Short articles

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Improving health, education, welfare and the environment through data driven research in public services, the Centre for Evidence-Based Public Services (CEPS) is based in the School of Economics.

Economics Observatory

Hosted by the School of Economics, the Economics Observatory (ECO) bridges the gap between academic research, government policy and the general public.

Explore the ECO website for questions and answers about the economy.

Childcare subsidies: The Conversation

Professor Helene Turon has written in The Conversation on how childcare subsidies can reduce the gap between mothers’ and fathers’ career paths.

4 July 2023


VoxDev: Incentivising school attendance

A new column has been published on VoxDev by Professor Christine Valente with Damien de Walque, lead economist in the Development Research Group, World Bank. The article focuses on their new research in low cost intervention to increase Mozambique school attendance.

18 April 2023


Brexit Food Bills - London School of Economics and Political Science.

Professor Richard Davies co-authored an article on the £5.8 billion cost of Brexit food bills on LSE.

1 Dec 2022


Economic Observatory: What’s happening to the UK Economy?

Professor Richard Davies writes on a turbulent week for the pound, the market for UK government debt, the country’s main institutions of economic policy-making and the British public.

30 September 2022


What would it take to level-up the UK? - Economics Observatory

Professor Helen Simpson analyses the types of local investments that are necessary for the UK government's proposed 'levelling-up agenda' to tackle regional inequality in the country.

22 June 2022


Could paying students to work harder help boost GCSE grades? - Times Educational Supplement

Professor Simon Burgess is interviewed on his research on the effects of paying GCSE students to put more effort into their studies.

13 May 2022


Charitable donations: do we care more about our close neighbours - Economics Observatory

Professor Sarah Smith discusses the data on people's proclivity to donate to disaster response efforts. Identifying whether the charitable response to the Ukraine war shows that Europeans are unfairly biased towards donating to help other Europeans, and what this tells us about charitable behaviour in general.

10 May 2022


Characterising Effective Teaching - The Nuffield Foundation

Professor Simon Burgess and co-authors provide an accessible summary of their research on what makes for effective teaching practices. The quality of your teachers is widely regarded as one of the key determinants of educational success, but there is little agreement on what makes for effective teaching. This short article discusses how we might find out what makes for effective teaching.

22 April 2022


VoxDev: Improving social assistance

Assistant Professor, Muhammad Haseeb has co-authored Improving social assistance through data-driven targeting: Evidence from Pakistan.

23 March 2023


Les réformes visant à hausser la sévérité de la justice sont inutiles, et probablement nuisibles (The reforms seen to increase the severity of sentences are not helpful, and are probably harmful)  - Le Monde

Dr. Arnaud Philippe provides an opinion piece in Le Monde arguing that recent reforms that have increased sentencing severity have made the criminal justice system less efficient.

12 March 2022


How can we give women equal voice in economics? - Economics Observatory

Professor Sarah Smith and Dr Hans Henrik Sievertsen summarise their research on the unequal outspokenness between male and female economists.

8 March 2022


Less (or more) than zero: zero hours contracts in the UK - VoxEU 

Professor Hélene Turon debates the structural merits and drawbacks of zero-hours contracts and she sketches a model of their influence on the UK economy in this blog.

20 January 2022


Fairness in Europe: A Multidimensional Comparison - CESifo

Professor Paul Hufe and colleagues provide a policy briefing giving a review of ways to measure overall economic fairness of European economies today.

1 January 2022


Women and Men at Work - IFS Report

Professor Monica Costa-Dias contributes to a report on the gender-pay gap, its relationship to social and educational status, and how it has changed in recent years.

6 December 2021


Funding Social Care - Bristol Economics Blog

Dr Steven Proud answers questions about the change in National Insurance policy and its implications for funding social care.

7 September 2021

Read short articles, blogs and policy reports written by our academics as they bring the latest economics insights and analysis to policymakers and the public.

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