Diane Coyle at Waterstones, CambridgeCogs and Monsters

Join economist and former advisor to the UK treasury Diane Coyle as she discusses her new book Cogs and Monsters: What Economics Is, and What It Should Be – an exploration of the enormous problems—but also opportunities—facing economics today if it is to respond effectively to these dizzying changes and help policymakers solve the world’s crises, from pandemic recovery and inequality to slow growth and the climate emergency.

In a fireside chat with Neil Lawrence, DeepMind Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Cambridge, Coyle will discuss whether economic individualism is still valid in the digital economy, whether we need to measure growth and progress in new ways, and whether economics can ever be objective, since it influences what it analyses.


Professor Diane Coyle co-directs the Bennett Institute for Public Policy. [https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/] She was previously Professor of Economics at the University of Manchester. She has held a number of public service roles including Vice Chair of the BBC Trust (2006-2014), member of the Competition Commission (2001-2009), the Migration Advisory Committee (2009-2014), and the Natural Capital Committee (2016-2019). She was awarded a CBE for her contribution to the public understanding of economics in the 2018 New Year Honours.

Professor Neil Lawrence is the DeepMind Professor of Machine Learning in the Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Cambridge, senior AI fellow at The Alan Turing Institute, visiting Professor at the University of Sheffield, co-host of Talking Machines, and a Guardian contributor. Neil’s research interests are in probabilistic models with applications in computational biology, personalised health and developing economies.


Digital technology, big data, big tech, machine learning, and AI are revolutionizing both the tools of economics and the phenomena it seeks to measure, understand, and shape. In Cogs and Monsters, Diane Coyle explores the enormous problems—but also opportunities—facing economics today if it is to respond effectively to these dizzying changes and help policymakers solve the world’s crises, from pandemic recovery and inequality to slow growth and the climate emergency.

Mainstream economics, Coyle says, still assumes people are “cogs”—self-interested, calculating, independent agents interacting in defined contexts. But the digital economy is much more characterized by “monsters”—untethered, snowballing, and socially influenced unknowns. What is worse, by treating people as cogs, economics is creating its own monsters, leaving itself without the tools to understand the new problems it faces. In response, Coyle asks whether economic individualism is still valid in the digital economy, whether we need to measure growth and progress in new ways, and whether economics can ever be objective, since it influences what it analyzes. Just as important, the discipline needs to correct its striking lack of diversity and inclusion if it is to be able to offer new solutions to new problems.

Filled with original insights, Cogs and Monsters offers a road map for how economics can adapt to the rewiring of society, including by digital technologies, and realize its potential to play a hugely positive role in the twenty-first century.