In the Winter 2012 edition of CentrePiece:

In this edition:

Big ideas: Wellbeing and public policy

Richard Layard outlines the development of CEP research on what makes people happy and how society might best be organised to promote happiness. Read more...

Wellbeing in the workplace: the impact of modern management

How people feel about their jobs is an important part of their overall happiness yet until now, few studies have explored the links between employees' wellbeing and their working environment. Alex Bryson and colleagues a... Read more...

Crime and mental wellbeing

Francesca Cornaglia and Andrew Leigh measure the impact of crime - and media reporting of crime - on the mental wellbeing of both victims and non-victims... Read more...

School inspections: can we trust Ofsted reports?

Ofsted inspections of schools have been a central feature of state education in England for nearly 20 years. Research by Iftikhar Hussain explores the validity of the school ratings that Ofsted produces, the impact of a ... Read more...

Pupils' progress: how children's perceptions influence their efforts

What is the impact of a pupil's perceptions of how their teachers will treat them on their motivation, efforts and educational achievements? To explore this question, Amine Ouazad and Lionel Page have conducted an experi... Read more...

The returns to lobbying

Research by Mirko Draca and colleagues on Washington's 'revolving door' lobbyists gives an indication of the value of political connections in the UK. Read more...

HS2: assessing the costs and benefits

Henry Overman considers the arguments for and against building a new high-speed rail line from London to Birmingham. Read more...

Policy uncertainty: a new indicator

The damaging impact of economic uncertainty on growth has been reasonably well studied - but what happens when there is uncertainty about economic policy-making? Nicholas Bloom and colleagues have developed a measure of ... Read more...

The letters page

Alan Manning questions the value of researchers conducting debates about economic policy through the pages of newspapers. Read more...

Sequential exporting: how firms break into foreign markets

Many countries are looking to their export sectors as a source of future growth, but how do domestic companies make a success of selling their output abroad? Research by Emanuel Ornelas and colleagues finds evidence of '... Read more...