The UJE team is proud to announce the release of its very first issue after a year of work in its preparation. The first issue of the UCL Journal of Economics has no set theme, something that speaks of the versatility within the field and of the journal itself. Our inaugural issue includes fourteen thought provoking papers written by authors from across the world. These papers have been written for university courses, for research conferences or simply to satisfy individual curiosity. Readers can look forward to sifting through very current topics such as optimal vaccine allocation, the relationship between Covid-19 and racial hate crime or the link between climate change and income inequality. Full length research papers have been punctuated by policy briefs and an unexpected (and thoroughly interesting) entry on the edible insect market. 

We’d like to thank our advisory board consisting of Professor Parama Chaudhury, Dr. Ramin Nassehi and Dr. Silvia Dal Bianco for being there from the very beginning and supporting us throughout the way. We’d also like to thank our peer reviewers- Sam Asher, Damian Phelan, Daniel Tseng and James Kinder for providing constructive and detailed feedback on the submitted papers. Lastly, we owe gratitude to the UCL Press team, especially Mr Ian Caswell for being with us at every step of the way and ensuring a smooth journal establishment process. 

We sincerely hope you enjoy reading it and celebrate the great work done by the authors as well as our team.