Publications on Economics
Aug
2010
Tuesday 31st August, 2010
Making Housing Affordable: A new vision for housing policy
By Alex Morton
Edited by Natalie Evans
Making Housing Affordable calls for a radical overhaul of housing policy, saving taxpayers around £20 billion a year. It calls for a big increase in the number of new homes being built for sale or rent in areas of high demand, with social housing tenants given new ways to get onto the first rung of the housing ladder.
The key policy goal is that by 2030, the Government should aim that all working households be able to afford to buy a decent home - giving all the security and other advantages of owner-occupation and a stake in their communities.
Press coverage • Guardian • Independent • Daily Mail • The Sun • Evening Standard • BBC News • Press Association • Local Government Chronicle • Regeneration & Renewal • Inside Housing • Inside Housing II • Inside Housing III • Iain Dale's Diary • Conservative Home • epolitix • egovmonitor • publicservice.co.uk • publicfinance.co.uk • planningresource.co.uk • thisismoney.co.uk • whathouse.co.uk • homemove.co.uk • Crewe Chronicle • Hampshire Chronicle • this is Cornwall
If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £10 + £3p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk
Saturday 21st August, 2010
Five politically relevant things about where we are on the economy
Chief Economist Andrew Lilico has predicted that a double-dip recession in the UK would be followed by a big boom, which in turn would send inflation as high as 10% with interest rates needing to be raised significantly in order to prevent runaway inflation.
Press coverage • BBC Radio Five • BBC News • Telegraph • Telegraph II • Express • Mail • Mail II • City A.M. • Spectator • New Statesman • Bloomberg Businessweek • Birmingham Post • mortagestrategy.co.uk • financialadvice.co.uk
Jun
2010
Friday 18th June, 2010
Controlling Public Spending: Pay, Staffing and Conditions in the Public Sector
By Ed Holmes and Andrew Lilico
People used to say that public sector workers had great pensions to make up for their low salaries. That’s now out of date, as public sector workers have much better pay, as well as better pensions and conditions. People in the public sector are better paid and have pensions worth more - while enjoying shorter hours, more time off, and earlier retirement. There is scope to make savings without being unfair.
Press coverage • Radio 5 Live • Radio 5 Live II • BBC Radio Scotland • BBC Radio Foyle • Mail • Express • Guardian • Guardian II • Guardian III • Guardian IV • Guardian V • Sun • Telegraph • Telegraph blog • Spectator • Scotsman • Sky News • Bloomberg • City A.M. • Conservative Home
If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £10 + £3p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk
Monday 7th June, 2010
Incentivising boring banking: an alternative approach
Policy Exchange's report recommends abolishing the current system of deposit insurance.
Incentivising boring banking argues that deposit insurance in a fractional banking reserve system is economically damaging and financially destabilising (as it encourages excessive risk-taking by the banks), but politically impossible to avoid.
Press Coverage • Reuters • Telegraph • CentreRight • CityAM • Telegraph II
If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £4 + £1p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk
Apr
2010
Thursday 1st April, 2010
The Cost of Inaction: Why cutting spending will boost recovery, even in the short term
By Andrew Lilico, Neil O'Brien and Hiba Sameen
Edited by Ed Holmes
Much of the media commentary around the deficit is informed by a crude and out of date view that higher borrowing will always and everywhere have a stimulatory effect on the economy. In fact a large body of economic evidence has accumulated in recent decades that reducing government borrowing leads to higher growth, at least in situations where borrowing is high.
As a useful (if not entirely fair) shorthand, we can describe the view that cutting deficits should be expected to reduce growth at least in the short term as the “Keynesian” view, and refer to mechanisms whereby reducing deficits promotes growth even in the short term as “non-Keynesian”. We argue that, since consolidations based on tax rises often fail, resulting in large falls in output in the short-term and rises (not falls) in deficits, whilst those based on spending cuts are most likely to be successful, it is very important to signal, early and credibly, that the consolidation will be largely spending-cuts-based.
