- Contemporary China Centre
About me
Key areas of interest and expertise
Dr Karen Jackson is Senior Lecturer in Economics and Assistant Head of School (Organisations, Economy and Society). Her research interests are in the areas of international trade and finance as well as economic geography. In addition to holding a number of academic positions at various UK institutions, Dr Jackson has previously worked as China and East Asia Development Director (University of Bradford) while living in China, establishing a foreign enterprise and leading partnership developments across East Asia. Furthermore, she has public policy experience working for the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Department for International Development alongside an extensive teaching record as well as working on a range of funded projects.
Education
Dr Jackson studied at the University of Sussex (DPhil), University of Nottingham (MSc) and University of Kent (BA). She is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Employment
Dr Jackson has previously held positions at the University of Bradford (Head of Economics, China and East Asia Development Director and Senior Lecturer in Economics), UK Department for International Development (Economist) and the University of Sussex (Research Officer).
Consultancy and advisory assignments
Dr Jackson has worked as a consultant for the UK Department for International Development and Commonwealth Secretariat as well as leading projects for the Economics Network and Higher Education Academy.
Moreover, Dr Jackson is currently an external examiner for Coventry University and Nottingham Trent University. She has also previously undertaken external expert and external examiner roles at the University of Reading, Leeds Beckett University and Teesside University.
Membership of professional organisations
Dr Jackson is a member of the Royal Economic Society and American Economic Association. Furthermore, she is a member of the Contemporary China Centre (University of Westminster), Westminster Development Policy Research Network and The Carlton House Network - The Limits of EUrope: Challenging the Crisis of European Integration.
PhD Supervision
Dr Jackson has supervised three PhD students to completion (2012, 2014 and 2018), with all three of these candidates now holding permanent academic positions at UK Universities. She is also currently supervising a futher student.
More details: karen-jackson.com
Teaching
Dr Karen Jackson's teaching experience focuses on microeconomics, mathematics and international economics. More specifically, she has been module leader for the following:
Level 3 Preliminary Mathematics for Economists
Level 4 Mathematics for Economists
Level 4 Introduction to Microeconomics
Level 4 Principles of Economic Theory (Microeconomics)
Level 4 Global Economic Issues
Level 5 Further Mathematics for Economists
Level 5 Microeconomic Theory
Level 5 Intermediate Economic Theory (Microeconomics)
Level 6 International Economics
Level 6 Trade, Regionalism and Globalisation
Level 6 International Trade
Level 6 Economics of Labour
Level 7 International Economics
Level 7 Microeconomic Theory and Policy
She has developed a list of key international trade resources as well as authoring a chapter (mathematics and statistics teaching) in The Handbook for Economics Lecturers (Economics Network)
Research
Working papers
Jackson, K. and O. Shepotylo, “‘Belt and Road’: The ‘China Dream’?”, SSRN
Bakas, D., K. Jackson and G Magkonis, "Trade (Dis)integration: The sudden death of NAFTA", SSRN
Jackson, Karen and Shepotylo, Oleksandr, Trade Wars: Are Good and Easy to Win?, SSRN
Jackson, Karen and Shepotylo, Oleksandr, The collapse of EU trade relations: A worst case scenario? SSRN
Publications
“An Inquiry into Exchanges Rate Misalignments as a Cause of the Major Global Trade Imbalances”, forthcoming in Journal of Economic Studies (with M.A. Nasir)
“Identifying networks in social media: The case of #Grexit”, (2019), Networks and Spatial Economics, 19(1), pp. 3019-330 (with G. Magkonis)
“Regional trade institutions in West Africa: Historical reflections”, (2018), Journal of International Development, 30(8), pp. 1255-1272 (with E. Bah and D. J. Potts)
“Post-Brexit trade survival: Looking beyond the European Union”, (2018), Economic Modelling, 73, pp. 317-328 (with O. Shepotylo)
The segmentation of Europe: Convergence or divergence between core and periphery, (2017) Palgrave Macmillan (with M. Baimbridge, U. R. Lee and I. Litsios) [Reviews available]
“Evaluating methodological issues in the tourism literature: UK outgoing tourism and trade links”, (2015), Economic Issues, 28(1), pp. 1-42 (with W. Zang)
“Great achievements and great challenges: The EU Common Fisheries Policy” in Re-examining the EU policies in a global perspective edited by M. R. Szeles, (2013), Palgrave Macmillan
“Reconsidering the silk road: Tourism in the context of regionalism and trade patterns“ in Handbook on the Economics of Leisure edited by S. Cameron, (2011) Edward Elgar.
"A Framework for evaluating regional trade agreements involving developing countries", (2005), Report for the UK Department for International Development (with D. Evans, M. Gasiorek, P. Holmes, L. Iacovone, S. Robinson and J. Rollo)
"Investment incentives in Commonwealth developed countries and the WTO investment negotiations.", (2003), Commonwealth Secretariat Economic Paper Series (with J. Lafortune, J.C.R. Rowley, S.R. Vemuri, and R. Scollay)
Research impact
"Winners and losers in the US-China trade war", (2019), The Conversation, 25 Jun (with O. Shepotylo)
"Brexit: breaking up is hard to do", (2019), The Money - ABC Radio National (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), 21 March
"Why a no-deal Brexit would be less costly for the EU than the UK", (2019), The Conversation, 24 Jan (with A. Delis and O. Shepotylo)
"Brexit: four things you need to know", (2019), The UK in a Changing Europe, 11 Jan (with O. Shepotylo)
JVC - BBC Three Counties Radio interview, (2018), 14 Dec
"No deal? Seven reasons why a WTO-only Brexit would be bad for Britain", (2018), The Conversation, 23 Aug (with O. Shepotylo) [More than 50,000 reads]
"Post-Brexit trade with the US Donald Trump was right when he said a deal would be tricky", (2018), The Conversation, 20 July (with O. Shepotylo)
"A customs union would free the UK to strike trade deals but it doesnt solve every Brexit problem", (2018), The Conversation, 26 April (with O. Shepotylo)
"The five alternatives to EU single market and customs union would all make UK poorer", (2018), The Conversation, 26 Feb (with O. Shepotylo)
"West Africa: Empirehood and colonialism offer lessons in integration", (2017), The Conversation, 12 December (with E. Bah and D. J. Potts) [More than 70,000 reads]
Funded research project (ongoing)
China in Uzbekistan: an investigation into the effects of BRI on trade, migration, and Chinese language education, Nov 2019 - Nov 2020, WUIT Collaborative Research Fund, 9,710 pounds [Co-Investigator]
Publications
For details of all my research outputs, visit my WestminsterResearch profile.