Skip to main content

Image: houses on a british street by Daniil Korbut from unsplash https://unsplash.com/photos/MTLo8L8L5i4

Non-tariff barriers and consumer prices: evidence from Brexit

Researchers find Brexit has cost UK households £5.8 billion in higher food bills. And due to differences in expenditure, households in the lowest decile have experienced a 52% higher cost of living increase than those at the top.
Read more...

Image: Sheffield by Benjamin Elliott from unsplash https://unsplash.com/photos/kTHZZE8o_10
Train in Vain?

Assessing how the skills needed in the UK labour market have changed over past decades and how well placed our system of training is to help us adapt to these changes. Read more...
Photo of Alison Wolf, provided by Alison Wolf
The paradox of vocational education
7 Dec, 18:30

Alison Wolf asks why academic education rules triumphant in a skills-hungry labour market. Read more...

Latest

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

The Times
Brexit hitting production and wages, warns Resolution Foundation

Britain’s departure from the EU has damaged its competitiveness and will cut productivity and wages over the next ten years. Instead of the expected effect of narrowly reducing exports to the EU, Brexit has “... Read more...

22 June 2022

Financial Times
Rees-Mogg asks public to say which retained EU laws they want to scrap

Thomas Sampson, an associate professor of economics at the London School of Economics who has modelled the effects of Brexit on UK trade, said there was no economic basis for the assertion that cutting EU regulation woul... Read more...

22 June 2022

The Guardian
Brexit 'dragging down growth and costing hundreds a year in pay'

Britain's cost of living crisis is being made worse by Brexit dragging down the country's growth potential and costing workers hundreds of pounds a year in lost pay, say researchers. The Resolution Foundation thinktank a... Read more...

22 June 2022

Sky News
Brexit will leave workers poorer than they would have been and has damaged Britain's competitiveness, new study says

Brexit has damaged Britain's competitiveness, will reduce productivity and leave the average worker poorer than they otherwise would have been, according to a new study from the Resolution Foundation and LSE's Centre for... Read more...

22 June 2022

Bloomberg UK
Are workers more productive at home?

Nick Bloom in conversation on a surprising find from the pandemic: remote work is fuelling economic growth. ... Read more...

02 June 2022

Economy 2030
The Economy 2030 Inquiry: the first year

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 year, researchers from the R... Read more...

30 May 2022

View all news

External publications
Train in Vain?

Human capital and skills are important for improving the UK's labour market and economic performance. This note assesses how the skills needed in the UK labour market have changed over past decades, and how well placed o... Read more...

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

05 December 2022

Blog
Four-day week trial confirms working less increases wellbeing and productivity

A group of companies that have been trialling a four-day working week have recently reported increased revenue, with fewer employees taking time off or resigning, thus confirming an increase in wellbeing and productivity... Read more...

Jan-Emmanuel De Neve

01 December 2022

CEP discussion papers
Non-tariff barriers and consumer prices: evidence from Brexit

Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) are the main policy impediment to international trade, yet little is known about their pass-through to prices. This paper exploits the Brexit trade policy shock to quantify how NTBs affect cons... Read more...

Jan David Bakker, Nikhil Datta, Richard Davies and Josh De Lyon

01 December 2022

Journal article
Marriage as Insurance: Job Protection and Job Insecurity in France

Job insecurity is one of the risks that workers face on the labour market. As with any risk, individuals can choose to insure against it. We here consider marriage as a way of insuring against labour-market risk. The 199... Read more...

Andrew E. Clark, Conchita D'Ambrosio and Anthony Lepinteur

01 December 2022

Blog
Autumn statement delivered reassurance, but not vision

Investing in innovation is key to the future prosperity of an advanced economy such as the UK. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's 17 November autumn statement confirmed a commitment to raising public investments in science. Despit... Read more...

Anna Valero and John Van Reenen

28 November 2022

Blog
Asia: the Power of Connections and their Consequences

In our recent book, "The Connections World: The Future of Asia", published by Cambridge University Press in October 2022, we argue that mutually beneficial links between dynastic business houses and political elites have... Read more...

Simon Commander and Saul Estrin

25 November 2022

CEP discussion papers
Families, labor markets and policy

Using comparable data for 24 countries since the 1970s, we document gender convergence in schooling, employment and earnings, marriage delay and the accompanying decline in fertility, and the large remaining gaps in labo... Read more...

Stefania Albanesi, Claudia Olivetti and Barbara Petrongolo

24 November 2022

Blog
The Myth of the Brilliant, Charismatic Leader

There's a view out there - call it the "superhero" theory of leadership - in which the individual vision, charisma, and brilliance of a CEO makes or breaks a company. That view is dangerous - not so much because CEOs don... Read more...

