Skip to main content

The criminal responsibilities of … economists?

Using the events of L'Aquila and the subsequent convictions of Italian seismologists as a starting point, Dr Ioannis Oikonomou goes on to explore the extent to which economists could and should be held accountable for economic and financial turmoils.

In case you have missed it, a few months ago it was widely reported in the media that half a dozen Italian seismologists were convicted for manslaughter after being accused of not being able to predict (and giving false assurances prior to) the earthquake that struck L’Aquila and led to the death of 300 people. Reactions varied greatly: from the Royal Society and US National Academy issuing brief statements and simply condemning the decision of the Italian court, to individuals claiming we are moving back to “the medieval ages” and “the Spanish Inquisition model” to harshly worded articles claiming that scientists need to be held accountable : “those who claim the title “scientist”, be it natural or social, expect to combine the immunity of diplomats and the infallibility of popes.”

By now you are probably wondering what does any of this have to do with a finance-related blog and when will the economists mentioned in the title show up. Besides, unlike seismology or meteorology, finance and economics are hardly the scientific fields that can be connected to catastrophic events that may lead to the loss of human lives.

Or are they?

You can continue reading the article in full on the ICMA Centre's blog.

Published 4 February 2013

You might also like

Event: "The Impact of Brexit on the City" - Tim Skeet

20 February 2017
The ICMA Centre hosted another talk as part of the "Industry Insights" series, this time with long-time banking expert and Visiting Fellow Tim Skeet. The talk, entitled ‘The Impact of Brexit’ on the City, proved to be both enlightening and somewhat hopeful for aspiring financial professionals such as myself and my peers. The talk covered many topics, primarily the causes of Brexit, communication deficiencies on the part of politicians and finance specifically, wider instability in the world and the risks all of this poses for finance, and more specifically finance in the City of London.

School students take on the stock market in local Business School competition

13 July 2016
On Tuesday 5 July, the ICMA Centre at Henley Business School hosted its annual Stock Market Competition for year 12 school students interested in a career in business and finance. The competition took place in the ICMA Centre’s world-class dealing rooms and simulated a stock market trading room. Following an exciting day, Chris Briant and Yucel Hulusi from Wilmington Grammar School For Boys were crowned competition winners and awarded iPads and a trophy.

Great results for Henley in the University Research Excellence Framework 2014 rankings!

18 December 2014
The Research Excellence Framework (REF) evaluates research and its impact every six years. Henley Business School faculty were entered into two units of assessment in the national 2014 REF. Both units received excellent results.
Rankings news Research news