In the Winter 2009 edition of CentrePiece:

In this edition:

Weightlifting competitions: lessons for performance management

Christos Genakos and Mario Pagliero look at professional weightlifters to assess the effects of reward systems based on relative performance. Read more...

Big ideas: Intergenerational mobility

Jo Blanden traces the evolution of CEP research on social mobility and its interaction with policy debate. Read more...

In brief... The recession will be over sooner than you think

Nick Bloom and Max Floetotto report that key measures of uncertainty have dropped so rapidly that growth will resume in late 2009. Read more...

The changing pattern of earnings: employees, migrants and low-paid families

Richard Dickens and Abigail McKnight explore changes in earnings inequality in Britain since the late 1970s. Read more...

Understanding happiness: the distinction between living - and thinking about it

Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman discusses happiness as an indicator of social progress. Read more...

In brief... Hot and cold seasons in the housing market

The difference in the price you pay for the same house in the summer and in the winter is huge, according to Rachel Ngai and Silvana Tenreyro. Read more...

In brief... Train times

Are we better than the Victorians at running our railways? Tim Leunig investigates. Read more...

In brief... Saving the economy and the planet

The economic crisis may offer an opportunity to set the world on the right track for addressing climate change, writes Ralf Martin. Read more...

Britain's regional divide

Henry Overman considers the regional distribution of prosperity and the potential policy responses. Read more...

Peer effects in science: evidence from Nazi Germany

Are university scientists more productive when surrounded by able colleagues? Fabian Waldinger uses data from 1930s Germany to address this question. Read more...