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Biography

Diane Coyle runs the consultancy Enlightenment Economics. She is Vice-Chair of the BBC Trust and member of the Migration Advisory Committee, and was for eight years a member of the Competition Commission (until September 2009). She is also a visiting professor at the University of Manchester. 

She specialises in competition analysis and the economics of new technologies and globalisation, including extensive work on the impacts of mobile telephony in developing countries. Diane is also a member of the stakeholder advisory panel of EDF Energy. 

She is the author of several books, including The Economics of Enough (Princeton University Press 2011) and The Soulful Science (2007), Sex, Drugs and Economics (2002), Paradoxes of Prosperity  (2001), Governing the World Economy (2000) and The Weightless World (1997). She has also published numerous book chapters, reports and articles, and was formerly a regular presenter on BBC Radio 4's Analysis.
 
She was previously Economics Editor of The Independent and before that worked at the Treasury and in the private sector as an economist. She has a PhD from Harvard.

Diane was awarded the OBE in January 2009.

Diane's new book is The Economics of Enough and was published in February 2011 by Princeton University Press. See the Economics of Enough Facebook page for details of events and reviews.

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Her last book was The Soulful Science (available in paperback). As the subtitle explains, it's about what economists really do and why it matters. The book surveys key developments in economics during the past 20 years, advances which have revolutionised economists' ability to analyse society and improve policies. It was one of the business books of 2008 in The Times and featured in Les Echos and the French blogosphere. Read a summary here.

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Her previous bestseller was Sex, Drugs and Economics. It takes a fun look at the application of economics to all sorts of subjects. A revised version under a creative commons licence can be downloaded as a pdf file here.

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New Wealth for Old Nations, co-edited with Wendy Alexander and Brian Ashcroft, was published by Princeton University Press in May 2005.

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Diane's first book was 'The Weightless World', published in the UK by Capstone and in the US by the MIT Press, and also translated into many other languages. Download as a 1.9MB pdf file.

It was one of the first books to look at the way the new technologies mean that economies are growing increasingly weightless, or intangible.

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A list of my other main publications, talks and broadcasts is given below. I also often write magazine and newspaper columns.

