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CentrePiece Summer 2021
Growth, equality and sustainability

This year, CEP marks it's 30th anniversasry with a series of publications and events on some of the core research themes over three decades - how to increase wellbeing, reduce inequality and improve public policy-making. All feature in the latest issue of CentrePiece magazine. Read more...

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The UK's decisive decade: the launch report for The Economy 2030 Inquiry

Economy 2030 Inquiry launch report outlines major changes ahead, with the 2020s likely to define Britain for many decades to come. Read more...
Photo of aircraft with Thank U NHS written across the wings. Published under CC0 Public Domain. Credit: Andy Holmes. https://unsplash.com/photos/putz5rAmdOI
Happy to help: The welfare effects of a nationwide micro-volunteering programme

Research shows the NHS volunteer responders programme has helped boost volunteers' wellbeing by the equivalent of 140x the cost of the programme. Read more...

Latest

Centre for Economic Performance
Xavier Jaravel named Best Young Economist of France, 2021

Congratulations to Dr Xavier Jaravel who has been named the Best Young Economist of France, 2021 by Le Monde and Le Cercle des économistes. The prize is awarded to a French economist under the age of... Read more...

03 June 2021

Forbes
Happiness Is Not ‘Out There.' It's Something You Create

Following the publication of the World Happiness report 2021, Rodger Dean Duncan interviews Richard Layard on happiness and mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic.  ... Read more...

01 June 2021

Financial Times
The 2020s are set to be a decisive economic decade for the UK

The Resolution Foundation and Centre for Economic Performance of the London School of Economics launch an important inquiry, analysing how the country must grapple with recovery from Covid-19, the af... Read more...

31 May 2021

ITV
Covid volunteering surge can be ‘positive legacy’ for NHS in future

Research from the London School of Economics and Political Science found Volunteering for the NHS during the pandemic felt as good as getting a £1,800 bonus from work. ... Read more...

31 May 2021

The Telegraph
Replace stamp duty with tax raid on southern property wealth, Sunak told

An new annual property tax on the value of each home, proposed by economists Paul Cheshire and Christian Hilber, would be fairer than current system, according to a new report by think tank Bright Bl... Read more...

20 May 2021

The Guardian
UK economy could resemble that of Italy by end of 2020s – report

A joint project by the Resolution Foundation thinktank and the London School of Economics said the UK was neither used to nor prepared for the challenges posed by the aftermath of Covid-19, Brexit, the ne... Read more...

18 May 2021

The Independent
UK faces ‘decisive decade’ of change and risks falling further behind other nations, report warns

The country is not neither prepared for, nor used to, change on the scale required to deal with climate change, Brexit, an ageing population, Covid and technological shifts, says report by the Economy 2030 Inq... Read more...

18 May 2021

Centre for Economic Performance
UK facing a ‘decisive decade’ of change

The UK is facing a ‘decisive decade’ of change as five seismic economic shifts – the Covid aftermath, Brexit, the Net Zero transition, an older population and rapid technological change - com... Read more...

18 May 2021

iNews
Brexit has hits UK firms as border delays and bureaucracy add to costs, says study

Report by Josh De Lyon and Swati Dhingra finds almost two thirds of businesses have suffered from new EU import and export rules, while one in five companies have found it tougher to trade with ... Read more...

06 May 2021

The Independent
Brexit causes difficulties for more than 60 per cent of UK firms - report

Study by Josh De Lyon and Swati Dhingra finds higher prices and reduced competitiveness due to EU withdrawal. ... Read more...

06 May 2021

The Independent
Almost three-quarters of a million businesses ‘at risk of failure over next three months', economists warn

Warnings of widespread business failure comes in an analysis by the John Van Reenen and Peter Lambert, using the latest Business Insights and Impact survey. ... Read more...

04 May 2021

Centre for Economic Performance
Daniel Sturm awarded major grant to study the economics of cities

Professor Daniel Sturm, director of the Urban Programme at the Centre for Economic Performance, has been awarded a major research grant by the European Research Council (ERC) to study the economics of cities. ... Read more...

22 April 2021

Financial Times
We’re still in the dark about insecure work

The Financial Times cites research by Alan Manning and Graham Mazeine while analysing the dabate around improving job security as we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic. ... Read more...

