Volterra launches new website

Volterra has been growing recently and expanding our services in areas such as network analysis and property. In line with these changes, we have recently re-designed our website, which is now live!

 

Volterra's approach to economic scenarios

We have recently been receiving strong interest in our economic scenarios service, driven by uncertainty about future conditions in the financial markets and the possibility that a downturn could be on the horizon. Volterra is well positioned to advise on future prospects for our clients, with our founding directors, Paul Ormerod and Bridget Rosewell, having over 50 years combined experience in macroeconomic modelling and forecasting. Our approach to scenarios is risk-based, focusing on the likelihood of occurrence and avoiding the notorious ‘black box’ that hides assumptions and dependencies from the user. More information about our approach to economic scenarios is available here.

 

The future of UK & European inflation & growth

Thinking about the future involves thinking about the past. Barrie and Hibbert supported our research into looking at long term futures for both inflation and growth; a matter of interest to them as advisers on financial risk for insurance companies which themselves have long term liabilities. For both the UK and Europe we identified different combinations of inflation and growth which can be described as different regimes. The last decade for the UK has been a relatively good period in these terms, but the analysis shows that different regimes are possible and what they could look like. The report is available here.

 

Paul Ormerod on BBC Radio 4

Paul was featured in a radio debate with Professor Richard Layard on the BBC Radio 4 programme More Or Less on 12 November 2007. The debate explored recent developments in happiness research and the extent to which individual well-being can be influenced or enhanced by government policy. A podcast of the discussion is available on the BBC website.

 

Lindi Hlanze joins the team

During October 2007 Volterra welcomed Lindi Hlanze, a new addition to the team. As a consultant Lindi is currently producing long term forecasts of employment levels in London. Lindi holds a Degree in Economics from Manchester University and an MA in Development Economics from Sussex University, during which she used econometric methods to model the economics of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. Lindi has previous experience as an economic analyst, having worked for a small economics consultancy in Scotland between her studies.