Centre for Economic Performance

Highlights

Image from CEP Insights series. Copyright: Raphael Wittle

CEP Insights: Green growth

Many countries have plans for a "green recovery" from the pandemic, in which the invention and diffusion of "clean" technologies and practices are central. How can policies be combined to achieve growth that is strong, sustainable and inclusive? Economists study what drives innovation and growth - and how these can be steered towards delivering a zero-carbon future. Read more...

Photo of an empty office. Published under CC0 Public Domain. https://unsplash.com/photos/mxwEAI4pTGU

Why working from home will stick

Jose Maria Barrero, Nicholas Bloom and Steven J. Davis survey more than 30,000 American workers to find 20% of working days will be carried out at home after the pandemic ends, and uncover the reasons behind the shift in working arrangements. Read more...

Photo of a factory chimney. Credit: Veeterzy. Published under CC0 Public Domain. https://unsplash.com/photos/UwBrS-qRMHo

Seizing sustainable growth opportunities from carbon capture, usage and storage in the UK
22 Sept, 10:00 (Online)

How can the UK unlock export opportunities and wider economic benefits from the emerging CCUS sector on the road to net-zero? Read more...

Latest

The Economist

How German bombs shape London’s gangs

Tom Kirchmaier, Stephen Machin and Carmen Villa-Llera examine the relationship between areas of London that were bombed in the Second World War and crime rates. Discovering that the probability of finding a ga... Read more...

28 August 2021

The Observer

A million jobs in peril as one in 16 UK firms say they are at risk of closure

A million workers are still employed by businesses at risk of closure over the next three months, as the government is poised to withdraw critical Covid support schemes, according to new analysis by Peter Lamb... Read more...

15 August 2021

British Academy

Vernon Henderson and Barbara Petrongolo become Fellows of the British Academy

Congratulations to Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) associates Professor Vernon Henderson and Professor Barbara Petrongolo, who have been elected as new Fellows of the British Academy. They are among 8... Read more...

23 July 2021

The Economist

Domestic violence surges after a football match ends

A study by Ria Ivandic, Tom Kirchmaier and Neus Torres-Blas finds that a “considerable amount of domestic abuse” could be mitigated by arranging football fixtures on weekdays or... Read more...

09 July 2021

The Telegraph

Pupils missed more than half of classroom time during Covid pandemic

Amid calls to allow the option to repeat the entire school year, a major study by Lee Elliot Major, Andrew Eyles and Stephen Machin finds Pupils have missed out on more than half ... Read more...

07 July 2021

LBC

Schoolchildren missed out on a third of learning during coronavirus pandemic

A study by Lee Elliot Major, Andrew Eyles and Stephen Machin finds evidence that pupils across the UK have lost out on a third of their learning time amid Covid-19, even when home lessons a... Read more...

07 July 2021

The Independent

Day drinking and early kick-offs linked to rise in domestic abuse after football matches

Researchers find alcohol consumption - rather than heightened emotions - is to blame for rises in male-on-female violence following matches, and this could be reduced by more evening and weekend games. ... Read more...

05 July 2021

The Guardian

Early kick-offs linked to more alcohol abuse and violence in the home

Researchers at the LSE’s Centre for Economic Performance find alcohol consumption following football matches is fuelling domestic abuse in the hours after a game and suggest that... Read more...

04 July 2021

Bloomberg

Indians Prefer Job Guarantee Over Cash Handouts, LSE Study Says

A majority of urban Indians left unemployed by the coronavirus pandemic want the government to guarantee them jobs like it does for people in rural areas, says a study by Swati Dhingra and Fjolla Kon... Read more...

02 July 2021

The Telegraph

Scarred by Covid: As infections subside, India now faces a difficult road to recovery

Swati Dhingra speaks to the Telegraph about the impact of Covid-19 on attempts to overcome poverty in India, describing how many lower and middle urban workers are having to borrow money to make up for a ... Read more...

24 June 2021

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

View all news

Blog

The impact of trade costs can be weak or strong - depending on how much countries trade

Many countries try to bring down trade costs by striking free trade agreements, forming currency unions or joining the WTO. But when trade costs fall, how much does trade increase? Natalie Chen and Dennis Novy explain th... Read more...

