Big Data Britain

​From William Playfair to Boris’ campaign data: the birth and death of statistics in Britain.

The Economist's Society is delighted to welcome both Richard Davies and Ed Conway to talk about the uses (or not) of statistics in Britain.

Richard Davies is a research fellow at the LSE where he specialises in using micro data to answer macroeconomic questions. As well as economic research works across journalism, public policy and the charitable sector, he was previously economics editor of The Economist, and edited their Guide to the Modern Economy published in 2015; he has been Chair of Economic Advisers at HM Treasury and an economist and speechwriter at the Bank of England. He is a founding trustee of CORE economics education.

Ed Conway is a journalist and author. In 2011 he became the first economics editor for Sky News, having held the post of economics editor at both the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph previously. He also writes a weekly column for The Times, often motivating his argument with new facts and trends he picks up from economic data. His books include 50 Economics ideas you really need to know about and The Summit, an account of the Bretton Woods conference which established the IMF and World Bank. Most recently he has been working on a documentary about the economics of the ocean, which will be broadcast on Sky in March.

This will be an interactive talk, with lots of time to ask questions so bring some prepared - on the topics at hand, or on either of our speakers careers!
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