Centre for Economic Performance

Highlights

International Women's Day

To mark International Women's Day 2023, five economists from CEP talk about their research. View the video...

LSE Environment Day, 2023
Tue 2 May, 09:00-18:00

LSE Environment Day will be an all-day conference designed to provide PhD students from all fields of economics the opportunity to present new research on environmental issues, interact with future colleagues, and receive valuable feedback. Read more...

Environmental citizen complaints

Citizen complaints feature prominently in public oversight contexts. The nature and effects of complaints, however, are poorly understood. CEP researchers investigate the effect of environmental citizen complaints on regulator behavior. Read more...

Latest

Financial Times

Alan Manning: 'Achieving growth by just having more people is not what we should aim for'

Alan Manning, the UK government's former immigration advisor, considers whether Britain's post-Brexit migrant strategy has worked. ... Read more...

08 March 2023

Financial Times

Make wellbeing central to public policy

Richard Layard explains the benefits of making wellbeing a core public policy. ... Read more...

07 March 2023

The Economist

For Britain to grow faster it needs better managers

John Van Reenen and Nick Bloom's study of management practices suggests that more than half of the productivity gap between Britain and the US is due to poor management. ... Read more...

31 January 2023

Financial Times

How London's property market became an inheritocracy

Without inherited wealth or a leg-up from the Bank of Mum and Dad, prospective first-time buyers are forced to abandon dreams of home ownership. Paul Cheshire describes the state of affairs for first-time buyers in Londo... Read more...

27 January 2023

The Economist

A flurry of new studies identifies causes of the Industrial Revolution

The Economist covers Stephan Heblich, Stephen J. Redding and Hans-Joachim Voth's work on Slavery and the British Industrial Revolution in this article, reporting on the causes of the Industrial Revolution. ... Read more...

17 January 2023

TIME

Working From Home Is the Trend of the Year—And Next Year Too

Working from home accounted for only 5% of all workdays before the pandemic. But now it’s common to find many employees working from home at least part of the week. As of December 2022, almost 30% of paid workdays ... Read more...

22 December 2022

The Guardian

Swati Dhingra of the Bank of England: 'Are we going to end up deepening the recession?'

Richard Partington interviews Swati Dhingra on the future of Britain's economy, as she elaborates on the lengthy and painful recession facing the UK. ... Read more...

03 December 2022

BBC News

Brexit added £210 to household food bills, LSE says

Researchers at the LSE's Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) looked at data tracking the flow of trade and prices of food products between the UK and the European Union (EU) to work out how shoppers were being affected... Read more...

01 December 2022

The Independent

Brexit has added more than £200 to UK household food bills, study finds

Brexit has cost UK households more than £5.8bn in higher food bills, according to new research linking Britain’s exit from the EU to soaring inflation. Leaving the bloc has added an average of £210 to B... Read more...

01 December 2022

The Guardian

Brexit added nearly £6bn to UK food bills in two years, research finds

Brexit added almost £6bn to UK food bills in the two years to the end of 2021, affecting poorest households the most, research from the London School of Economics (LSE) found. ... Read more...

01 December 2022

Economy 2030

The Economy 2030 Inquiry: 18 months in

The Economy 2030 Inquiry is examining the scale and impact of economic change that the UK is living through in the 2020s, and will set out a plan for successfully navigating it. For the past 18 months, researchers from ... Read more...

30 November 2022

Financial Times

Brexit and the economy: the hit has been ‘substantially negative’

The UK debate around Brexit is shifting in light of new data showing the consequences of leaving the EU. Economists have reached a consensus: Brexit has significantly worsened the country’s economic performance. In... Read more...

30 November 2022

CNBC Events

Hybrid work is here to stay

As the unofficial "Father of Hybrid Work", Stanford's Nick Bloom has spent years studying how we work and how we will work. He'll present new research and share his thoughts on what companies should be preparing for, a... Read more...

13 November 2022

CEP Announcement

Stephen Machin gives flagship British Academy lecture

Stephen Machin, director of CEP, is due to give a flagship British Academy lecture on wage controversies at the Bristol Ideas Festival of Economics. Professor Machin will address topics including how does high inflation... Read more...

07 November 2022

Schools Week

Profile: Lee Elliot Major

Donna Ferguson interviews Lee Elliot Major to find out why he made the move to academia - and his latest plans to improve the life chances for our poorest pupils. ... Read more...

06 November 2022

Financial Times

The Undercover Economist: Five ideas that might actually boost UK growth

Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng don’t seem to know how to go about it. Here are a few starting points. ... Read more...

07 October 2022

BBC Radio 4: The Briefing Room

Britain's productivity puzzle

Low growth is an entrenched problem in the UK, dating back decades. Anna Valero is among the guests discussing why the country has been performing so badly and what needs to be done to turn us into a high-growth country.... Read more...

