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CentrePiece

The Centre's magazine features new research and policy ideas from the CEP. Written for non-specialist readers, CentrePiece articles are analytical, rigorously-evidenced and showcase the latest economic methods. Published three times a year.

Image from CentrePiece Autumn 2021. Designer Raphael Whittle
CentrePiece Autumn 2021
Green growth

New research from CEP features in CentrePiece including evidence on how to create sustainable economic growth, improve social mobility and the benefits of volunteering. Read more...
Illustration from CentrePiece Autumn 2021
Happy to help: NHS volunteering in Covid-19 times

The Covid-19 crisis prompted thousands to register as NHS Volunteer Responders, helping vulnerable people with small daily tasks like shopping. CEP researchers find big increases in wellbeing among those who took part in the programme, with effects lasting long after the time spent volunteering had ended. Read more...

Latest CentrePiece articles

CentrePiece article
Happy to help: NHS volunteering in Covid-19 times

The Covid-19 crisis prompted thousands to register as NHS Volunteer Responders, helping vulnerable people with small daily tasks like shopping. Christian Krekel and colleagues find big increases in wellbeing among those ...Read more...

Christian Krekel

15 October 2021

CentrePiece article
In Brief... UK gender pay gap reporting: a crude but effective policy

Forcing employers to reveal their gender pay gap has been effective in its main goal of narrowing the gap, according to research by Jack Blundell who finds the difference between women and men's pay has shrunk by just un...Read more...

Jack Blundell

6 October 2021

CentrePiece article
Poland's economy in the pandemic

The Polish economy has largely managed to avoid the pandemic-induced troubles experienced in Western Europe. But as Pawel Bukowski and Wojtek Paczos argue, contrary to government claims of able stewardship, what has got ...Read more...

Pawel Bukowski and Wojciech Paczos

15 October 2021

CentrePiece article
Learning loss since lockdown

Young people in education have lost significant amounts of time in school during the pandemic - and this carries risks of lifetime scars. Lee Elliot Major, Andrew Eyles and Stephen Machin reveal the scale of learning los...Read more...

Lee Elliot Major, Andrew Eyles and Stephen Machin

15 October 2021

CentrePiece article
Green growth

Many countries have plans for a 'green recovery' from the pandemic. Anna Valero reviews 30 years of CEP research into how environmental and industrial policies can be combined to achieve economic growth that is strong, s...Read more...

Anna Valero

15 October 2021

CentrePiece article
Move on up

In the third and final anniversary lecture marking 30 years since CEP began, director Stephen Machin focused on social mobility - the extent to which young people's opportunities in life can transcend their family backgr...Read more...

Stephen Machin

15 October 2021

CentrePiece article
Rising sea levels and the future of coastal cities

Despite the higher susceptibility to floods and a growing climate crisis, more than 10% of the world's population lives in low-elevation coastal zones - and that share is increasing. Guy Michaels and colleagues present a...Read more...

Guy Michaels

15 October 2021

CentrePiece article
Beyond income inequality: non-monetary rewards to work

Discussion of income inequality focuses primarily on wages with limited consideration of the non-monetary rewards to work, not least the satisfaction that employees experience in doing their jobs. Andrew Clark, Maria Cot...Read more...

Andrew E. Clark, Maria Cotofan and Richard Layard

15 June 2021

CentrePiece article
The motherhood penalty for working women in Spain

Spain has seen a huge influx of women into the workplace in recent decades, but their experiences of work remain very different from those of men. As Claudia Hupkau and Jenifer Ruiz-Valenzuela explain, there is scope for...Read more...

Claudia Hupkau and Jenifer Ruiz-Valenzuela

15 June 2021

CentrePiece article
in brief... Covid-19 and self-employment

The pandemic has had particularly damaging economic effects on self-employed people in the UK. CEP has now run three surveys to capture the experience of these workers during the crisis. Stephen Machin and Maria Ventura ...Read more...

Stephen Machin and Maria Ventura

15 June 2021

CentrePiece article
The impact of regulation on innovation

It is widely feared that private sector innovation is constrained by 'red tape'. Philippe Aghion and colleagues test that view on data from France, where firms of more than 50 employees face far heavier regulatory obliga...Read more...

Philippe Aghion

15 June 2021

CentrePiece article
UK house prices in Covid-19 times

The pandemic lead to increased demand for bigger homes and gardens. With housing supply limited by strict UK planning regulations and the market propped up by a stamp duty waiver and the furlough scheme, prices of detach...Read more...

Paul Cheshire, Christian A. L. Hilber and Olivier Schöni

15 June 2021

CentrePiece article
in brief... Competition and pass-through on the Greek islands

A fundamental issue in economics is how firms deal with unexpected cost increases, perhaps arising from taxes, exchange rate fluctuations or rising input prices: what drives the extent to which they pass the costs throug...Read more...

Christos Genakos and Mario Pagliero

15 June 2021

CentrePiece article
Going for growth that's sustainable and equitable

In the second anniversary lecture marking 30 years since CEP began, former director John Van Reenen focused on productivity, an issue that has been at the heart of the Centre's work for three decades. He sets out how tec...Read more...

John Van Reenen

15 June 2021

CentrePiece article
Ethnic minorities and the UK labour market

Contrary to the impression given by the Sewell Report, there has been little change in disparities in pay, employment and unemployment among different ethnic groups in the UK over the past 25 years. Indeed, as analysis o...Read more...

Alan Manning and Rebecca Rose

15 June 2021

CentrePiece article
Lockdown and the social life of big cities

The effects of Covid-19 on the social lives of city dwellers - being able to go to the pub, restaurants and theatre - may be more relevant for the future of cities than its impact on work. That's the implication of a tho...Read more...

Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt, Fabian Bald, Duncan Roth and Tobias Seidel

1 March 2021

CentrePiece article
Will coronavirus cause a big city exodus?

Big cities thrive because of the economic and social benefits of proximity – but proximity also helps to spread Covid-19. Does this mean an end to the urban revival of recent years – or do vaccines herald a return to nor...Read more...

Max Nathan and Henry G. Overman

1 March 2021

CentrePiece article
in brief... The long shadow of slavery

The politics and economy of the antebellum American South were dominated by those who practiced forced enslavement. Research by Luna Bellani, Anselm Hager and Stephan Maurer, which examines a database of Texas legislator...Read more...

Luna Bellani, Anselm Hager and Stephan E. Maurer

1 March 2021

CentrePiece article
Innovation policy to restore American prosperity

The new US administration has the opportunity to reset an economic model that has failed to deliver prosperity for millions of Americans for decades. John Van Reenen calls for a Grand Innovation Challenge Fund – federal ...Read more...

John Van Reenen

1 March 2021

CentrePiece article
in brief... Losses in lockdown: jobs, income, education and mental health

During the pandemic, many parents have had to cope with losing their jobs or part of their income at the same time as they are obliged to manage home schooling. Claudia Hupkau, Ingo Isphording, Stephen Machin and Jenifer...Read more...

Claudia Hupkau, Ingo Isphording, Stephen Machin and Jenifer Ruiz-Valenzuela

1 March 2021

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