Press Coverage • bankingtimes.co.uk • ConservativeHome • Burning our Money • ConservativeHome II • Whathouse?
If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £4 + £1p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk
Mar
2010
Monday 22nd March, 2010
Taxation, Growth and Employment
By Andrew Lilico and Hiba Sameen
This report examines the effect of various different types of tax on economic growth and employment. The tax system may thereby distort the choices between work and leisure, consumption and savings, and domestic and foreign investment. These tax-induced distortions impede efficient allocation of resources across the economy and lead to a cost over and above the revenue collected. Not only does the tax present a cost to the taxpayer, it also creates an additional welfare loss. Some taxes may create bigger distortions and deadweight costs than others.
Press Coverage • Telegraph • Financial Times • City A.M. • Spectator • Channel 4 • Telegraph Blog • financialdirector.co.uk • eGov Monitor • Conservative Home • TaxPayer's Alliance • Burning our Money • Burning our Money II
If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £10 + £3p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk
Thursday 11th March, 2010
Fighting Fraud and Financial Crime
By Jonathan Fisher QC
Edited by Ted Sumpster
The present arrangements for fighting serious fraud, corruption and financial market crimes are lamentably deficient. The haphazard development of the Government agencies tasked with tackling these crimes has created a system of overlapping responsibilities for investigation and prosecution, a dispersion of powers and caused unnecessary duplication of manpower and specialist resources. Perhaps unsurprisingly then, our criminal justice system struggles to cope with complex fraud trials and if the perpetrators of these crimes are to be brought to account, important changes to the criminal law need to be made.
Downloads • full publication
Press Coverage • Times • Times II • Times III • efinancialnews.com • ConservativeHome
If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £4 + £1p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk
Wednesday 3rd March, 2010
Escaping the Poverty Trap: How to help people on benefits into work
By Lawrence Kay
There are 5.8 million people on benefits in Britain. This year, the welfare bill will be £81 billion. If the people who have recently started claiming social security and are struggling to find work do not get jobs soon, the personal and social costs of the rise in unemployment will be catastrophic.
The report recommends reducing the expected rises in benefits over the next few years, tapering away the Family element of the Child Tax Credit and Child Benefit at 39% once the Child Element has been exhausted and raising the earnings disregard for all means-tested benefits to £92.80.
Coverage • The Telegraph • The Express • politics.co.uk • publicfinance.co.uk • ConservativeHome • leftfootforward.org
If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £10 + £3p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk
Feb
2010
Wednesday 10th February, 2010
Saving Grace: Reforming the presentation and composition of current savings policies
By Helen Thomas, edited by Natalie Evans
Saving money in the good times gives security against the bad times. It also helps to generate a pool of capital that can be drawn on when expensive things, like the university education of a child, need to be paid for. A high savings rate should also keep financial demands on the state down, as the more financially independent the population is the smaller the number of people likely to need emergency help. Since Labour entered government in 1997 it has developed several schemes for encouraging an increase in the rate of saving. But because much of it has been insufficiently co-ordinated it is now time to develop a holistic approach that makes saving consistently attractive.
If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £4 + £1p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk
Jan
2010
Tuesday 12th January, 2010
An Agenda for Better Regulation
By Mark Boleat
Regulation is never off the political or media agenda. Every time something goes wrong there are calls for new regulation, better regulation, more regulation and tougher regulation. At the same time, in a sort of parallel universe, there are regular reports that regulation has gone too far.
Individual decisions on regulation are frequently taken in isolation of either of these trends , and many regulatory or deregulatory initiatives fail, either because they are knee jerk reactions or because they are not properly thought through or implemented.
In this report, author Mark Boleat sets out some guiding principles for regulation covering in particular effective policy making, enforcement, combating "backdoor regulation", funding and evaluation.
If you would like a hard copy of this report priced at £10 + £3p&p then please email: janet.batterbee@policyexchange.org.uk
