Prof Sarah Smith has been awarded an OBE for her services to economics and education in the 2022 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
Sarah Smith is a professor of economics at the University of Bristol and is co-chair of Discover Economics, a campaign to increase diversity among economics students. She is an applied micro-economist whose research covers public and labour economics and is currently working on issues in pro-social behaviour and gender. Sarah is a former RES Council member and past Chair of the RES Women’s Committee.
RES Chief Executive Leighton Chipperfield said “This honour is thoroughly deserved. Sarah’s commitment to improving diversity in economics and her passion for changing perceptions of the subject amongst young people has been instrumental in much of the Society’s diversity work in recent years, not least through the Discover Economics campaign she co-chairs with Arun Advani.”
Discover Economics co-chair Arun Advani said “Sarah is a brilliant economist, producing academic research with a focus on real-world issues. Her work shows the breadth of what economics can be, studying topics as varied as lone parenthood, charitable donations, healthy eating and representation of different voices in economics. Unusually, she has gone beyond merely studying these issues, to affect real-world change. She chaired the RES Women's Committee, and after studying the barriers to wider representation in economics, co-founded Discover Economics as a campaign to bring more students from historically under-represented backgrounds into economics. I’m delighted to see that Sarah has been recognised in this way.”
