RESEARCH
Claire Connelly has produced work for various research institutions including the Sydney Policy Lab at the University of Sydney, The Australia Institute, Economist Impact, the Economist Intelligent Unit, and Pro Bono, amongst others.
She was previously a researcher at Rebuilding Macroeconomics, once hosted by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, now a part of the Institute for Global Prosperity at University College London (UCL) where she was an honorary academic, a visiting academic at the Institute for New Economic Thinking in Oxford, and a research fellow at the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity.
Claire spent several years conducting research studies in both data access and methodological practice, collecting first-hand information from world-leading academics, policy makers & regulators, and members of the private sector, across multiple disciplines, identifying the data that could significantly enhance our understanding of the macroeconomy, while exploring the relationship between evidence and policy-relevant knowledge: what it is, how macroeconomic conclusions are formed, how that knowledge is used to convince policy-makers, and the different explanatory models that have successfully guided recommendations through the Treasury, Cabinet, Parliament.
Working with Professor J Doyne Farmer, Director of the Complexity Economics program at the Institute for New Economic Thinking, Professor Angus Armstrong, Director of Rebuilding Macroeconomics Network, and Professor David Tuckett, Director of the Centre for the Study of Decision-Making Uncertainty at UCL in the Faculty of Brain Sciences and Fellow of the Institute of Psychoanalysis in London, Connelly co-authored two papers that provide a roadmap for the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) about how macroeconomics can become more interdisciplinary and explore new directions. Because data is a primary driver of scientific progress, and evidence-based policy a key element of social progress, an important part of the roadmap concerns how new data can be collected and made more widely available, and how the social sciences can enhance our understanding of the macroeconomy.
Connelly has conducted interviews with distinguished practitioners at institutions and universities, including the Bank of England, the UK Treasury, and the Office of National Statistics, the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, the London School of Economics, and the University College London with the purpose of discovering what data is available, how it could be more accessible, what data could be collected in the future, and how it could be used.
These include practitioners such as Andy Haldane FAcSS FRS, former Chief Economist at the Bank of England and the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee, along with past members, Sir Charles Bean, Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and former Deputy Governor for Monetary Policy, and Professor Jonathan Haskel CBE, professor of economics at Imperial College Business School, as well as Michael Kumhof, Senior Research Advisor at the Bank of England's Research Hub, Professor Wendy Carlin, professor of economics at University College London, expert advisor to the Office for Budget Responsibility, and research fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research, and Professor Stephanie Kelton, Professor of Public Policy and Economics at Stony Brook University, former Chief Economist on the US Senate Budget Committee, and Economic Advisor to Bernie Sanders.
Connelly has also been conducting research on heterodox economics for several years, identifying key information that has been omitted from orthodox economics and the impact these omissions have had on policy prescriptions and individual financial decisions. Much of her work is interested in comparing and contrasting the way the economy operates to how economic issues are communicated publicly. She was appointed as a Research Fellow at the Global Institute of Sustainable Prosperity during this time, an independent public policy think-tank dedicated to the promotion of interdisciplinary research in the service of an improved quality of life for all members of society.
Connelly holds a Bachelor of International Studies from the University of New South Wales focusing on globalisation and politics & international relations, and a Graduate Diploma of Journalism from the University of Technology Sydney