Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme: Who is on furlough and at what cost?

This paper represents the first attempt to date to provide disaggregated estimates of the likely number of workers furloughed and the associated Exchequer cost…

Covid-19alma economicsApril 15, 2020DATA, COVID-19

Test, test, test … or click, click, click?

A few weeks ago we published a blog post where we point out the importance of publishing patient data to stop the COVID-19 pandemic…

Covid-19alma economicsApril 7, 2020DATA, COVID-19

Why now is the time for targeting the level of money GDP rather than inflation

Having inflation as the main target for monetary policy has looked broken for a long time now, as have dual mandate systems of targeting…

Economicsalma economicsApril 2, 2020ECONOMICS, MONETARY POLICY, MARKET MONETARISM

The economics of endometriosis

March is the international awareness month for endometriosis, also known as EndoMarch. What’s that, you might ask? Endometriosis is a chronic health condition where cells similar to the ones that form…

Economicsalma economicsMarch 19, 2020ENDOMETRIOSIS, PRODUCTIVITY, INCOME LOSS, QaLY

Innovation and firm size

In economics, “technology” is used to describe how much output can be produced from a given amount of inputs. Depending on how it is measured…

Businessalma economicsMarch 10, 2020INNOVATION, PRODUCTIVITY, GROWTH

Why does the North need to “level up”? Origins of the North-South Divide

The UK’s “North-South divide” has long been a feature of political debates in the UK, used to boost support when unveiling new economic policies or…

UK Economyalma economicsFebruary 26, 2020NORTH-SOUTH DIVIDE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, ENGLAND

Household recycling and behavioural biases

Recycling of household waste generates a host of benefits including lower greenhouse gas emissions from landfill, reduced depletion of scarce resources (land inclusive) and less…

Environmental Economicsalma economicsFebruary 18, 2020RECYCLING, WASTE POLICY, ENVIRONMENT

An idea for boosting Q2 GDP growth by 0.4%

Today we’re going to start with an idea for boosting the level of UK GDP. This is a topic where UK policymakers are always in the market for new ideas, but at the moment their need looks a little greater than usual…

alma economicsFebruary 11, 2020GDP, PRODUCTIVITY, LABOUR MARKETS