Natalie Chen and Dennis Novy

17 September 2021

CEP discussion papers

The impact of healthcare IT on clinical quality, productivity and workers

Adoption of health information and communication technologies ('HICT') has surged over the past two decades. We survey the medical and economic literature on HICT adoption and its impact on clinical outcomes, productivit... Read more...

Ari Bronsoler, Joseph Doyle and John Van Reenen

14 September 2021

Blog

COVID and voting: how turnout in the 2020 French local elections fell

How did the pandemic affect turnout in French elections in March 2020? Elsa Leromain (LSE) and Gonzague Vannoorenberghe (Universite Catholique de Louvain) find that participation fell, especially in towns more exposed to... Read more...

Elsa Leromain and Gonzague Vannoorenberghe

13 September 2021

CEP discussion papers

The backlash of globalization

We review the literature on the globalization backlash, seen as the political shift of voters and parties in a protectionist and isolationist direction, with substantive implications on governments' leaning and enacted p... Read more...

Italo Colantone, Gianmarco I. P. Ottaviano and Piero Stanig

13 September 2021

CEP discussion papers

Internet access and its implications for productivity, inequality and resilience

About one-fifth of paid workdays will be supplied from home in the post-pandemic economy, and more than one-fourth on an earnings-weighted basis. In view of this projection, we consider some implications of home internet... Read more...

Jose Maria Barrero, Nicholas Bloom and Steven J. Davis

10 September 2021

CEP discussion papers

The diffusion of disruptive technologies

We identify novel technologies using textual analysis of patents, job postings, and earnings calls. Our approach enables us to identify and document the diffusion of 29 disruptive technologies across firms and labor mark... Read more...

Nicholas Bloom, Tarek Alexander Hassan, Aakash Kalyani, Josh Lerner and Ahmed Tahoun

10 September 2021

Blog

UK labour shortages and immigration: looking at the evidence

Can the shortages of workers reported by the food and drink sector be solved by making it easier to hire migrants? How will wages in these sectors change? Is there a conflict between short- and long-term fixes? Alan Mann... Read more...

Alan Manning

10 September 2021

CEP Insights

Green Growth

Many countries have plans for a "green recovery" from the pandemic, in which the invention and diffusion of "clean" technologies and practices are central. How can environmental and broader industrial policies be combine... Read more...

Anna Valero

10 September 2021

CEP discussion papers

The demand for executive skills

We use a unique corpus of job descriptions for C-suite positions to document skills requirements in top managerial occupations across a large sample of firms. A novel algorithm maps the text of each executive search into... Read more...

Joe Fuller, Stephen Hansen, Tejas Ramdas and Raffaella Sadun

08 September 2021

CEP discussion papers

Communication within firms: evidence from CEO turnovers

This paper uses novel, firm-level measures derived from communications metadata before and after a CEO transition in 102 firms to study if CEO turnover impacts employees' communication flows. We find that CEO turnover le... Read more...

Stephen Michael Impink, Andrea Prat and Raffaella Sadun

08 September 2021

CEP discussion papers

Organizational capacity and profit shifting

This paper analyses the effect of a firm's organizational capacity on the reported profitability of multinational enterprises (MNEs). Better organizational practices improve productivity and the potential taxable profits... Read more...

Katarzyna Bilicka and Daniela Scur

07 September 2021

CEP discussion papers

Income and the desire to migrate

We analyse the role of household and country-level personal income in explaining both the desire to emigrate and the desired destination country. We use data from the Gallup World Poll and applications to the US Diversit... Read more...

Monica Langella and Alan Manning

06 September 2021

Blog

Evidence from East Germany: How young people's education plans are shaped by their environment

The decision to go to university can have a major impact on an individual's financial future and quality of life. Yet we know relatively little about how these decisions are made and adapted within different contexts. Dr... Read more...

