Laura Alfaro, renowned Harvard Business School professor, has been appointed as the new Chief Economist and Economic Counselor for the Inter-American Development Bank, marking a significant milestone in economic leadership for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Sarah Smith (Bristol) and Brit Grosskopf (Exeter) have been appointed as the Chair and Deputy Chair respectively to the Economics and Econometrics Sub-Panel for the UK's Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2029

The Royal Economic Society (RES) has announced that Professor Imran Rasul (UCL) is confirmed as RES President for the upcoming year.

The word "model" is used a lot in discussions about economics. However, economics courses often don’t spend a lot of time defining the word or what exactly it means. Rather, students usually end up piecing together their idea of what models are after learning several specific examples (such as the Solow-Swan or OLG models).This article fills in the gap by discussing the fundamentals of models and how they’re used in economics. There are many similarities between the myriad models utilized in the field, including common use cases and common assumptions. Understanding these commonalities will help you use and interpret economic models effectively, avoid misconceptions, and identify when these models are not necessarily relevant or useful.