OXFORD, England (June 25, 2026) — For economists, few academic appointments carry the prestige of an invitation to Oxford.
This year, Carlos Lamarche, professor of economics in the University of Kentucky Gatton College of Business and Economics, joined that community as a visiting academic at Nuffield College and a visiting scholar in Oxford’s Department of Economics, spending the first half of 2026 collaborating with researchers at one of the world’s leading centers for economic scholarship. This appointment was funded through support from the department of economics, Gatton College and Lamarche’s 2024-25 University Research Professor award funds.
The appointment places Lamarche alongside internationally recognized economists whose work influences public policy, labor markets and econometric methods around the world. For him, the opportunity represents both recognition of decades of research and an investment in the future of his work at Gatton College.
“The invitation to be an academic visitor at Nuffield College came as a delightful surprise,” Lamarche said. “I was already honored to be part of Oxford’s outstanding academic community, and this invitation made my visit even more special.”
Oxford was an obvious choice for a sabbatical, he said, because of the strength of its economics faculty.
“It has an outstanding group of researchers in my field and is widely regarded as having one of the best economics departments in the world.”
For Lamarche, the value of the experience extends well beyond the name recognition.
His research examines how economists can better measure the ways people, businesses and households respond differently to public policies and economic programs. Those methods have become increasingly important as researchers work with larger datasets and new analytical tools, including machine learning, to answer increasingly complex economic questions.
Oxford has provided an environment where those conversations happen continuously.
Its economics department hosts roughly 15 research seminars each week, creating an unusually dense exchange of ideas among faculty, visiting scholars and graduate students.
Being immersed in that environment has already produced tangible results.
Lamarche is collaborating on two research papers with colleagues from Oxford and the University of Cambridge while exploring additional partnerships with faculty and postdoctoral researchers working at the forefront of econometrics and applied economics.
“Being around outstanding econometricians and economists was not only intellectually fulfilling but also contributed to the development of two separate research papers that I plan to finish by the end of the summer,” he said.
Those collaborations illustrate one of the less visible but most important aspects of modern research. New ideas often emerge not from working alone, but from sustained conversations among scholars approaching similar problems from different perspectives.
“As is generally the case with any sabbatical, you plant seeds and look forward to seeing how they evolve and grow,” Lamarche said. “The immediate impact has been the chance to discover and engage more deeply with new important areas.”
Although Oxford’s reputation rests partly on nearly 1,000 years of academic history, Lamarche found that its greatest strength is the intellectual community created within its colleges.
At Nuffield College, he joined scholars for informal discussions and the university’s centuries-old High Table dinners, where visiting academics and faculty continue conversations long after the formal presentations end.
“These dinners represent more than meals among professors,” Lamarche said. “They combine academic ceremony, collegiality and intellectual fellowship.”
He found similar inspiration inside the Bodleian Library, one of the world’s oldest research libraries, whose reading rooms have served generations of scholars.
“The architecture is especially striking,” Lamarche said. “It combines medieval Gothic features with Renaissance details in a way that makes the building feel distinctive, solemn and intellectually inspiring.”
Yet despite the differences in scale and tradition, Lamarche found the underlying mission familiar.
“In the end, we are all motivated by the same goals,” he said. “Professors in both institutions work hard to advance science while mentoring and teaching our students to the best of our possibilities.”
That perspective will shape his return to Lexington.
During his sabbatical, Lamarche presented research not only at Oxford but also at the University of Cambridge, University of Manchester, Lancaster University and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Along the way, he collected new teaching approaches, research methods and ideas for incorporating digital data into future projects and coursework.
Lamarche said, “The experience shaped my view and made me aware of new teaching and research techniques, and I hope to convey this experience when I am back in Lexington.”
Academic exchanges like this also strengthen Gatton College’s international research profile.
“In these academic exchanges, the flow of information goes both ways,” Lamarche said. “They learned not only about my research, but also about my college and university. They also learned about our students, our placement and our city.”
For Lamarche, the appointment was both a special recognition and a reminder that scholarship grows through collaboration.
“It is probably the academic experience I had always wanted,” he said. “The one I dreamed about while imagining what might be feasible.”
