Money, Macro and Finance Society

The Money Macro and Finance Society

The Money Macro and Finance Society was formerly known as the Money Study Group. It is a society that exists to promote and disseminate economic research in these fields of study, primarily in the UK. The group was founded in 1969 by Harry Johnson and quickly established itself as a key national forum for monetary economists in the UK. It has a long and distinguished history.

It was the first of the study groups to be funded by the Social Science Research Council. It has broadened its focus and its label - The Money, Macro and Finance Research Group - reflects this. Membership is open to all interested parties in the UK and around the world.

It holds an annual MMF conference at a different location each year. Our 50th Anniversary conference was held at LSE in 2019. 

• Recent conferences have been held at Bath, King's College London, Edinburgh, LSE, Cambridge, Kent, Portsmouth.

• A few of the many distinguished speakers include George-Marios Angeletos, Olivier Blanchard, Alan Blinder, Murillo Campello, Larry Christiano, Janice Eberly, Mark Gertler, Sydney Ludvigson, Maurice Obstfeld, Emi Nakamura and policymakers such as Anil Kashyap, Don Kohn, Philip Lane, Catherine Mann, David Miles, Frank Smets.

It also organizes an annual  Bank Watchers' Conference, in collaboration with the Qatar Centre, King's College London, which began in 2022. Previously this was organised as a policy conference with the support from Bloomberg and the ESRC. 

For more than ten years we have hosted an annual PhD conference that is held at a different location each year.  

• These move around the country and have taken place in Warwick, Oxford, York, Portsmouth, Kent, City, Durham, Heriot-Watt and Sheffield. 

• Since 2020 we award the Peter Sinclair Prize for the best presentations at each conference.  

An exciting new initiative in 2023 is the creation of MMF Research Networks. The first of these is the MMF Macro RN, Directed by Ricardo Reis, which aims to 

• Focus on bringing academic and policymaking researchers with a UK connection together.

• Creating informal environments where ideas and preliminary work may be presented.

• Ensuring inclusivity by making them a home for early career researchers while also including senior academics and policy advisors, and open to all.

• Reaching out across the UK.

My Roles in the MMF

Trustee (2019 - )

Having driven the process to acquire charitable status in 2019,  I becaome one of nine founding trustees of the MMF Society.

Chairman and Chair of the Executive Committee (2016 - )

In this role I am responsible at the national level to chair the Executive Committee of the Money, Macro and Finance Research Group (an international academic macro-finance group with over 650 members). I coordinate the organization of the major conferences and seminar programmes, liaise with major funding bodies and Research Councils, review applications for MMF funded conferences (twice a year), approach keynote speakers, select and appoint new committee members, and initiate external collaborations. I steered the MMF towards charitable status in 2018-19. In 2022 I initiated the Bank Watchers' conference, where policymakers, profession al economists and academics discuss the monetary and financial policy issues of the day. In 2023 I helped steer the MMF to create the MMF Research Networks, to improve engagement between senior and junior researchers (including PhD students and postdocs) across the country. 

I was the Treasurer and Member of the Executive Committee 2011-2016.

In this role I was responsible for the budget and expenditure decisions of the MMF. With the Executive Committee I was responsible for co-ordination of the budget with local organizers of the annual three-day international conference (150 delegates). I also reviewed applications for MMF funded conferences (twice a year), select and appoint new committee members, and seek external funding.

I am also a Member of the Steering Group for the MMF Monetary and Financial Conference

In this role I am jointly responsible for organizing an annual conference hosted by Bloomberg in London involving presentations by senior academics and private sector economists on UK monetary and financial policy and frameworks to 250 selected economists from academia and the financial sector. There is a set piece Bank of England speech and interview to Bloomberg TV. ESRC funding for this event has been in place for six years.

As a Member of the Organizing Committee of the MMF since 1996 I have been responsible for scrutiny of the annual activities of the MMF, proposing new committee members and organizing seminars and conferences.

See the official MMF site for more details.