Public Understanding of Economics: How can we communicate economic statistics better to the wider public?

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Public Understanding of Economics: How can we communicate economic statistics better to the wider public?

Webinar

Thursday 19 January 2023, 16:00 — 17:15

Online

Statistics are too important to be confusing”. So say ESCoE Research Associates, Claire Cathro, Johnny Runge and Nida Broughton in their recent blog. Previous research has found that the UK public think economics and economic statistics are  communicated in a way that is “confusing”, ”complicated” and ”difficult to understand”. Based on two recent ESCoE research studies – ’Presenting Labour Market Statistics to the Public’ and ’Media Reporting Labour Market Statistics’, this webinar will explore how to communicate economic statistics in a way that improves public comprehension, engagement and trust.

Nida Broughton (Director of Economic Policy at Behavioural Insights Team) will present evidence from the first paper ’Presenting Labour Market Statistics to the Public’ on how the Office for National Statistics could potentially communicate statistics about the labour market directly to the general population, through an alternative release that is easier to read for non-technical audiences.

Johnny Runge (Principal Researcher at National Institute of Economic and Social Research) will present evidence from the second paper ’Media Reporting Labour Market Statistics’ on the role of the media as an intermediary for the communication of economic statistics to the UK public.  

Agenda

’Presenting labour market statistics to the public’ 
Nida Broughton (BIT)

’Media reporting of labour market statistics’  
Johnny Runge (NIESR)

Panel session: ‘Communication of economic statistics’
Chair: Ed Humpherson (Office for Statistics Regulation)

Panellists: Richard Davies (Economics Observatory and University of Bristol),  David Freeman (Office for National Statistics), Sarah O’Connor (Financial Times)

Video Recording