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Blogs and podcasts

Comment, analysis, and debate by CEP researchers on today's economic and social policy issues.

photo of factory skyline by Iain Kennedy via Unsplash
The EU has a transformative mechanism to reduce carbon leakage, but challenges loom ahead

Despite addressing carbon pricing challenges, the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism may hinder the growth and green transition of developing countries.
Photograph of computer code by Lukas via Unsplash
Britain needs nerds

STEM skills are key to AI adoption in the UK, but disparities in skills are causing uneven technology uptake across the country.

Latest Blogs and podcasts

Blog
What works centre for local economic growth:
Effective devolution: why evidence and evaluation are key to success

Last week we held the first in our latest series of breakfast briefing webinars. This event focused on how local governments can prepare themselves to make the most of the devolution of local growth policy. Our remaining...Read more...

Will Brett-Harding

13 February 2025

Blog
LSE Politics and Policy:
How to make Labour's National Wealth Fund work

Labour's plans for growth include the creation of a National Wealth Fund. A closer look at the proposals reveals that this is not like other Sovereign Wealth Funds, but is in fact more like a Green Investment Bank, meant...Read more...

Cassandra Chong and Neil Lee

12 February 2025

Blog
LSE Politics and Policy:
Using people's feelings to value time

People hate wasting time commuting. But translating that into a monetary value to help government policy isn't that straightforward. Christian Krekel, George MacKerron and Iven Stead present a new method to put a value o...Read more...

Christian Krekel, George MacKerron and Iven Stead

7 February 2025

Blog
Lives well lived:
Richard Layard: the science of wellbeing (podcast)

Richard Layard is a British Labour Economist, a member of the House of Lords, and co-editor of the World Happiness Report. Layard highlights the role of life satisfaction and wellbeing in government policy, and the impo...Read more...

Richard Layard

6 February 2025

Blog
LSE Business Review:
The benefits of elite education are more social than academic

From Oxbridge to Harvard and Yale, elite universities are a feature of many education systems. Andres Barrios Fernandez, Christopher Neilson and Seth Zimmerman write about the importance of the social circles created by ...Read more...

Andrés Barrios Fernández, Christopher Neilson and Seth Zimmerman

4 February 2025

Blog
Vox EU:
Technology spillovers, diffusion, and rivalry in firm networks

Quantifying technology adoption, spillovers, and diffusion across firms is crucial for understanding industry dynamics, and in turn countries' growth. This column combines firm-level input-output VAT data from Turkey wit...Read more...

Nuriye Melisa Bilgin, Ester Faia and Gianmarco Ottaviano

31 January 2025

Blog
Vox EU:
Distributional consumer price indices and the measurement of inequality

Differences in consumption patterns between lower- and higher-income households suggest the potential for inflation inequality, but evidence on the scale and drivers of this disparity remains scarce. This column uses 'di...Read more...

Xavier Jaravel

30 January 2025

Blog
Vox EU:
New approaches to measure (increasing) concentration in Europe

Concentration (the share of a market's output produced by its largest firms) is a key proxy for measuring market competition. This column introduces a cross-country dataset to measure concentration at the industry level ...Read more...

Sara Calligaris, Chiara Criscuolo, Josh De Lyon, Andrea Greppi and Oliviero Pallanch

26 January 2025

Blog
What works centre for economic growth:
English Devolution: new responsibilities, new challenges

Just before the Christmas holidays, the government published their eagerly awaited white paper on English Devolution. The resulting English Devolution Bill will usher in the biggest reorganisation of local government for...Read more...

Will Brett-Harding

22 January 2025

Blog
Vox EU:
The evolution of gender in the labour market

Despite significant progress in closing the gender gap in earnings, work remains highly gendered, with women continuing to participate less in the workforce, work fewer hours, and face persistent wage disparities. This c...Read more...

Claudia Olivetti, Jessica Pan and Barbara Petrongolo

20 January 2025

Blog
Vox EU:
What impact have trade sanctions had on Russia? (Podcast)

Recorded at the CEPR Paris Symposium. How effective have the trade sanctions imposed on Russia in 2022 been? Politically, they were comprehensive and quick. But anecdotal reporting has suggested that Russian firms that w...Read more...

Dzhamilya Nigmatulina

17 January 2025

Blog
Project Syndicate:
What AI Means for Growth and Jobs

While many commentators warn that AI will undermine employment and offer only modest productivity gains, empirical studies continue to suggest otherwise. With the right policies in place, the technology holds immense pot...Read more...

Philippe Aghion, Simon Bunel and Xavier Jaravel

14 January 2025

Blog
LSE Politics and Policy:
Trump's tariffs will put post-Brexit trade policy to the test

With Donald Trump's inauguration imminent, there are questions over the potential consequences of one of his signature policies: tariffs. While during the first Trump administration the UK wasn't too affected by the impo...Read more...

Adam Butlin

13 January 2025

Blog
Vox EU:
Redirecting AI: Privacy regulation and the future of artificial intelligence

Some artificial intelligence technologies are more data intensive than others. This column examines how data privacy regulation shaped the trajectory of AI innovation across countries, looking at patent applications from...Read more...

Pia Andres, Carl Benedikt Frey and Giorgio Presidente

5 January 2025

Blog
Vox EU:
Leveraging AI to navigate 'deglobalisation'

Trade wars, industrial policy, and myriad other supply chain disruptions have fast become the 'new normal'. Yet, given the highly opaque and complex nature of production processes, knowing how to navigate this rise of de...Read more...

Bennet Feld, Thiemo Fetzer, Prashant Garg and Peter Lambert

24 December 2024

Blog
Economics Observatory:
Do cities and regions gain from public sector relocation?

Moving public agencies out of London was a major plank of the levelling-up agenda. The effects on local economies seem smaller than hoped - and it's important to compare them with those of other tools of regional policy:...Read more...

Max Nathan, Henry G. Overman, Capucine Riom and Maria Sanchez-Vidal

19 December 2024

Blog
LSE British Politics and Policy:
How Brexit affected the trade of UK firms

The UK left the EU's single market and customs union at the start of 2021, entering unto the Trade and Cooperation Agreement with the EU. Rebecca Freeman, Marco Garofalo, Enrico Longoni, Kalina Manova, Rebecca Mari, Thom...Read more...

Rebecca Freeman, Marco Garofalo, Enrico Longoni, Kalina Manova, Rebecca Mari, Thomas Prayer and Thomas Sampson

18 December 2024

Blog
EGC Voices in Development:
Development Dialogue: How can emerging economies break free from the sidelines of global trade? (podcast)

This episode of Development Dialogues addresses how lower-income countries have engaged with global trade. How have their approaches to trade differed based on their underlying institutional and economic structure? What ...Read more...

Amit Khandelwal, Isabela Manelici and Arvind Subramanian

17 December 2024

Blog
Vox EU:
High moments for superstar exporters

Aggregate exports are highly concentrated in a small group of firms, which are generally more productive than other firms. This column shows that productivity shocks generate different responses of aggregate exports depe...Read more...

Giorgio Barba Navaretti, Matteo Bugamelli, Emanuele Forlani and Gianmarco Ottaviano

16 December 2024

Blog
Project Syndicate:
The missing monetary-policy tool

Central banks should prepare - both legally and operationally - to carry out direct transfers to households when conventional monetary policy fails. Recent research shows that stimulus payments would increase consumption...Read more...

Johannes Boehm and Xavier Jaravel

16 December 2024

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