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Blogs and podcasts

Comment, analysis, and debate by CEP researchers on today's economic and social policy issues. Published in a wide range of outlets including the BBC, The Conversation and LSE blogs.

Featured work

picture of tram in manchester
Can Manchesterism really be a blueprint for national growth?

As Andy Burnham takes over as UK Prime Minister, Manchesterism is increasingly discussed as a blueprint for the rest of the country. But even within Manchester, the project is still a work in progress.
A lone ship on the sea By Chris Pagan on Unsplash
World trade remains dangerously dependent on a handful of shipping lanes

The conflict in Iran has been reignited by disagreements about control of a critical shipping lane. But the Strait of Hormuz is not the only chokepoint making global trade vulnerable.

Latest

Blog
VoxEU:
Firms slice up global production to protect their knowhow

Imitation is a first-order concern for enterprises operating global production processes. Firms routinely source knowledge-intensive inputs from many countries, including those with weak intellectual property laws. This ...Read more...

Peter Eppinger, Bohdan Kukharskyy, Alireza Naghavi and Gianmarco Ottaviano

17 August 2026
Blog
LSE Business Review:
ChatGPT or Zoom - which broke the career ladder?

Entry-level hiring has fallen sharply across white-collar work. An emerging explanation has been that generative AI is to blame. Drawing on their new study of hundreds of millions of hires and job adverts, Peter John Lam...Read more...

Peter Lambert and Yannick Schindler

17 August 2026
Blog
Promarket:
American Slaveholders Lost Their Wealth but Kept Their Political Power

In new research, Luna Bellani, Anselm Hager, and Stephan Maurer examine how the abolition of slavery after the American Civil War affected the political influence of former slaveholders. Despite the blow to their economi...Read more...

Luna Bellani, Anselm Hager and Stephan Maurer

6 August 2026
Blog
LSE British Politics:
Without radical planning reform, Burnham cannot build the houses he's promising

Governments keep promising to build more houses, and keep failing to do so. Now, Andy Burnham has upped the challenge by promising not just more houses, but specifically more council houses since World War II. Paul Chesh...Read more...

Paul Cheshire

5 August 2026
Blog
VoxTalks:
Tariff Confusion (podcast)

If you run a business that exports to the United States, how big is the tariff you have to pay? In 2025 that question was hard to answer. Between February and December, 53 separate announcements introduced, delayed, rein...Read more...

Kalina Manova

31 July 2026
Blog
The Economics Show with Soumaya Keynes (podcast):
Will AI solve the productivity puzzle? With Nick Bloom

Productivity has been a problem for the past 15 years. In developed countries, weak demand, a lack of competition and a paucity of new ideas have all been blamed. Could AI finally reverse that trend? Soumaya speaks to St...Read more...

Nicholas Bloom and Soumaya Keynes

31 July 2026
Blog
Project Syndicate:
Silicon, Not Software, Will Decide the AI Race

The AI race is no longer just about building better models. As competition shifts from scientific discovery to deployment, success increasingly depends on computing power, advanced semiconductors, physical infrastructure...Read more...

Antonin Bergeaud and Robin Rivaton

31 July 2026
Blog
LSE Management:
How America out-deindustrialised Europe

Despite the prevailing narrative of Western deindustrialisation as one of a rigid Europe and a dynamic America, Richard Baldwin, Saul Estrin, and Bob Hancke argue that the comparison of the EU with the US turns this narr...Read more...

Richard E. Baldwin, Saul Estrin and Bob Hancke

23 July 2026
Blog
LSE Inequalities:
Andy Burnham's biggest challenge isn't Britain's old class system - it's the new one

Britain's new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, is more "Evertonian" than "Etonian", notes Lee Elliot Major: with his working class roots and political identity rooted in North West England, he marks a radical break with the...Read more...

