About
CFM Surveys

The CFM surveys informs the public about the views held by prominent economists based in Europe on important macroeconomic and public policy questions. Some surveys focus specifically on the UK economy (as the CFM is a UK research centre), but surveys can in principle focus on any macroeconomic question for any region. The surveys shed light on the extent to which there is agreement or disagreement among these experts. An important motivation for the survey is to give a more comprehensive overview of the beliefs held by economists and in particular to include the views of those economists whose opinions are not frequently heard in public debates.

Questions mainly focus on macroeconomic and public policy topics. Although there are some questions that focus specifically on the UK economy, the setup of the survey is much broader and considers questions related to other countries/regions and also considers questions not tied to a specific economy.

The surveys are done in collaboration with the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR).

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Membership Criteria

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The panel consists of the best European academic macroeconomists with an established track record of publishing in top economic journals and a broad interest in macroeconomics. It is not necessary that the panel member is still active as an academic. For example, academics who moved to policy institutions and no longer publish in academic journals can also be an expert. The advisory board of the CFM oversees the selection of panel members. This advisory board may - in exceptional cases - approve membership of a non-academic if that member has clearly demonstrated an excellent knowledge of macroeconomics.

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Question Format

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Questions mainly focus on macroeconomic and public policy topics. Although there are some questions that focus specifically on the UK economy, the setup of the survey is much broader and considers questions related to other countries/regions and also considers questions not tied to a specific economy.

Each survey consists of one or more hypotheses. Participants are typically asked to choose one of the following options: (i) strongly agree, (ii) agree, (iii) uncertain, (iv) disagree, (v) strongly disagree, (vi) no opinion. Participants are also asked to indicate how confident they are about their answer. Options are (i) extremely confident, (ii) very confident, (iii) confident, (iv) not confident, (v) not confident at all. In addition, participants are given the option to explain their choice.

The confidence level is used to construct weighted responses, where the following weights are used:

 

• extremely confident (4)

• very confident (3)

• confident (2)

• not confident (1)

• not confident at all (0)

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Editorial Team

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Head of the Panel: Ethan Ilzetzki (London School of Economics)

Editorial Assitant: Suryaansh Jain (London School of Economics)

Previous editors:

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• Wouter Den Haan (London School of Economics)

• Michael McMahon (University of Warwick)

• Ricardo Reis (London School of Economics and Columbia University)

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About the CFM

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The Centre for Macroeconomics (CFM) is a research centre funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The centre brings together a group of experts to carry out pioneering research on the global economic crisis and help design policies to alleviate it. Chaired by LSE’s Nobel Prize-winning economics professor, Christopher Pissarides, the new centre brings together a diverse, but interconnected, set of institutions, which range from the policy making (Bank of England) through applied policy research (National Institute of Economic and Social Research) to academia (University of Cambridge, London School of Economics and University College London). More information about the CfM can be found at http://www.centreformacroeconomics.ac.uk.