Research projects

MERG is launching 4 projects:

A) Cambridge University, Jane Cooley Fruehwirth (lecturer, Department of
Economics): role of the Church of England in times of recession, looking at
clergy supply (whether it increases during economic downturns) and church
attendance.

B) Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS). This project aims to analyse
the effects that the proposed government policy of pay regionalisation in
the public sector would have in the UK.

C) The New Economics Foundation: Industrial Strategy. This is a project
modelling and analysing industrial strategies aimed at achieving 'good
jobs' that have the right balance between objectives such as income
equality, secure employment, and full employment. The research would be
steered by a task force including amongst others Ha-Joon Chang (Cambridge
University).

D) Building and Social Housing Foundation: UK Housing Research Team. Exact
project to be determined. For more details see:
http://www.bshf.org/ukhpp/?lang=00 Selection for membership of these
research groups will be competitive, and based on performance in a written
composition.


To be considered for selection, please choose your most preferred topic
(A-D) and find an existing piece of literature that you think will be
relevant to the research. Please review this critically and write a
250-word piece on how the paper relates to the topic. Please also rank the
projects 1 to 4 by your order of preference.

The deadline is 6pm on Sunday 12 February. Please send your submission,
including your name, course and year, to mergexternal@gmail.com.