Public Engagement

This page collects public talks and public-facing writings. I'm happy to work with policymakers, journalists, and organizations on questions related to my research, including structural change and unemployment, deindustrialization and regional inequality, and historical lessons for AI and labor markets. Feel free to get in touch at meredith.paker [at] all-souls.ox.ac.uk.

"How has unemployment in the UK changed over the past 100 years?" Economics Observatory 2026

Economics Observatory article published September 2026 in their Lessons from History section, celebrating the centenary of the Economic History Society.

"Understanding the past with machine learning," 2025 LEAP Lecture

Delivered at Stellenbosch University in November 2025 at the invitation of LEAP (The Laboratory for the Economics of Africa's Past).

"The end of the gold standard and the beginning of the recovery from the Great Depression," VoxEU 2024

VoxEU column with Jason Lennard published April 2024, referencing our paper "Devaluation, Exports, and Recovery from the Great Depression" (JEH 2026).

"Industrial, regional, and gender divides in British unemployment between the wars," EHS The Long Run 2020

EHS The Long Run blog published September 2020 based on my dissertation research.