20 April 2021

Financial Times
UK business groups call for mandatory reporting of ethnicity pay gap

Amid criticism of a government-commissioned race report for downplaying the extent of problems in the labour market, Alan Manning explains there's no evidence for pay gaps being smaller than they we... Read more...

18 April 2021

Centre for Economic Performance
Ground-breaking new inquiry to propose economic path for post-pandemic Britain

A ground-breaking new collaboration between the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics (LSE) and the Resolution Foundation will explore current economic challenges and propose ways t... Read more...

31 March 2021

Financial Times
Detached homes close to central London enjoy biggest price rises

LSE study says there has been little exodus to rural areas in past year but buyers have sought space, with detached houses close to the centre of London seeing the biggest price increases over the past year. ... Read more...

30 March 2021

The Telegraph
London risks house price crunch as Covid boom ends

House prices could fall when the stamp duty holiday comes to a close. London is particularly vulnerable because the price of houses rose particularly sharply over 2020, while the population of the capital... Read more...

30 March 2021

Freakonomics
Are You Ready for a Fresh Start?

Ferdinand Rauch explains how temporary events, such as the London Tube strikes and recent pandemic restrictions, can lead to positive long-term change - a fresh start - on Stephen Dubner's Freakonomic... Read more...

17 March 2021

The Telegraph
Two-thirds of self-employed lose out financially to Covid

A study by Jack Blundell, Stephen Machin and Maria Ventura finds almost two-thirds of Britain’s self-employed workers are suffering financially from Covid-19, as the latest lockd... Read more...

02 March 2021

The Guardian
How do we ensure disadvantaged kids don't lose out in England's new exam system?

Lee Elliot Major explains how teachers have a chance to address the inequalities revealed by the Covid-19 pandemic. ... Read more...

01 March 2021

The Conversation
Ensuring the minimum wage keeps up with economic growth would be the best way to help workers and preserve FDR’s legacy

In light of the Biden adminstration's Covid-19 Relief Bill, Felix Koenig analysis the historical impact of minum wage bills on jobs and wages. ... Read more...

26 February 2021

BBC Radio 4
Sounds: Today Programme

Lee Elliot Major is invited onto BBC Radio 4’s Today programme [1:15:20] to talk about pupil catchup funding, the national tutoring programme and inequalities. ... Read more...

24 February 2021

Quartz
How much more stimulus will the UK economy need?

A report by Nicolás González-Pampillón, Gonzalo Nunez-Chaim and Katharina Ziegler shows that footfall in restaurants increased by 5-6% during the UK government's Eat Out to Help O... Read more...

18 February 2021

The Independent
Brexit disruption in first weeks of year is sign of more to come, economists warn

Thomas Sampson, associate economics professor at the London School of Economics, has predicted a 36 per cent fall in exports to the EU over the next decade. He said it was too early to claim that economists... Read more...

13 February 2021

Forbes
Changes In Job-Related Training Since Covid-19

Few aspects of modern society have remained unaffected in some way by the Covid-19 pandemic, and so it's perhaps no surprise that a new report by Jiaqi Li, Anna Valero, Guglielmo Ventura shows that jo... Read more...

12 February 2021

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Blog
State capacity and development clusters

The determinants of economic development have been debated for many years. However, some of these determinants have been hard to measure internationally. Tim Besley, Chris Dann and Torsten Persson review evidence from 25... Read more...

Timothy Besley, Chris Dann and Torsten Persson

18 June 2021

CEP discussion papers
Trade and innovation

Two central insights from the Schumpeterian approach to innovation and growth are that the pace of innovation is endogenously determined by the expectation of future profits and that growth is inherently a process of cre... Read more...

Marc J. Melitz and Stephen J. Redding

17 June 2021

CEP discussion papers
Machine learning in international trade research - evaluating the impact of trade agreements

Modern trade agreements contain a large number of provisions in addition to tariff reductions, in areas as diverse as services trade, competition policy, trade-related investment measures, or public procurement. Existing... Read more...