Ghazala Azmat and Katja Kaufmann

02 September 2021

CEP discussion papers

The donut effect of Covid-19 on cities

Using data from the US Postal Service and Zillow, we quantify the effect of Covid-19 on migration patterns and real estate markets within and across US cities. We find two key results. First, within large US cities, hous... Read more...

Nicholas Bloom and Arjun Ramani

02 September 2021

CEP discussion papers

This time is not so different: income dynamics during the Covid-19 recession

We use a UK employer-employee administrative earnings dataset to investigate the response of earnings and hours to business cycles. Exploiting our long panel of data from 1975 to 2020 we find wide heterogeneity in the ex... Read more...

Brian Bell, Nicholas Bloom and Jack Blundell

02 September 2021

CEP discussion papers

Intra-bloc tariffs and preferential margins in trade agreements

We study, theoretically and empirically, how countries choose intra-bloc tariffs and preferential margins when they form Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs). Our model indicates that countries should set systematically ... Read more...

Emanuel Ornelas and Patricia Tovar

01 September 2021

Blog

Narrative traps: how can we avoid them in making decisions about COVID?

How have we made decisions about handling Covid-19? Did they take account of trade-offs to individual welfare, or were they prone to narrative bias? Amanda Henwood (LSE) discusses a recent report written with Paul Dolan ... Read more...

Paul Dolan and Amanda Henwood

31 August 2021

Blog

Risk of Business Failure - POID Tracker

Research by Peter Lambert, Apolline Marion and John Van Reenen find that the number of firms at risk of failing has fallen from that earlier in the pandemic, but that one million jobs are still at risk and advancements c... Read more...

Peter Lambert, Apolline Marion and John Van Reenen

15 August 2021

Blog

Labour market reallocation in the wake of Covid-19

As economies bounce back from Covid-19, our economists question whether the recovery will re-employ all of the workers made redundant during the downturn, and whether they will go back to similar jobs.... Read more...

Lena Anayi, Jose Maria Barrero, Nicholas Bloom, Philip Bunn, Steven J. Davis, Julia Leather, Brent Meyer, Emil Mihaylov, Paul Mizen, Myrto Oikonomou and Gregory Thwaites

13 August 2021

CEP discussion papers

Why working from home will stick

COVID-19 drove a mass social experiment in working from home (WFH). We survey more than 30,000 Americans over multiple waves to investigate whether WFH will stick, and why. Our data say that 20 percent of full workdays w... Read more...

Jose Maria Barrero, Nicholas Bloom and Steven J. Davis

13 August 2021

CEP discussion papers

What triggers stock market jumps?

We examine next-day newspaper accounts of large daily jumps in 16 national stock markets to assess their proximate cause, clarity as to cause, and the geographic source of the market-moving news. Our sample of 6,200 mark... Read more...

Scott R. Baker, Nicholas Bloom, Steven J. Davis and Marco Sammon

13 August 2021

CEP discussion papers

The impact of Covid-19 on US firms

We use survey data on an opt-in panel of around 2,500 US small businesses to assess the impact of COVID-19. We find a significant negative sales impact that peaked in Quarter 2 of 2020, with an average loss of 29% in sal... Read more...

Nicholas Bloom, Robert S. Fletcher and Ethan Yeh

12 August 2021

Blog

How disruptive technologies diffuse

Nicholas Bloom, Tarek Hassan, Aakash Kalyani, Josh Lerner, Ahmed Tahoun question how technical progress influences income and wealth inequality in the US and its affects on higher and lower-skilled hiring rates.... Read more...

Nicholas Bloom, Tarek Hassan, Aakash Kalyani, Josh Lerner and Ahmed Tahoun

10 August 2021

CEP Insights

Gender in the workplace

The influx of women into the workplace during the 20th century has been one of the most remarkable changes in the world of work. But in general, women are less likely to be employed than men, they are less likely to hold... Read more...

Barbara Petrongolo

10 August 2021

CEP Insights

Cities and regions

Economic prosperity is very unevenly distributed across space. What causes some places to be richer and some poorer? Why do these spatial disparities matter - and what can policy do to reduce them? Economists studying ur... Read more...

Henry G. Overman

10 August 2021

View all publications