STUDENTS have taken part in an economics conference at a Winchester school.

As part of their A level work, 22 St Swithun’s pupils were joined by youngsters from South Downs College and Sherfield School for the lectures by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).

The conference was chaired by Grant Tucker, education outreach officer of IEA, which promotes the intellectual case for a free economy.

He was joined by speakers Dr Steve Davies, education director at IEA, Dr Lynne Kiesling, senior lecturer in the department of economics at Northwestern University, Illinois, and Ewan Stewart from Walbrook Economics, independent consultants, London.

Dr Davies spoke to the students about globalisation and Britain’s future trading partners, giving his perspective of economic history in the context of today’s global economy.

He concluded the day a talk on the importance and role of the economist in providing research and analysis that has contributed to the increase in overall living standards of world economies.

Dr Kiesling spoke about the conflict between the energy markets and the wider ecological environment and Mr Stewart discussed the current state of the UK, US and EU economies.

Conference organiser, Jacqueline Campbell, head of economics at St Swithun’s said: “The students were fully engaged for the four hours of lectures and left the day with many important and relevant talking points in the lead up to exams.”