Holger Breinlich, Valentina Corradi, Nadia Rocha, Michele Ruta, J.M.C. Santos Silva and Tom Zylkin

16 June 2021

Blog
Returning to the office will be hard

The Covid-19 pandemic prompted a collective shift to working from home. This column argues that though the shift was surprisingly easy, returning to the office will be hard. New evidence from a survey of 2,500 employees ... Read more...

Nicholas Bloom, Paul Mizen and Shivani Taneja

15 June 2021

CentrePiece - The magazine for economic performance
in brief... Competition and pass-through on the Greek islands

A fundamental issue in economics is how firms deal with unexpected cost increases, perhaps arising from taxes, exchange rate fluctuations or rising input prices: what drives the extent to which they pass the costs throug... Read more...

Christos Genakos and Mario Pagliero

15 June 2021

CentrePiece - The magazine for economic performance
Beyond income inequality: non-monetary rewards to work

Discussion of income inequality focuses primarily on wages with limited consideration of the non-monetary rewards to work, not least the satisfaction that employees experience in doing their jobs. Andrew Clark, Maria Cot... Read more...

Andrew E. Clark, Maria Cotofan and Richard Layard

15 June 2021

CentrePiece - The magazine for economic performance
The motherhood penalty for working women in Spain

Spain has seen a huge influx of women into the workplace in recent decades, but their experiences of work remain very different from those of men. As Claudia Hupkau and Jenifer Ruiz-Valenzuela explain, there is scope for... Read more...

Claudia Hupkau and Jenifer Ruiz-Valenzuela

15 June 2021

CentrePiece - The magazine for economic performance
in brief... Covid-19 and self-employment

The pandemic has had particularly damaging economic effects on self-employed people in the UK. CEP has now run three surveys to capture the experience of these workers during the crisis. Stephen Machin and Maria Ventura ... Read more...

Stephen Machin and Maria Ventura

15 June 2021

CentrePiece - The magazine for economic performance
The impact of regulation on innovation

It is widely feared that private sector innovation is constrained by 'red tape'. Philippe Aghion and colleagues test that view on data from France, where firms of more than 50 employees face far heavier regulatory obliga... Read more...

Philippe Aghion

15 June 2021

CentrePiece - The magazine for economic performance
UK house prices in Covid-19 times

The pandemic lead to increased demand for bigger homes and gardens. With housing supply limited by strict UK planning regulations and the market propped up by a stamp duty waiver and the furlough scheme, prices of detach... Read more...

Paul Cheshire, Christian A. L. Hilber and Olivier Schöni

15 June 2021

CentrePiece - The magazine for economic performance
Going for growth that's sustainable and equitable

In the second anniversary lecture marking 30 years since CEP began, former director John Van Reenen focused on productivity, an issue that has been at the heart of the Centre's work for three decades. He sets out how tec... Read more...

John Van Reenen

15 June 2021

CentrePiece - The magazine for economic performance
Ethnic minorities and the UK labour market

Contrary to the impression given by the Sewell Report, there has been little change in disparities in pay, employment and unemployment among different ethnic groups in the UK over the past 25 years. Indeed, as analysis o... Read more...

Alan Manning and Rebecca Rose

15 June 2021

Blog
Book Review: What Do We Know and What Should We Do About Social Mobility? by Lee Elliott Major and Stephen Machin

In What Do We Know and What Should We Do About Social Mobility? Lee Elliott Major and Stephen Machin give an account of the long experience of social mobility in the UK, its barriers and a possible way out. Offering a st... Read more...

Lee Elliot Major and Stephen Machin

10 June 2021

Blog
Pupils with graduate parents received an unfair advantage in their A-level results last year

Following a disastrous attempt to assign pupil grades using a controversial algorithm, last year's GCSE and A-level grades were eventually determined using Centre Assessed Grades. New survey evidence finds that some pupi... Read more...

Jake Anders, Lindsey Macmillan, Patrick Sturgis and Gill Wyness

10 June 2021

Blog
The 2020 trade impact of the Covid-19 pandemic

Worldwide merchandise trade flows decreased significantly in 2020, as Covid-19 disrupted economic activity across the globe. This column analyses how various pandemic-related factors shaped international trade flows. Spe... Read more...

