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Online comment, analyses, and debate by CEP researchers on today's economic and social policy issues.

Photo of food for sale by Markus Winkler on Unsplash https://unsplash.com/photos/gk_zEpU98iU
Is inflation avoidable?

Shoppers look for cheaper products to sidestep inflation, but prices of those bargains are going up faster than those of higher-priced goods.
Read more...
Picture of Parliament in silhouette by Serena Repice Lentini https://unsplash.com/photos/KgIyQFe7RBA
The shortest economic suicide note in history?

The UK's 'mini budget' announced large tax cuts and spending. John Van Reenen explains how policies for good growth are a marathon of reforms, not a mad dash for growth. Read more...

Latest Blogs

Blog
Economics Observatory:
US student debt forgiveness: should the UK follow suit?

A recently announced policy package will ease the burden of student debt for millions of Americans. Richard Murphy, Stuart Campbell, Gill Wyness and Lindsey Macmillan contend that, due to differences between the national...Read more...

Stuart Campbell, Lindsey Macmillan, Richard Murphy and Gill Wyness

26 September 2022

Blog
LSE Business Review:
The shortest economic suicide note in history? How the mini-budget fails to help long-run growth

The UK has recently announced tax cuts and spending increases which exceed those implemented during the pandemic. John Van Reenen believes a reckoning will be unavoidable. He writes that policies for good growth are a lo...Read more...

John Van Reenen

26 September 2022

Blog
Vox Dev:
Responsible sourcing? Theory and evidence from Costa Rica

The authors investigate whether responsible sourcing policies implemented by multinational enterprises for their suppliers have impacts on the ground and, if they do, what these mean for firms and workers in the host cou...Read more...

Alonso Alfaro-Urena, Benjamin Faber, Cecile Gaubert, Isabela Manelici and Jose P Vasquez

23 September 2022

Blog
Vox EU:
Energy costs: views of leading economists on windfall taxes and consumer price caps

Proposed policy responses to steeply rising energy costs include windfall taxes, and caps on consumer energy prices. Asked whether an energy price cap would be a more appropriate immediate response to inflation than rais...Read more...

Romesh Vaitilingam

19 September 2022

Blog
Economics Observatory:
Is inflation avoidable?

Inflation in the UK is at a 40 year high, with prices rising across the economy. Shoppers can look for cheaper products, but many are already buying the lowest-cost options and the prices of those bargains are going up f...Read more...

Richard Davies

5 September 2022

Blog
LSE Business Review:
What should the next UK prime minister do?

Britain faces crises in energy and productivity, both of which have been crushing people's living standards. However, neither is being addressed by the two leadership candidates, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss. Anna Valero an...Read more...

Anna Valero and John Van Reenen

2 September 2022

Blog
The Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy:
Trade policy, regional disparities, and inclusive growth

Places matter to people. For many people, the place where they grow up will become the place where they live and work. Many countries experience regional disparities in economic performance that are profound and persiste...Read more...

Henry G. Overman

2 September 2022

Blog
What works centre for local economic growth:
Lessons from a robust evaluation of the UK's Eat Out to Help Out scheme

Eat Out to Help Out had a limited effect on footfall and recruitment. Supporting businesses in any context (Covid-19, energy crisis, etc.) needs consideration of effective mechanisms for encouraging programme take-up and...Read more...

Gonzalo Nunez-Chaim

2 September 2022

Blog
Economics Observatory:
US student debt forgiveness: should the UK follow suit?

Read more...

1 September 2022

Blog
Vox EU:
Firming up price inflation

Inflation rates in the UK and US are currently at their highest levels in over 30 years. This column uses firm-level data from the Decision Maker Panel to study inflation dynamics in the UK, and in particular since the s...Read more...

Lena Anayi, Nicholas Bloom, Philip Bunn, Paul Mizen, Gregory Thwaites and Ivan Yotzov

26 August 2022

Blog
UK in a changing Europe:
The Johnson legacy: education

Andrew Eyles explains that while the government's goals in education policy have been ambitious and are to be applauded, the policies in place fall short of the targets set out as part of the broader levelling up agenda....Read more...

Andrew Eyles

26 August 2022

Blog
LSE Business Review:
The UK must recognise its enduring economic strengths

A decade of stagnant living standards, weak productivity and low investment combined with a coming decade of major change - driven by Covid-19, Brexit and the need for accelerated action on Net Zero - mean that it is cru...Read more...

Josh De Lyon, Ralf Martin, Juliana Oliveira-Cunha, Arjun Shah, Krishan Shah, Gregory Thwaites and Anna Valero

25 August 2022

Blog
Economics Observatory:
Minimum wages and living wages: what happens in times of inflation?

It is widely accepted that minimum wages are an effective way to help workers at the lower end of the income distribution without damaging their job opportunities. But while the UK's minimum wage has risen faster than th...Read more...

Alan Manning

22 August 2022

Blog
Economics Observatory:
Are wages keeping up with the cost of living?

There is currently much debate about whether pay should keep pace with either productivity or inflation. How we measure price growth has a big influence on what we observe, shedding light on how different parts of the ec...Read more...

Jonathan Wadsworth

15 August 2022

Blog
Vox EU:
Structural change within versus across firms: evidence from the US

One feature of the US economy over the last five decades has been the transition away from manufacturing towards services. This column takes a firm-level view of structural change from 1977-2019 to study these sectoral d...Read more...

Xiang Ding, Teresa C. Fort, Stephen J. Redding and Peter K. Schott

11 August 2022

Blog
LSE Business Review:
How to future-proof your career

The job market is in constant flux; industries change or become obsolete and new technologies emerge and disrupt. In conversation with Jasmine Virhia, Grace Lordan explains what strategies we can put in place now to make...Read more...

Grace Lordan

11 August 2022

Blog
LSE Business Review:
Britain, a services superpower sinking into stagnation

British households have low levels of financial resilience and are forecast a sluggish living standards recovery coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, Britain is the result of an economy defined by the low grow...Read more...

Resolution Foundation and Centre for Economic Performance

5 August 2022

Blog
IFS Explainer:
Why is inequality in the labour market growing?

The world of work is changing. There have been huge shifts in the kinds of work we do and the types of organisations we work for. What has been happening to inequalities in the UK's labour market? What have been the imp...Read more...

Giulia Giupponi

3 August 2022

Blog
LSE Business Review:
Falling behind, the self-employed would sacrifice 10% of their income for an insurance scheme

Two years after the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, incomes of the self-employed in the UK are still well below their pre-pandemic levels. The number of self-employed workers dropped during the crisis and has not yet r...Read more...

Robert Blackburn and Maria Ventura

28 July 2022

Blog
The Overview:
Has the pandemic changed the workplace forever?

Millions of US workers are quitting or changing jobs in an ongoing trend dubbed the Great Resignation. With job vacancies rising to record highs on both sides of the Atlantic, is the UK also facing a resignations surge? ...Read more...

Jonathan Wadsworth

27 July 2022

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