Raffaella Sadun

23 November 2022

CEP discussion papers
Sanctions and misallocation. How sanctioned firms won and Russia lost

Using a unique natural experiment of staggered firm-level sanctions against Russia in 2014-2020 and the data on over 900,000 Russian firms, I estimate the effect of sanctions on targeted firms and on the aggregate econom... Read more...

Dzhamilya Nigmatulina

23 November 2022

Blog
What is the contribution of China to pushing the technological frontier?

China's technological strength has been increasing since the late 2000s, accounting for a significant share of patents. Antonin Bergeaud and Cyril Verluise show that while China's share of patents is increasing in quanti... Read more...

Antonin Bergeaud and Cyril Verluise

23 November 2022

Blog
How US sanctions increased the economic activity of sanctioned Russian firms

Dzhamilya Nigmatulina assesses the impact of sanctions following the 2014 annexation of Crimea on Russian sanctioned firms. The capital, materials inputs, and revenue of sanctioned firms actually increased relative to no... Read more...

Dzhamilya Nigmatulina

19 November 2022

CEP discussion papers
Who's got the power? Wage determination and its resilience in the Great Recession

Whereas wage inequality has risen markedly in most OECD countries in recent decades, it has fallen in several Southern European economies. To shed light on this phenomenon, we embed sectoral bargaining, which is common i... Read more...

Hugo Reis and Hugo de Almeida Vilares

17 November 2022

Blog
Asia's Development Model Is Now Jeopardizing Its Future Economic Growth

Asia is facing an economic watershed moment. Turning the corner will require rethinking the role of its dominant, state-supported business groups.... Read more...

Simon Commander and Saul Estrin

16 November 2022

CEP discussion papers
Slavery and the British Industrial Revolution

Did overseas slave-holding by Britons accelerate the Industrial Revolution? We provide theory and evidence on the contribution of slave wealth to Britain's growth prior to 1835. We compare areas of Britain with high and ... Read more...

Stephan Heblich, Stephen J. Redding and Hans-Joachim Voth

16 November 2022

Blog
Autumn Statement: 'no one will be spared the pain'

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt faces a difficult balancing act to try and delay many measures while doing enough in the short run to appease the markets. John Van Reenen comments briefly on what can be expected in the Autumn Sta... Read more...

John Van Reenen

16 November 2022

Blog
If the government cuts public spending, will volunteers step in?

The UK government is expected to respond to the country's economic woes with a wide-ranging programme of fiscal austerity. After the 2008/9 recession, the government accompanied its austerity programme with the idea of t... Read more...

Stephen Gibbons and Christian Hilber

16 November 2022

Blog
Book Review: Wellbeing: Alternative Policy Perspectives edited by Timothy Besley and Irene Bucelli

In Wellbeing: Alternative Policy Perspectives - available open access from LSE Press - editors Timothy Besley and Irene Bucelli bring together contributors to explore how different disciplinary approaches can contribute ... Read more...

Paul Anand, Christopher J Anderson, Annette Bauer, Timothy Besley, Irene Bucelli, Michael Daly, Liam Delaney, Paul Dolan, Sara Hagemann, Robert Klemmensen, Richard Layard, Mikko Mattila and Johanna Thoma

15 November 2022

Blog
Can Europe be a green innovation leader?

Europe is punching below its weight in the climate-technology competition. The continent needs to facilitate risk capital markets and to invest more in research and development. This is the 4th post in a series of climat... Read more...

Philippe Aghion, Lena Boneva, Johannes Breckenfelder, Luc Laeven, Conny Olovsson, Alexander Popov and Elena Rancoita

15 November 2022

Blog
On Track to Success? Returns to Vocational Education against different alternatives

In the wake of Brexit and the global pandemic, skills shortages across the UK economy risk hampering efforts to reverse a decade of languishing productivity and festering inequality. Reinvigorating the long-neglected Bri... Read more...

Sönke Hendrik Matthewes and Guglielmo Ventura

11 November 2022

CVER Research Papers
On Track to Success? Returns to vocational education against different alternatives

Many countries consider expanding vocational curricula in secondary education to boost skills and labour market outcomes among non-university-bound students. However, critics fear this could divert other students from mo... Read more...

Sönke Hendrik Matthewes and Guglielmo Ventura

11 November 2022

Blog
The Economy: 7. Jobs and Unemployment (podcast)

What happens when lots of people lose their jobs? Why might wages be low even though everyone who wants a job, has one? What do we mean by employment and unemployment and what does 'economic inactivity' mean? What is pro... Read more...

Richard Davies and Tim Harford

10 November 2022

Blog
To become a world leader in innovation, China needs to loosen the economic reins

In a push for more tech breakthroughs, China is ramping up state spending on research and development. But without creating space for private sector innovation, China is unlikely to achieve the kind of results it wants.... Read more...

Simon Commander and Saul Estrin

10 November 2022

External publications
Adopt, adapt and improve

Worries that jobs will be lost to automation are not new, but have been heightened since the release of Frey and Osborne's 2013 study, which warned that nearly half of jobs in the US were at 'high risk' of automation. Ne... Read more...