Xuepeng Liu, Emanuel Ornelas and Huimin Shi

09 June 2021

Blog
The beautiful gain: what can Brazilian football tell us about the effect of non-compete clauses on wages?

With the 1998 Pele Law eliminating transfer fees for players whose contracts had expired, Brazilian football provides an ideal setting to test the effect of non-compete agreements on wages. This analysis reveals that old... Read more...

Bernardo Guimaraes, Joao Paulo Pessoa and Vladimir Ponczek

08 June 2021

Blog
The answer to housing's stubborn carbon emissions problem: green offsets

Paul Cheshire and Christian Hilber propose 'green offsets' to reduce property taxes in a way that is strictly scaled to energy efficiency, as a simple intervention to address the UK's urgent need to reduce its residentia... Read more...

Paul Cheshire and Christian A. L. Hilber

07 June 2021

CEP discussion papers
Service offshoring and export experience

Service inputs are a key component of the costs of exporting, and contribute to explain the process of internationalization of firms. A new dataset on the participation of French firms in global value chains reveals that... Read more...

Giuseppe Berlingieri, Luca Marcolin and Emanuel Ornelas

03 June 2021

Blog
Retraining: which are the best policies for getting people back to work?

Many people are expected to lose their jobs in the aftermath of the pandemic. Retraining will be one important way to get them back into work. Chiara Cavaglia, Sandra McNally, Jenifer Ruiz-Valenzuela show there is a good... Read more...

Chiara Cavaglia, Sandra McNally and Jenifer Ruiz-Valenzuela

03 June 2021

Blog
The differing effects of globalisation on trade versus migration

Better communications, enhanced transport links, integration agreements between governments, and other factors have all helped increase global economic interconnectedness over the past few decades. This column compares a... Read more...

Rebecca Freeman and John Lewis

02 June 2021

CEP discussion papers
Sequential exporting across countries and products

How do exporters expand their product scope and geographical presence? We argue that new exporters are uncertain about their profitability in different countries and products, but learn it as they start to export. As a c... Read more...

Facundo Albornoz, Hector F. Calvo Pardo, Gregory Corcos and Emanuel Ornelas

02 June 2021

External publications
Pancakes to Pyramids: City Form to Promote Sustainable Growth (English)

Towns and cities are economic and social microcosms in which large numbers of people and firms interact. These interactions largely shape how a city looks, how it functions, and how it grows. But how exactly does this ma... Read more...

Somik V. Lall, Mathilde Lebrand, Hogeun Park, Daniel M. Sturm and Anthony J. Venables

02 June 2021

Blog
Happy to help: how a UK micro-volunteering programme increased people's wellbeing

Levels of wellbeing increased significantly for individuals who participated in the NHS Volunteer Responders (NHSVR) programme, with effects lasting months after the volunteering period had ended, write Paul Dolan, Chris... Read more...

Paul Dolan, Christian Krekel, Helen Lee, Claire Marshall, Ganga Shreedhar and Allison Smith

02 June 2021

CEP discussion papers
Innovation, growth and the transition to net-zero emissions

The climate crisis and the global economic impact of the Covid-19 crisis occur against a background of slowing growth and widening inequalities, which together imply an urgent need for a new environmentally sustainable a... Read more...

Nicholas Stern and Anna Valero

01 June 2021

CEP discussion papers
Happy to help: The welfare effects of a nationwide micro-volunteering programme

There is a strong suggestion from the existing literature that volunteering improves the wellbeing of those who give up their time to help others, but much of it is correlational and not causal. In this paper, we estimat... Read more...

Paul Dolan, Christian Krekel, Helen Lee, Claire Marshall, Ganga Shreedhar and Allison Smith

31 May 2021

View all publications

CEP Public Events
The impact of immigration: looking beyond the labor market

Part of an online seminar series aiming to encourage the exchange and discussion of empirical research on trade and investment and its effect on developing and emerging countries.... Read more...

Anna Maria Mayda (Georgetown)

30 June 2021

CEP Public Events
Chicago/LSE crime conference 2022

A two day conference discussing recent work on the economics of crime and the criminal justice system.... Read more...

Various Speakers

03 June 2022

View all events