23 September 2022

CEP Announcement

Professor Richard Layard named as Clarivate Citation Laureate 2022

Professor Richard Layard has been honoured for his “pioneering contributions to the economics of happiness and subjective wellbeing” by information company Clarivate. Professor Lord Layard, co-director of th... Read more...

22 September 2022

The Guardian

Not just about the money: pioneering study reveals best and worst jobs in UK

"Full earnings" account for wellbeing as well as financial reward. When wellbeing is factored into the equation, women and workers from ethnic minorities tend to be most vulnerable to the widening income inequality in th... Read more...

09 September 2022

Prospect Magazine

The British economy is headed for a perfect storm

The UK has spent years in hock to a failed economic orthodoxy. Now the consequences are coming to a head—all at the same time, Will Hutton writes. ... Read more...

08 September 2022

Schools Week

GCSE results: A national shame that requires radical change

New research shows the unfolding tragedy of educational disadvantage, Lee Elliot Major writes. ... Read more...

01 September 2022

British Academy

Henry Overman becomes a Fellow of the British Academy

Congratulations to Henry Overman, research director of the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) and professor of economic geography at LSE, who has been elected as a new Fellow of the British Academy. He is among 85 ne... Read more...

22 July 2022

Independent

Shoppers face £454 increase in annual grocery bill as food inflation soars

Economists from the LSE Centre for Economic Performance found that the UK’s departure from the EU caused a 6 per cent increase in British food prices. ... Read more...

20 July 2022

Die Welt (German)

'Toxic Mixture' - UK’s weak income fuels inequality in the country

High energy prices are causing problems, as are the consequences of the Covid pandemic and the effects of Brexit. But research by the Resolution Foundation and the Center for Economic Performance suggests the causes of t... Read more...

15 July 2022

CEP Announcement

Restarting the Future: How to Fix the Intangible Economy makes the FT’s summer reading list

Restarting the Future: How to Fix the Intangible Economy has been chosen as one of the best mid-year reads by the Financial Times. The book by Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake is described by the paper’s chief e... Read more...

30 June 2022

View all news

CEP discussion papers

Online tutoring works: Experimental evidence from a program with vulnerable children

We provide evidence from a randomized controlled trial on the effectiveness of a novel, 100-percent online math tutoring program, targeted at secondary school students from highly disadvantaged neighborhoods. The intensi... Read more...

Lucas Gortazar, Claudia Hupkau and Antonio Roldan

22 March 2023

External publications

World Happiness Report 2023

It has been over ten years since the first World Happiness Report was published. And it is exactly ten years since the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 66/281, proclaiming 20 March to be observed annual... Read more...

Lara Aknin, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, John Helliwell, Richard Layard, Jeffrey D. Sachs and Shun Wang

20 March 2023

Blog

What is the role of government in creating a happier world?

The latest edition of the World Happiness Report offers new insights into wellbeing across the globe. The past year has brought a number of fresh challenges, but many people are still able to find happiness in their live... Read more...

Maria Cotofan

20 March 2023

Blog

Investment Zones and Innovation

In the Spring 2023 budget, the chancellor announced a newly revamped Investment Zones (IZs) programme as part of the UK's push for growth. This is a significantly scaled back version of the programme outlined by the prev... Read more...

Will Brett-Harding

17 March 2023

Blog

A budget for (green) growth? Unfortunately, not yet.

In light of the climate crisis, the energy and cost-of-living crises, and longstanding productivity problems urgently needed addressing, the Spring 2023 Budget was a key moment for the government to make progress in prov... Read more...

Esin Serin and Anna Valero

16 March 2023

CEP discussion papers

Pay-as-they-get-in: Attitudes towards migrants and pension systems

We study whether a better knowledge of the functioning of pay-as-you-go pension systems and recent demographic trends in the hosting country affects natives' attitudes towards immigration. In two online experiments in It... Read more...

Tito Boeri, Matteo Gamalerio, Massimo Morelli and Margherita Negri

16 March 2023

Blog

Train in vain? Skills, tasks, and training in the UK labour market

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt pledged that measures in the budget would help break down barriers that stop people working. One issue is how to ensure we have the skills the economy needs. Nye Cominetti, Rui Costa, Andrew Eyles,... Read more...

Nye Cominetti, Rui Costa, Andrew Eyles, Kathleen Henehan and Sandra McNally

16 March 2023

CEP discussion papers

Productive robots and industrial employment: The role of national innovation systems

In a model with robots, and automatable and non-automatable human tasks, we examine robot-labour substitutions and show how they are influenced by a country's 'innovation system'. Substitution depends on demand and produ... Read more...

Chrystalla Kapetaniou and Christopher A. Pissarides

15 March 2023

CEP discussion papers

Strapped for cash: The role of financial constraints for innovating firms

This paper makes use of a reform that allowed firms to use patents as stand-alone collateral, to estimate the magnitude of collateral constraints and to quantify the aggregate impact of these constraints on misallocation... Read more...

