Publications

CEP discussion paper

Market power, growth and wealth inequality

In recent decades, the United States has experienced a notable rise in markups, a slowdown in productivity growth, and an increase in wealth inequality. We present a framework that unifies these trends into a common driv...Read more...

Blog

LSE Politics and Policy:

Using people's feelings to value time

People hate wasting time commuting. But translating that into a monetary value to help government policy isn't that straightforward. Christian Krekel, George MacKerron and Iven Stead present a new method to put a value o...Read more...

Blog

Lives well lived:

Richard Layard: the science of wellbeing (podcast)

Richard Layard is a British Labour Economist, a member of the House of Lords, and co-editor of the World Happiness Report. Layard highlights the role of life satisfaction and wellbeing in government policy, and the impo...Read more...

CEP report

Minimum wage effects: adjustment through labour market dynamics and alternative work arrangements

This report investigates the UK's 2016 National Living Wage (NLW) introduction, focusing on firm adjustment through labour market transitions and job contract amendments. The NLW boosted worker wages, and whilst there wa...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

What fueled the illicit opioid epidemic? New evidence from a takeover of white powder heroin markets

In recent years, the majority of drug overdose deaths in the U.S. have involved illicitly-produced opioids (primarily heroin and fentanyl), overtaking prescription opioids as the main driver of the opioid epidemic. In th...Read more...

Blog

LSE Business Review:

The benefits of elite education are more social than academic

From Oxbridge to Harvard and Yale, elite universities are a feature of many education systems. Andres Barrios Fernandez, Christopher Neilson and Seth Zimmerman write about the importance of the social circles created by ...Read more...

Blog

Vox EU:

Technology spillovers, diffusion, and rivalry in firm networks

Quantifying technology adoption, spillovers, and diffusion across firms is crucial for understanding industry dynamics, and in turn countries' growth. This column combines firm-level input-output VAT data from Turkey wit...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Paper tiger? Chinese science and home bias in citations

We investigate the phenomenon of home bias in scientific citations, where researchers disproportionately cite work from their own country. We develop a benchmark for expected citations based on the relative size of count...Read more...

Blog

Vox EU:

Distributional consumer price indices and the measurement of inequality

Differences in consumption patterns between lower- and higher-income households suggest the potential for inflation inequality, but evidence on the scale and drivers of this disparity remains scarce. This column uses 'di...Read more...

Journal article

The Economic Journal: Forthcoming

Judge Dread: Court severity, repossession risk and demand in mortgage and housing markets

We study the impact of borrower protection on mortgage and housing demand using variation in the likelihood that houses are repossessed coming from heterogeneity in preferences of local judges. We develop a framework tha...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

How effective are R&D tax incentives? Reconciling micro and macro evidence

Recent firm-level studies find R&D tax incentives to be much more effective at stimulating firms' R&D investment than what aggregate analyses indicate. Based on a distributed analysis of official R&D survey and administr...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

The effect of adult psychological therapies on employment and earnings: Evidence from England

People suffering from common mental disorders (CMD) such as depression and anxiety are more likely to be economically inactive. Psychological therapies are highly effective at treating CMDs but less is known about their ...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Return innovation: The knowledge spillovers of the British migration to the United States, 1870-1940

This paper documents that out-migration promotes the diffusion of innovation from the country of destination to the country of origin of migrants. Between 1870 and 1940, nearly four million British immigrants settled in ...Read more...

Blog

Vox EU:

New approaches to measure (increasing) concentration in Europe

Concentration (the share of a market's output produced by its largest firms) is a key proxy for measuring market competition. This column introduces a cross-country dataset to measure concentration at the industry level ...Read more...

Journal article

Nature Energy:

The closing longevity gap between battery electric vehicles and internal combustion vehicles in Great Britain

Electric vehicles are increasingly being adopted in Great Britain and other parts of the world, driven by the perception that they offer a cost-effective alternative to internal combustion engine vehicles while reducing ...Read more...

Blog

What works centre for economic growth:

English Devolution: new responsibilities, new challenges

Just before the Christmas holidays, the government published their eagerly awaited white paper on English Devolution. The resulting English Devolution Bill will usher in the biggest reorganisation of local government for...Read more...

Blog

Vox EU:

The evolution of gender in the labour market

Despite significant progress in closing the gender gap in earnings, work remains highly gendered, with women continuing to participate less in the workforce, work fewer hours, and face persistent wage disparities. This c...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Is it possible to raise national happiness?

We revisit the famous Easterlin paradox by considering that life evaluation scales refer to a changing context, hence they are regularly reinterpreted. We propose a simple model of rescaling based on both retrospective a...Read more...

Blog

Vox EU:

What impact have trade sanctions had on Russia? (Podcast)

Recorded at the CEPR Paris Symposium. How effective have the trade sanctions imposed on Russia in 2022 been? Politically, they were comprehensive and quick. But anecdotal reporting has suggested that Russian firms that w...Read more...

Blog

Project Syndicate:

What AI Means for Growth and Jobs

While many commentators warn that AI will undermine employment and offer only modest productivity gains, empirical studies continue to suggest otherwise. With the right policies in place, the technology holds immense pot...Read more...

Blog

LSE Politics and Policy:

Trump's tariffs will put post-Brexit trade policy to the test

With Donald Trump's inauguration imminent, there are questions over the potential consequences of one of his signature policies: tariffs. While during the first Trump administration the UK wasn't too affected by the impo...Read more...

Journal article

Scientific Reports:

Machine learning in the prediction of human wellbeing

Subjective wellbeing data are increasingly used across the social sciences. Yet, despite the widespread use of such data, the predictive power of approaches commonly used to model wellbeing is only limited. In response, ...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

The evolution of gender in the labor market

This paper traces the evolution of the study of gender in the labor market, focusing on how academic thinking on this topic has evolved alongside real world developments in gender inequality from the 1980s to the present...Read more...

Journal article

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management: Forthcoming

Air pollution and innovation

If air pollution harms innovation - and therefore future productivity - existing assessments of its economic cost are incomplete. We estimate the effect of fine particulate matter concentration on inventive output in 977...Read more...

Journal article

European Economic Review: Forthcoming

Does the child penalty strike twice?

This paper compares the labor market trajectories of grandparents before and after the arrival of their first grandchild. We find gender gaps in earnings of 4 and 10 percent five and ten years, respectively, after the fi...Read more...