Information and Monetary Policy: Is there Inevitably a Stabilization Trade-Off’, Economics Letters 96, July 2007, pp77-83 (with Jonathan James). [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2006.12.013]
• ‘Strategic Wage Setting, Inflation Uncertainty and Optimal Delegation’, European Journal of Political Economy 23, December 2007, pp1105-1118. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpoleco.02.002]
• ‘Aggregate Demand Shocks, Private Signals and Employment Variability: Can Better Information Be Harmful?’ Economics Letters 100, 2008, pp101-104 (with Jonathan James).
• ‘Aggregate Demand Shocks, Central Bank Preferences and Macroeconomic Outcomes with Imperfect Information’ Economics Letters 105, 2009, pp208-210 (with Jonathan James). http://dx.doi.org/1016/j.econlet.2009.08.001
• ‘Union Objectives and Indexation Externalities in a Monopolistically Competitive Economy’ Research in Economics 64, 2010, pp28-35 (with Jonathan James) http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rie.2009.08.001
• ‘Optimal Policy Intervention and the Social Value of Public Information’ American Economic Review (forthcoming, with Jonathan James).
• ‘Macroeconomic shocks, unionized labour markets and central bank disclosure policy: how beneficial is increased transparency?’ European Journal of Political Economy (forthcoming, with Jonathan James). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2010.04.002
• ‘Unions, Monopolistic Competition and the Optimal Monetary Regime’ Metroeconomica (forthcoming, with Jonathan James). http://doi:10.1111/j.1467-999X.2010.04102.x