Lee Elliot Major

22 July 2026
Blog
LSE British Politics:
Can Manchesterism really be a blueprint for national growth?

As Andy Burnham takes over as Prime Minister, Manchesterism is increasingly discussed as a blueprint for the rest of the country. But Aadya Bahl argues that much of the success of Greater Manchester depended on local con...Read more...

Aadya Bahl

21 July 2026
Blog
VoxEU:
Place-based industrial policies in the long run

There is growing evidence that place-based industrial policies lead to positive economic effects. This column analyses the 'Million-Rouble Plants' programme of the 1950s when the Soviet Union helped China build state-of-...Read more...

Stephan Heblich, Marlon Serer and Yanos Zylberberg

18 July 2026
Blog
Bloomberg Trumponomics (podcast):
Are We Being Priced Out of Happiness?

Americans are spending less time with friends, nights out are getting more expensive and even major sporting events are becoming harder to afford. Stephanie Flanders speaks with Bloomberg reporter Ben Steverman and econo...Read more...

Richard Layard

16 July 2026
Blog
LSE British politics:
Burnham's Manchesterism can help universities drive local growth

Andy Burnham recently acknowledged that UK universities are capable of driving innovation and economic growth. But their ability to do so is being undermined by a higher education funding crisis. Manchesterism, with its ...Read more...

Aadya Bahl

14 July 2026
Blog
LSE Impact:
Prevention loses budget battles - wellbeing economics can change the maths

From extreme heat to heavy rains, governments are increasingly faced with the need to be prepared for the impacts of climate change. Christian Krekel and Sara MacLennan outline how wellbeing economics can make a compelli...Read more...

Christian Krekel and Sara MacLennan

13 July 2026
Blog
LSE Business Review:
World trade remains dangerously dependent on a handful of shipping lanes

The conflict in Iran has been reignited by disagreements about control of a critical shipping lane. But the Strait of Hormuz is not the only chokepoint making global trade vulnerable. Ferdinand Rauch, Stephan Maurer and ...Read more...

Stephan Maurer, Luke Milsom and Ferdinand Rauch

9 July 2026
Blog
LSE Impact:
Did Brexit make us better at communicating economics?

The referendum on the UK's membership of the EU was a watershed moment for research communication. Despite a near total academic consensus on the negative economic consequences of a vote to Leave, this message did not de...Read more...

Romesh Vaitilingam

8 July 2026
Blog
LSE US Politics and Policy:
Catalytic converter thefts rise and fall with global metal prices

Catalytic convertors reduce the harmful emissions produced by vehicles with combustion engines and contain valuable metals like platinum, In new research, Gerald Foong, Stephen Machin and Matteo Sandi look at the relatio...Read more...

Gerald Foong, Stephen Machin and Matteo Sandi

8 July 2026
Blog
Radical (podcast):
Happiness Rules: Should Wellbeing Dictate Government Policy?

This week, Amol sits down with Lord Richard Layard, the author, economist, and Labour peer who has spent decades making the case for happiness and wellbeing. He successfully helped implement talking therapy to the NHS, a...Read more...

Richard Layard and Amol Rajan

2 July 2026
Blog
Radical (podcast):
What Is The Secret To Happiness? (Your Radical Questions with Lord Richard Layard)

For this week's Q&A, Amol is joined by the economist, author, Labour peer, and happiness champion Lord Richard Layard. In their previous conversation, Lord Layard outlined his radical idea; that government policymaking s...Read more...

Richard Layard and Amol Rajan

2 July 2026
Blog
Polytechnique Insights:
Europe is falling behind, can it pick up the pace when it comes to innovation?

Philippe Aghion writes for Polytechnique Insights on how Europe must prepare its own AI strategy if it wishes to make up ground lost to the U.S. in terms of GDP per capita, productivity and disruptive innovations....Read more...

Philippe Aghion

1 July 2026
Martin Hannon
Communications and events officer
+44(0)20 7955 7517
m.hannon@lse.ac.uk
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