Economics

Would a richer decade have been a happier one?

The link between national prosperity and personal wellbeing is not straightforward

This piece was first published in the Financial Times.

The flaws of the UK labour market won’t solve themselves

Time to learn from other Anglo-Saxon…

The austerity decade and the future of the welfare state — who should it be for?

Where has income mobility been rising fastest? Britain.

Time to change the narrative.

Another report on social mobility, another round of gloomy headlines. The story writes itself and concludes, inevitably, with a ritual lament about the social stagnation of…

New shocks and old sins: economic adjustment in the age of automation and Brexit

Every week we hear about new threats — via trade, tech, or shifts in consumer preferences — that will put the careers of one group of workers or another on the line. People and places are…

Give me my reputation back

Portability, monopsony and the platform economy

‘What has capitalism done for you lately?’ was the question running through recent Labour and Conservative party political get-togethers. Conference halls reverberated to the…

Rebooting the rank and file: why there’s still hope for the unions

Can flexibility be made to work for workers?

Insecurity over working hours and what to do about it.

As the nature of work evolves then, sooner or later, so do the constraints and expectations that society eventually places upon…