Roy Bailey from the Department of Economics has just received MBE
Inspirational teacher and outstanding scholar Roy Bailey has received an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
Roy has been an inspiration to colleagues and students in the Department of Economics and across the University since joining Essex as a lecturer in 1972. Roy had previously gained a First Class degree in Economics at Essex in 1968, and then an MA in Economics with Distinction in 1969.
He retired in 2009, but returned to the University as a part-time teacher and Honorary Senior Lecturer.
Roy said: “It has been a privilege to work with colleagues in the Department of Economics at Essex for more than 40 years, its success having been built on common effort, a collegial atmosphere, and working closely with our students.
“I see the award as recognition for the whole Department, an honour which just happens to have landed on me.”
Head of the Department of Economics Professor Marco Francesconi said: "Roy has been an inspiration to colleagues and students during more than 40 years in the Department of Economics. Students from all corners of the world admire and appreciate his inexhaustible passion and unparalleled clarity as a teacher and mentor. He is well known among all current and past colleagues of the Department for always giving his time to advise and help and put things into perspective. As a mark of deep and sincere respect for Roy’s contribution, the Department awards an annual ‘Roy Bailey Prize’ for the best Economics term paper. Roy continues to be a bright example for all of us, a beacon for the Department, a real scholar and a great man.”
Former students recall his incredible passion for his subject and ability to teach it with amazing enthusiasm that is utterly infectious which means many stay in touch after they have graduated. Some students were so appreciative of his work they created a Facebook page in his honour. He has also been a leader in investigating using online learning and pushing forward new curriculum developments.
Roy’s research expertise is in monetary and financial economics, commodity price analysis and economic history. His research has appeared in the Journal of Political Economy, Economic History Review, Journal of Population Economics, Economic Journal, Economica, Journal of Agricultural Economics and the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. He has taught courses ranging from economic theory to economic history, econometrics and finance. He developed a course on the Economics of Financial Markets which became a uniquely penetrating overview of the subject and led to him producing the definitive and popular textbook The Economics of Financial Markets in 2005.
At Essex he has served as Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader and latterly Honorary Senior Lecturer, as well as holding visiting positions at Queen’s and McMaster Universities in Canada. He is renowned for giving his time to advise senior and junior colleagues on teaching and administration matters, as well as voluntarily reading their research, providing suggestions and encouragement.
At the heart of departmental administration for three decades, he has also taken a leading role in many other administrative areas, serving on numerous university boards, committees and working parties.
A stalwart in the Student Discipline Office for 13 years, he has made an enormous contribution to the refinement of the discipline process and brought a well-reasoned and balanced view to difficult cases. He served as an academic member of the Student Disciplinary Panel and as Student Disciplinary Officer, providing unfailing support for staff involved in administering the discipline process. Although semi-retired, Roy remains a constant source of advice and guidance to colleagues in the Department and the Student Discipline Office.
The Birthday Honours also saw a CBE being awarded to architecture critic and historian Professor Joseph Rykwert, the founding professor of Art History at Essex, who worked at the University between 1968 and 1980. Professor Denise Lievesley, who worked at Essex from 1991 to 1999 and served as Director of the UK Data Archive, is also awarded the CBE for services to social science. Professor Lievesley was awarded an Honorary Degree by the University in 2013.