• Is the crisis in the economy a crisis of economics? Keynote presentation, Frankfurt am Main, 23 January 2012.
• The Economics of Enough: How to run the economy as if the future matters, Princeton University Press, 2011.
• Economics is on the verge of a golden age, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 2010.
• Citizen ethics - Guardian debate on ethical reasoning, held at British Museum 26 February 2010, with Professor Michael Sandel and Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury
• Bailing out the banks: reconciling stability and competition, with Thorsten Beck et al, CEPR, February 2010.
• Public Value in Practice: Restoring the Ethos of Public Service, with Chris Woolard, BBC Trust, January 2010.
• New Technologies in Emergencies and Conflicts, with Patrick Meier, United Nations Foundation/Vodafone Foundation, December 2009.
• India: The Impact of Mobile Phones, (ed) published by Vodafone, January 2009.
• Night Waves on Economics, BBC Radio 3, 23 October 2008.
• Wider Conditions for Innovation, Innovation Index Working Paper for National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, September 2008.
• Boom, bang or bust? Twenty years of global, technological and financial innovation, published by Kroll, October 2007.
• How to Tackle Poverty: Economists are closing in on the answers, in World Economics, Vol 8, No.3, July-September 2007.
• The Transformational Potential of M-Transactions, (ed) published by Vodafone/Nokia/Nokia Siemens Networks, July 2007.
• Mobility: A Nation Under Siege, published by MTC Telecom, June 2007.
• The Soulful Science, Princeton University Press, March 2007, revised January 2010.
• Searching Questions, Analysis, BBC Radio Four, 27 July 2006.
• The China Challenge, Analysis, BBC Radio Four, 9 March 2006.
• The Role of Mobile Phones in Disasters and Emergencies, published by the GSM Association, December 2005.
• The Trade Trap, Analysis, BBC Radio Four, 24 November 2005.
• New Wealth For Old Nations: Scotland's Economic Prospects, ed, with Wendy Alexander and Brian Ashcroft, Princeton University Press, May 2005.
• The Economic Case for Immigration, in Economic Affairs, Vol 25, No. 1, pp53-55, March 2005.
• Is Sid Dead?, Analysis, BBC Radio Four, 17 April 2005.
• The Economy on the Couch, Analysis, BBC Radio Four, 2 December 2004.
• Some More Equal?, Analysis, BBC Radio Four, 22 September 2004.
• Our Economists Are No Longer Autistic, New Statesman, Big Ideas special issue, 26 July 2004.
• Sanctions: Persuasion or Punishment?, Analysis, BBC Radio Four, 22 July 2004.
• Organising for Success in Network Logic, Demos June 2004.
• Bending the Golden Rule?, Analysis, BBC Radio Four, 11 March 2004.
• Risky Business, Analysis, BBC Radio Four, 11 December 2003.
• 'Measuring The New Economy' in 'Making the Net Work: Sustainable Development in a Digital Society' by Vidhya Alekson et al, Forum for the Future, December 2003.
• Corporate Governance, Public Governance and Global Governance: the common thread Seminar given at University of Manchester, 22 October 2003.
• The Rain in Spain, Analysis, BBC Radio Four, 31 July 2003.
• 'Inequality, Public Perception and the Institutional Responses to Globalisation' (with Francois Bourguignon) in Moneda y Credito, 'La Globalizacion y los Nuevos Retos de la Politica Economica', vol 216 2003, pp 211-251.
• How To Think Like An Economist Talk given at the Institute for Political and Economic Governance, University of Manchester, 30 May 2003. Part 2 of talk.
• The Consequences of Saying No An independent report into the economic consequences of the UK saying no to the euro, edited by David Begg, May 2003.
• Getting the Measure of Knowledge, presentation at the Social Study of Information Technology Workshop, London School of Economics Information Systems Department, 24 April 2003. Slides
• A Silver Lining, Analysis, BBC Radio Four, 27 March 2003.
• Pride and Prejudice: What's Good and Bad in Economics, in World Economics, January-March 2003, Vol.4, Number 1, 1-6.
• The Undeadly Sin, Analysis, BBC Radio Four, 28 November 2002.
• 'The New Economy - Opportunity or Threat' in 'Enterprising Europe: A New Model for Global Business' edited by Nick Isles, Spiro Press, November 2002.
• Sex, Drugs and Economics, Texere, October 2002.
• 'The Implications of Structural Economic Change for European Policies' in 'Europe: Government and Money' published by the The Federal Trust October 2002.
• Still Seeking the New Paradigm, presentation at the International Association of Official Statisticians Annual Conference, London, 27 August 2002.
• Look at the Progress Already made, The Guardian, Earth supplement, 24 August 2002.
• Follow the Leader, Analysis, BBC Radio Four, 15 August 2002.
• 'Making Sense of Globalization: A Guide to the Economic Issues' (with other authors) published by the Centre for Economic Policy Research July 2002.
• 'Getting the Measure of the New Economy' (with Danny Quah) published by the Work Foundation June 2002.
• Globalization and Us Notes for presentation for the Smith Institute at 11 Downing Street, 1 May 2002.
• The Future of Money, Analysis, BBC Radio Four, 18 April 2002.
• 'The Political Economy of Globalization' Presentation at Princeton University, 7 February 2002.
• House of Lords Enquiry on Globalization Submission to Economic Affairs committee, 9 January 2002.
• Globalising Gloom, Analysis, BBC Radio Four, 15 November 2001.
• Paradoxes of Prosperity, Texere, September 2001.
• 'Making sense of published economic forecasts', Chapter 4 in Understanding Economic Forecasts, ed DF Hendry and N Ericsson, MIT Press, 2001.
• Cogs and Monsters, Analysis, BBC Radio Four, 12 August 2001.
• Equality and the Modern Economy (with Amartya Sen), Smith Institute, 2001.
• How not to educate the information age workforce, Critical Quarterly, Volume 43, Number 1, Spring 2001.
• Unpredictability and Exclusion in the Weightless Economy, Social Inclusion: Possibilities and Tensions, edited by Peter Askonas and Angus Stewart, Macmillan August 2000.
• Where It's At, Analysis, BBC Radio Four, November 2000.
• Governing the World Economy, Polity Press, September 2000.
• The New Economy World Tonight essay, BBC Radio Four 11/2/00.
• Does the New Economy Change Everything?,Prospect, February 2000.
• Hold the gloom, Town & Country Planning, January 2000.
• Technology and the Economy - the triumph of hope over experience? speech at Merrill Lynch/Imperial College conference, London, 10 November 1999.
• Winner Takes All Markets, Prospect, August/September 1998.
• Britain's Urban Boom: the new economics of cities, June 1998, Comedia and Demos.
• Jobs in a Weightless World, May 1998, Employment Policy Institute, London.
• Guiding Global Markets, Prospect, January 1998.
• The Weightless World, Capstone, November 1997 (published in US by MIT Press).
• The Weightless Economy, Critical Quarterly, Volume 39, Number 4, Winter 1997.
• Britain and Emu: The Case for Joining, August 1997, Centre for European Reform.

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