Meet the Lecturers: Laura Harvey

Can you tell us a little bit about your background and what brought you to UEA?

I knew I wanted to study a quantitative subject but I wasn’t sure what until my A-level Economics teacher encouraged me to try Economics taster sessions at my local Universities. I had a great experience and this certainly satisfied the want to study world issues but also have a quantitative focus. I ended up studying BSc Economics at the University of Leicester. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do long term but I applied for a scholarship and the University of Nottingham to study MSc Economics, which amazingly I was awarded and took that as a sign to continue on my academic journey. Following this I then found myself back in Leicester working for my PhD, which focuses on topics in Inequality. I was preparing for the job market and the opportunity which sounded perfect for me was available here at UEA, as the first in my family to go to university, never mind study for a PhD I have always been interested in what I can do to help other students like me. So I applied and that is how I ended up as Lecturer and Widening Participation Academic Officer.

What are you passionate about outside of economics?

I am currently trying to learn Spanish. I attend the evening classes at the university, they are great and really nice way to meet new people from Norwich. Part of my Spanish learning is watching a lot of telenovelas on Netflix. Current favourite is La Reina del Flow.

What are you researching at the moment?

My current research focuses on the long run trends in inequality and how we can measure things such as inter-generational mobility. Typically women are neglected from such studies, so parent daughter trends are not so well documented. In addition, whether or not these trends differ for sons and for daughters is not so straight forward to compare. My research employs novel econometric techniques to answer the neglected part of the inequality and inter-generational mobility literature. In the future I want to work on education mobility and how personal circumstances can affect your decision to invest in human capital or can affect the accumulation process.

What advice do you have a student interested in Academia?

Be persistent and resilient. I remember first voicing my wish to do a masters and then a PhD and I was surprised to be met with a lot of resistance instead of encouragement. I got a lot of ‘academia isn’t nice if you are woman’ or ‘your career will be over as soon as you have children’. This was extremely saddening to hear, but I am glad I ignored them and pushed on. So far I haven’t experienced any of the things they were talking about. So bottom line, do what you want to do, and surround yourself with those who will support you, not warn you!

What are you reading at the moment?

Game of Thrones! I haven’t seen the TV series and now it’s coming to an end I wanted to finish the books before I watched it. Trying to avoid spoilers has been difficult!