Esther Ann Boler, Andreas Moxnes and Karen Helene Ulltveit-Moe

14 March 2023

Blog

Tangible or intangible investment, that is the question: Owner type and investment of private firms

Family business owners are often said to be risk averse, while corporate and institutional owners are less so. Saul Estrin, Jan Hanousek and Anastasiya Shamshur analyse how investment decisions vary across ownership type... Read more...

Saul Estrin, Jan Hanousek and Anastasiya Shamshur

14 March 2023

CEP discussion papers

Who stands on the shoulders of Chinese (scientific) giants? Evidence from chemistry

In recent decades, Chinese researchers have become preeminent contributors to the scientific enterprise, as reflected by the number of publications originating from Chinese research institutions. China's rise in science ... Read more...

Pierre Azoulay, Shumin Qiu and Claudia Steinwender

13 March 2023

Blog

How has Brexit affected business investment in the UK?

Leaving the European Union has undoubtedly had effects on the UK economy. The most obvious ones will be on international trade. But Brexit might also have an impact on business investment, which is crucial for the econom... Read more...

Jonathan Haskel and Josh Martin

13 March 2023

CEP discussion papers

Environmental citizen complaints

Citizen complaints feature prominently in public oversight contexts. The nature and effects of complaints, however, are poorly understood. Here, we investigate attitudes about citizen complaints using a nationally repres... Read more...

Jonathan Colmer, Mary F. Evans and Jay Shimshack

09 March 2023

Blog

How women are changing the face of economics

Economics continues to be a discipline dominated by men. Yet trailblazing female economists are working to change that. Myung Jin explains why it is important to improve diversity and equality within the field.... Read more...

Myung Jin

08 March 2023

Blog

Women in the workplace: 50 years of change

Decades of progress have seen greater opportunities for women in the workplace, but sizeable gender gaps remain in most indicators of economic achievement. Stefania Albanesi, Claudia Olivetti, and Barbara Petrongolo revi... Read more...

Stefania Albanesi, Claudia Olivetti and Barbara Petrongolo

08 March 2023

Books

Wellbeing: Science and Policy

What produces a happy society and a happy life? Thanks to the new science of wellbeing, we can now answer this question using state-of-the-art empirical evidence. This transforms our ability to base our decisions on the ... Read more...

Jan-Emmanuel De Neve and Richard Layard

06 March 2023

Blog

Wider outcomes from public procurement

Will Brett-Harding and Anamaria Tibocha-Nino discuss the effects of local public procurement and whether it can deliver additional social, environmental, or economic benefits on top of core goods or services being bought... Read more...

Will Brett-Harding and Anamaria Tibocha-Nino

06 March 2023

Blog

The paradox of vocational education

Despite a UK labour market that is hungry for skills, academic education has triumphed over training, apprenticeships and preparation for specific occupations. Alison Wolf looks at why vocational education continues to l... Read more...

Alison Wolf

03 March 2023

Journal article

Dirty Density: Air Quality and the Density of American Cities

We study the effect of urban density on the exposure of city dwellers to air pollution using data from the United States urban system. Exploiting geological features to instrument for density, we find an economically and... Read more...

Felipe Carozzi and Sefi Roth

01 March 2023

Blog

Observing freedom's vanishing act

The political equilibrium in Hong Kong was fundamentally altered in June 2020, when the Chinese Communist Party began coercively suppressing all protest. Noam Yuchtman provides a first-hand account of watching civil libe... Read more...

Noam Yuchtman

01 March 2023

Blog

Automation creates the space for entirely new jobs: the UK must adopt, adapt and improve

Fears about robots taking people's jobs are overplayed, say Rui Costa and Yuanhang Yu. Their research shows the real fear to overcome should be Britain's lack of productivity-enhancing robots, software, artificial intell... Read more...

Rui Costa and Yuanhang Yu

27 February 2023

Blog

Radical climate policies

The transition to net zero will require policies that promote switching to carbon-free technologies on a large scale and will often involve complementarities and peer effects in demand. Frederick van der Ploeg and Anthon... Read more...

Anthony J. Venables and Frederick van der Ploeg

27 February 2023

Journal article

Inclusive innovation in cities: from buzzword to policy

'Inclusive innovation' has become an increasingly important subnational policy agenda. This paper reviews this agenda, critiques its current usage and presents a new framework for how the concept can be applied by city g... Read more...

Neil Lee

24 February 2023

CentrePiece - The magazine of the Centre for Economic Performance

CEP Insights: Wellbeing

The CEP carries out policy-focused research on the causes of economic growth and effective ways to create a fair, inclusive and sustainable society. The Insights series highlights the contributions that CEP research has ... Read more...

21 February 2023