Established in 2001, our Annual Public Lecture provides an opportunity for school students to watch internationally renowned economists present their research. Principally aimed at sixth form students, the APL has become an established part of the senior school calendar.
Attendance in person is closed, but you can join the live stream on the day by registering here.
The 2026 RES Annual Public Lecture will take place on 3 November 2026 at Kingston University and is titled: Is Economics broken?
Delivered by Dharshini David OBE, Deputy Economics Editor at BBC News, the lecture reflects on the turbulence of the last few years – and meagre improvement in living standards for many – raises questions about the effectiveness of the application of economics, from the inability to predict shocks to the impact of policy. How do we ensure economics remains relevant, and fit to provide answers in a rapidly changing world?
Economics Correspondent for the BBC
Award-winning broadcaster, economist and author Dharshini is the BBC’s Deputy Economics Editor and presents programmes for Radio 4, including the flagship Today programme.
She is the author of “The Almighty Dollar” (2018), the guide to the global economy, which features on school and college curricula, and Environomics (2024). Dharshini is an Honorary Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge , and was awarded an OBE in the 2025 New Year Honours list for services to economics.
After reading Economics at Cambridge, Dharshini worked for Oxford Economics and the Government Economic Service before being appointed HSBC Investment Bank’s Senior UK Economist. She swapped the trading floor for the BBC, to cover economics and present financial programmes in London, and then New York, where she led analysis of the Financial Crisis
She rejoined the BBC, initially as Business Presenter for Radio 4’s Today, and subsequently as Chief Economics Correspondent, leading agenda-setting coverage on the impacts of Covid, the Ukraine War and change of government, holding policymakers to account. Her Analysis documentary for Radio 4 “Is Britain the Sick Man of Europe?” won the prestigious Wincott Prize for financial journalism , hailed by judges as “the BBC at its best”
RES President 2025-2026
Imran Rasul is a Professor of Economics at University College London, Director of the Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and Co-Director of the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Centre on Wealth Concentration, Inequality and the Economy. In these roles he has supported policy engagement among economists, advised early career researchers, and brought together research and education on the study of wealth concentration and economic inequality. He has served as a Council Member and Trustee of the Royal Economic Society (RES) from 2018-2023 and Chaired the RES Publications Committee from 2018-21.
