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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.

By Raphael Whittle
CentrePiece Summer 2025: Market Power

The CentrePiece cover story explores the effects of declining competition.
Illustration from CentrePiece Summer 2025
Investing in mental health

The lasting positive effects of psychological treatments on patients' employment and earnings.

Latest CentrePiece articles

CentrePiece article
in brief... How the Trump tariffs affect UK firms

How should UK exporters react to the tariffs imposed by President Trump? While some may start planning to increase production in the United States to avoid the tax, others whose US customers are less price-sensitive may ...Read more...

Catherine Thomas

20 June 2025

CentrePiece article
The benefits of elite universities are more social than academic

From Cambridge and Oxford to Harvard and Yale, elite universities are a feature of many education systems. Andrés Barrios Fernández, Christopher Neilson and Seth Zimmerman ask whether these institutions of higher educati...Read more...

Andrés Barrios Fernández, Christopher Neilson and Seth Zimmerman

20 June 2025

CentrePiece article
Return innovation: how migration shapes diffusion of new technologies

Novel products, processes and technologies are important drivers of economic growth. Davide Coluccia and Gaia Dossi show how migrants from Britain to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century not only too...Read more...

Davide M. Coluccia and Gaia Dossi

20 June 2025

CentrePiece article
The lasting impact of 9/11 on Muslim integration in America

Understanding the long-term social impact of historical events provides insights into current global debates on immigration, integration and Islamophobia. In a study of the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Shadi Farahza...Read more...

Shadi Farahzadi

20 June 2025

CentrePiece article
in brief... How gender quotas are challenging political inequality in South Korea

Boosting women’s representation in government means understanding what type of gender discrimination is being practised, say Jay Euijung Lee and Martina Zanella....Read more...

Jay Euijung Lee and Martina Zanella

20 June 2025

CentrePiece article
Public sector relocation: lessons from the BBC’s move to Salford

Moving public agencies out of London was a major plank of the levelling-up agenda. Max Nathan, Henry Overman, Capucine Riom and Maria Sanchez-Vidal show how the BBC’s move to Salford had a positive effect on the local ec...Read more...

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

20 June 2025

CentrePiece article
Why people like living in cities: a new measure of the quality of life

People like to live in certain places, even when higher wages are on offer elsewhere. Gabriel Ahlfeldt, Fabian Bald, Duncan Roth and Tobias Seidel show that once people’s preferences are considered, big cities offer a hi...Read more...

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

20 June 2025

CentrePiece article
Investing in mental health: the economic benefits of NHS talking therapies

What are the effects of psychological therapies on patients’ employment and earnings? In the first analysis of this question using nationally representative data, Klaudia Rzepnicka, Emma Sharland, Marta Rossa, Ted Dolby,...Read more...

Daniel Ayoubkhani, Ted Dolby, Vahé Nafilyan, Ekaterina Oparina, Marta Rossa, Klaudia Rzepnicka, Rob Saunders and Emma Sharland

20 June 2025

CentrePiece article
The price of power: why rising markups hurt innovation and widen inequality

Over the past four decades, the United States has seen rising market power, slowing productivity growth and deepening wealth inequality. Giammario Impullitti and Pontus Rendahl explore how declining competition may be th...Read more...

Giammario Impullitti and Pontus Rendahl

20 June 2025

CentrePiece article
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 into 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

20 February 2025

CentrePiece article
in brief... Successful caps on fees disprove the idea that it’s unwise to meddle with free markets

Jan David Bakker and Nikhil Datta show how the success of a reform of letting agents’ fees was partly due to their hidden nature....Read more...

Jan David Bakker and Nikhil Datta

20 February 2025

CentrePiece article
Revving up wages: How rising productivity has benefited car industry workers

Fast productivity growth in the UK car industry led to staff in the sector earning about 37% more than the average manufacturing employee by the 2010s. But Andreas Teichgraeber and Tim Obermeier show that while wages wen...Read more...

Tim Obermeier and Andreas Teichgraeber

20 February 2025

CentrePiece article
Remembering Daniel Kahneman

Following an LSE event discussing the legacy of Daniel Kahneman (5 March 1934 to 27 March 2024), Barbara Tversky remembers him and his work....Read more...

Barbara Tversky

20 February 2025

CentrePiece article
Daniel Kahneman: a legacy

The late Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman had a long association with CEP. At an LSE event, Richard Layard, Gillian Tett and Paul Dolan discussed how his work influenced psychology, economics and society – and their experi...Read more...

Paul Dolan, Richard Layard, Gillian Tett and Helen Ward

20 February 2025

CentrePiece article
The doctor will see you now: comparing online and in-person consultations

Online consultations with doctors are convenient for patients and produce similar health outcomes to in-person visits. But research by Amanda Dahlstrand, Nestor Le Nestour and Guy Michaels finds that deciding which patie...Read more...

Amanda Dahlstrand, Nestor Le Nestour and Guy Michaels

20 February 2025

CentrePiece article
in brief... Do try this at work: the AI chatbot that can interview at scale

Large language models can conduct interviews at speed and at scale. Friedrich Geiecke and Xavier Jaravel present a new open source platform to support this innovative form of qualitative research....Read more...

Friedrich Geiecke and Xavier Jaravel

20 February 2025

CentrePiece article
How China’s rise has shaped innovation and exit among European solar firms

Should policymakers protect European firms by restricting imports of solar technology from China? Pia Andres finds that Chinese competition has resulted in many European firms going out of business, but it has also promp...Read more...

Pia Andres

20 February 2025

CentrePiece article
Property rights empower women inventors

Breakthrough innovations occurred when women obtained the right to reap economic rewards from their inventions. Ruveyda Nur Gozen shows how such inclusive policies are a critical driver of economic growth....Read more...

Ruveyda Nur Gozen

20 February 2025

CentrePiece article
in brief... Designing carbon markets that deliver change

Ever since the European Union created its market-based carbon policy, governments and businesses have been keen to assess its impact. Jonathan Colmer, Ralf Martin, Mirabelle Muûls and Ulrich Wagner explain why analysing ...Read more...

Jonathan Colmer, Ralf Martin, Mirabelle Muûls and Ulrich J. Wagner

18 October 2024

CentrePiece article
Better work: whose business is it?

Regulating the labour market is essential to address the inherent imbalance of power between employers and employees. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the state needs to intervene more than it already does. Alan Ma...Read more...

Alan Manning

18 October 2024

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