Diane Coyle

Following her Indigo Prize-winning essay on radically replacing GDP measurements, Coyle now leads the Six Capitals research project, funded by LetterOne, at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy at Cambridge University; the project was inaugurated in January 2019 and explores social and natural capital.

Since March 2018, she has been the Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge, co-directing the Bennett Institute.

Coyle was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2018 New Year Honours for "services to Economics and the Public Understanding of Economics".

In 2017, Coyle and Benjamin Mitra-Kahn won the inaugural Indigo Prize, along with co-winner economics professor Jonathan Haskel, for submitting the best hypothetical plans to overhaul GDP as an economic measurement as economies move more into the digital and information age.

In 2016, Coyle was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS).

She was a professor of economics at the University of Manchester from 2014 to 2018.

Coyle was previously a presenter on BBC Radio 4 and was a member of the BBC Trust from November 2006 until April 2015. On 7 April 2011 the Queen approved Coyle's appointment as the Vice-Chairman of the BBC Trust, the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation. She also has been contributing regularly to Project Syndicate since 2017.

Coyle has praised the news coverage of the BBC, saying "I've always valued the BBC, not least as the best provider of news coverage in the world. Its impartiality and comprehensive coverage underpin its vital civic role." However, in 2009 she was critical of the BBC's programming, stating "Viewers are becoming increasingly cynical and disappointed by the programmes offered by the BBC and the UK's other main TV channels." "Among the negative comments there are complaints about a lack of variety, too much soap or costume drama…disappointment about old series being brought back and a degree of cynicism over 'rehashing' and ripping off old ideas".

In the 2009 New Year Honours, Coyle was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) "for services to economics".

Coyle was also a member of the UK's Competition Commission from 2001 to 2009, a member of the Royal Economic Society, previously a member of the UK Border Agency's Migration Advisory Committee from 2009 to 2014, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

She has written a series of books focused on educating people about different aspects of economics. She has said that her first book, The Weightless World (1997), was a contribution to the creation of a radical centre. Another book explores concepts of "enoughness" and sustainability.

Coyle was born in Bury, Lancashire, and attended Bury Grammar School for Girls, where a teacher engaged her "very sceptical and mathematical" mind with the logical way of thinking required in economics. She did her undergraduate studies at Brasenose College, Oxford, reading philosophy, politics, and economics, before gaining an MA and a PhD in Economics from Harvard University, graduating in 1985, her thesis was titled The dynamic behaviour of employment (wages, contracts, productivity, business cycle).

Coyle was an economist at the UK Treasury from 1985 to 1986, and later became the European Editor of Investors Chronicle between 1993 and 2001 and economics editor of The Independent.

Diane Coyle, CBE, OBE, FAcSS (born February 1961) is an economist and a former advisor to the UK Treasury. She was vice-chairman of the BBC Trust, the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation, and was a member of the UK Competition Commission from 2001 until 2019. Since March 2018, she has been the Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge, co-directing the Bennett Institute.