In the Winter 2012 edition of CentrePiece:

In this edition:

Immigration and the UK labour market

David Metcalf, chair of the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), outlines recent changes in the regulatory framework for immigrant workers. Read more...

The UK's housing crises

The UK is facing not one but two housing crises. The first is a short-term fall in prices and construction whcih is both driven by and driving the recession. The second and more profound is the overall shortage of housin... Read more...

Hooray for GDP!

The idea of having GDP growth as the main target of economic policy has been under attack in recent years. The article answers some of the criticisms and argues that continued GDP growth would be good for the UK - and no... Read more...

Working or shirking?

Over 10% of US employees now regularly work from home (WFH), but there is widespread skepticism over its impact highlighted by phrases like ?shirking from home?. We report the results of a WFH experiment at Ctrip, a 13,0... Read more...

Sexism at work

Women have, on average, been less well-paid than men throughout history. Prior to 1900, most economic historians see the gender wage gap as a reflection of men?s greater strength and correspondingly higher productivity. ... Read more...

Science: why the gender gap?

Stereotypes, role models played by teachers and social norms influence girls? academic self-concept and push girls to choose humanities rather than science. Do recruiters reinforce this strong selection by discriminating... Read more...

'Stop fighting and wealth will follow'

The article uses house prices to measure the peace dividend in Northern Ireland - and draws lessons for other parts of the world that have endured long conflicts. Read more...

America's fiscal cliff

The US economy is still suffering from its most severe recession in seven decades. This article covers the key issue of taxes, spending and public debt, a major point of disagreement between the two candidates in the 201... Read more...