Rui Costa and Yuanhang Yu

10 November 2022

Blog
Relationship between poverty and violence against civilians. Evidence from Somalia

Many countries around the world continue to experience episodes of violence and conflict. In these fragile settings, authorities are often unable to provide basic services and social safety nets to their citizens, result... Read more...

Gonzalo Nunez-Chaim and Utz Pape

09 November 2022

CEP discussion papers
The wage elasticity of recruitment

One of the factors affecting the market power of employers is the extent to which higher wages makes recruitment easier. There is very little research on this. This paper presents a methodology for estimating the wage el... Read more...

Boris Hirsch, Elke J. Jahn, Alan Manning and Michael Oberfichtner

08 November 2022

View all publications

International Economics Workshops
Disruptions and Localization of Supply Chains

Read more...

Takafumi Kawakubo (LSE)

Wednesday 07 December 2022 11:00 - 12:00
CEP/LSE International Economics Seminars
Cultural homophily and collaboration in superstar teams

Read more...

Gianmarco Ottaviano (Bocconi University)

Wednesday 07 December 2022 12:30 - 14:00
Policing and Crime Workshop
Algorithmic Recommendations and Human Decisions (with Victoria Angelova and Will Dobbie)

Read more...

Crystal Yang (Harvard University)

Wednesday 07 December 2022 15:00 - 16:00
CEP Public Events
The paradox of vocational education

Why is academic education triumphant in a skills-hungry labour market?... Read more...

Alison Wolf (King's College London)

Wednesday 07 December 2022 18:30 - 20:00
Capabilities, Competition and Innovation Seminars
Distributional Impacts of Early Childhood Interventions Within Families: Experimental Evidence from Nigeria

Read more...

Imran Rasul (University College London), joint with Pedro Carneiro [UCL & IFS] and Francesca Salvati [Essex & IFS]

Thursday 08 December 2022 13:45 - 15:00
Wellbeing Seminars
The Wellbeing Loss of Health Inequality and Poverty

Read more...

Joan Costa-Font (LSE)

Thursday 08 December 2022 16:00 - 17:00
CEP/Geography Urban and Regional Economics Seminars
Delayed Childbearing and Urban Revival

Read more...

Ana Moreno-Maldonado (CUNEF), joint with Clara Santamaria

Friday 09 December 2022 13:00 - 14:30
CEP Public Events
Empirical management conference

Read more...

various speakers

Wednesday 14 December 2022 - Thursday 15 December 2022
CEP Public Events
Workshop on regional economic inequalities

Read more...

Various speakers

Thursday 15 December 2022 - Friday 16 December 2022
Policing and Crime Workshop
TBC

Read more...

Anna Bindler (Cologne)

Wednesday 15 February 2023 15:00 - 16:00
CEP/STICERD Applications Seminars
TBC

Read more...

Enrico Moretti (UC Berkeley)

Monday 20 February 2023 12:00 - 13:30
Policing and Crime Workshop
TBC

Read more...

Grace Phillips

Wednesday 22 February 2023 15:00 - 16:00
CEP/STICERD Applications Seminars
TBC

Read more...

Koichiro Ito (Chicago)

Monday 27 February 2023 12:00 - 13:30
Policing and Crime Workshop
TBC

Read more...

Brittany Street (University of Missouri)

Wednesday 01 March 2023 15:00 - 16:00
CEP/STICERD Applications Seminars
TBC

Read more...

Mathilde Munoz (Berkeley)

Monday 06 March 2023 12:00 - 13:30
CEP/STICERD Applications Seminars
TBC

Read more...

Simon Jaeger (MIT)

Monday 13 March 2023 12:00 - 13:30
CEP Public Events
Putting collective value creation at the heart of economic thinking

Building an inclusive economy: toward a value-creating, mission-oriented, and capable state... Read more...

Mariana Mazzucato (University College London)

Monday 13 March 2023 18:30 - 20:00
Policing and Crime Workshop
Disrupting Drug Markets: The Effects of Crackdowns on Rogue Opioid Suppliers

Read more...

Adam Soliman (Duke University)

Wednesday 15 March 2023 15:00 - 16:00
CEP/STICERD Applications Seminars
TBC

Read more...

Rebecca Dizon-Ross (Chicago)

Monday 20 March 2023 12:00 - 13:30
CEP/STICERD Applications Seminars
TBC

Read more...

Jonathan Kolstad (UC Berkeley)

Monday 27 March 2023 12:00 - 13:30
Policing and Crime Workshop
TBC

Read more...

Jeff Grogger (Harris School, Chicago & NBER)

Wednesday 29 March 2023 15:00 - 16:00
CEP Public Events
Conference on the economics of crime and justice

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

various speakers

Friday 19 May 2023 - Saturday 20 May 2023

View all events