JOB: Freelance French/English researcher wanted
Freelance job opportunity: We need a bilingual French/English researcher for a few days work asap to source and research French-language documents and write up in English. Would suit someone at postgrad level who likes policy. Paid commercial rates. The subject is financial inclusion/consumer indebtedness. If this appeals drop us an email using the address above.
Who is paying for whom through their bank account?
We were commissioned by the Financial Services Consumer Panel along with Collaborate Research to undertake a literature review into cross-subsidisation between different groups of consumers holding bank personal current accounts. We found three potential ways in which cross subsidisation occurs: from those who have overdrafts to everyone else; from everyone to the (“squeezed”) middle; and Read more…
Voluntary public sector activity valued at £34bn
Analysis we conducted for Nesta that is published today shows that the economic contribution people make voluntarily to activities that complement the taxpayer provided public services in some way is valued at around £34bn, or the same as the entire government budget for primary and pre-primary education. This includes regular formal volunteering through groups, clubs Read more…
London and local dominate think tank research…
Here’s our handy word cloud of what the think tanks have been thinking recently, created from the 45 reports produced by the major policy research organisations in Britain in recent weeks. Local issues have been top of the agenda recently, with an particular focus on housing and education, and a big focus again on London. A full Read more…
One area where London holds back the UK economy
Last week the ONS released data on value added in the non-financial business economy, as part of the Annual Business Survey. This release focussed on the approximate Gross Value Added (aGVA) by local activity of businesses in the UK economy. The headline result is that the aGVA of the UK economy in 2012 was 2.9% Read more…
Can the collaborative economy fix the housing crisis?
London is facing a housing crisis. There are too few properties to satisfy the number of people who want to live there. Housing is a scarce commodity, and the way in which markets ration a scarce commodity is through prices. However, unlike for luxury goods, higher prices in housing cause a public policy problem: it Read more…
Venturing forth: increasing high value entrepreneurship
Today sees the publication of a research report by the Social Market Foundation think-tank jointly authored by our MD Kitty Ussher and the SMF’s chief economist, Nida Broughton. It argues that there is a latent supply of entrepreneurs in Britain that could potentially have significant economic impact if they are supported to make the transition Read more…
The poorest are not the most debt vulnerable
The Financial Conduct Authority is exhorting lenders to focus more on the affordability to the recipient of the credit they offer, but how can you determine affordability? A possible clue comes from the latest slew of data on wealth and assets released by the Office of National Statistics last week. This includes a measure of Read more…
Public sector clues to the productivity paradox
Yesterday’s labour market productivity figures showed little change to the headline measure of labour productivity - the number of hours worked is up, but output has risen too such that the ratio of output per hour remains roughly the same. Overall therefore there is no conclusion yet to the so-called productivity conundrum - the issue of Read more…
The politics of the OBR’s supply-side review
In a piece published today in City AM, we look into the politics of the OBR’s supply-side review. To read the full article click here. June 26th 2014
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