What can governments do about the cost of living?The cost of living has become a defining political issue. But there is little governments can do once cost of living crises have begun…Nov 2016Nov 2016
The state should be there when things go wrong in our livesSome years ago, just after I had become a parent for the first time and got a job I probably shouldn’t have got, I was stopped in my tracks…Oct 172Oct 172
Externalities can last a very long timeBritain’s post-industrial landscape is pock-marked with derelict factories, diverted rivers and areas of seemingly prime land that lie…Oct 3Oct 3
For cheap stuffI wrote last week about the downsides of cheap stuff. But some things really should be cheap. Unfortunately, we tend to underfund them…Sep 25Sep 25
Against cheap stuffWhen I was young, my mother briefly instituted a boycott against Nestle in our household. In her telling, it was because they were giving…Sep 19Sep 19
A bad idea: give every 18 year old their own plot of landI think this is a bad idea, but I’m going to write it down anyway: whenever someone in the UK turns 18, we should give them a plot of land…Sep 12Sep 12
The Baumol effect: not a disease but a cureWhen productivity rises in one industry, wages rise in all industries. This is one of the most important forces in economics, but it is…Jul 18Jul 18
Will AI transform economic growth?What would need to be true for AI to significantly raise the growth rate? Here are three tests to judge the scale of AI’s economic impactMay 21May 21
Why we shouldn’t worry about borrowing to tackle climate changeEven if you care about fiscal sustainability and nothing else, the case for government investment in climate change is overwhelming.Apr 19Apr 19
Lots of little things: what if there are no big answers to productivity growth?One of the core problems with UK policy-making is that it is dominated by a quest for big, elegant, all-solving ideas that can fix…Mar 58Mar 58