LSE Business Review

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An attempt to unpick the ‘productivity paradox’ and other barriers to growth

An attempt to unpick the ‘productivity paradox’ and other barriers to growth

Google driverless car at intersection, by Grendelkhan, own work, under a CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Introduction

Following the financial crisis in 2008, central banks in the UK and other developed countries have attempted to inject extra liquidity into the market through asset purchases and low interest rates. Economic theory predicts inevitable hyperinflation, overheating, and currency crashes. Today, inflation rates […]

November 18th, 2016|Economics, Jiin Baek, LSE alumni, LSE Growth Commission, Ritush Dalmia, Siddhi Doshi|Comments Off|

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Brexit: prioritise getting a good deal from the EU over getting a speedy one

Brexit: prioritise getting a good deal from the EU over getting a speedy one

New Oxford Street, view from Centre Point Tower (cropped), by Eric Huybrechts, under a CC-BY-SA-2.0 licence

Almost five months on from the EU referendum, politicians are still coming to terms with the complexity of legally disentangling the UK from the European Union. The business community will always try to make the best of any situation, and find opportunities in post-Brexit […]

November 17th, 2016|Economics, Leaders, Simon Walker|1 Comment|

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What Donald Trump could do to ‘make America great again’ without destroying free trade

What Donald Trump could do to ‘make America great again’ without destroying free trade

US flag, by unsplash.com, under a CC0 licence
For nearly two years, unsettling comments by US presidential candidates rattled international investors. The prospect of US trade wars with China and Mexico hit global markets, already weakened by the surprising result of the Brexit referendum. The elections ended, but the financial community still cannot breathe a sigh of relief.

In order to calm […]

November 10th, 2016|Department of Finance, Economics, Finance, FMG, LSE Authors, Simeon Djankov|0 Comments|

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An isolationist America will be bad for the world

An isolationist America will be bad for the world

Donald Trump at Aston, PA September 13th, by Michael Vadon, under a CC-BY-2.0 licence
Many things have been said during this presidential campaign and many talked about the bad things we should expect from each candidate, especially Donald Trump. But I will talk about economics – just one thing that was pushed hard by Trump: trade.

America is a big country, the […]

November 9th, 2016|Department of Economics, Economics, LSE Authors, Sir Christopher Pissarides|0 Comments|

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Is a loose monetary policy still appropriate for the Eurozone?

Is a loose monetary policy still appropriate for the Eurozone?

Protest at ECB headquarters, by JIP, own work, under a CC BY-SA 3.0 licence or GFDL, via Wikimedia Commons
The November 2016 expert survey of the Centre for Macroeconomics (CFM) and the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) invited views on a recent report by the German Council of Economic Experts (Sachverständigenrat), which argues that the current monetary policy of the European […]

November 8th, 2016|Centre for Macroeconomics, Department of Economics, Economics, Ethan Ilzetzki, LSE Authors, Martin Ellison, Michael McMahon, Ricardo Reis, Wouter Den Haan|0 Comments|

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Let Mark Carney do his job

Let Mark Carney do his job

Serpentines, by Unsplash, under a CC0 licence
A series of Halloween monetary policy stories emerged over the weekend. Both The Sunday Times and The Financial Times reported that Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney, is under pressure to leave his job. This speculative but certainly destructive noise about Carney’s possible departure gained momentum after Theresa May warned of […]

November 5th, 2016|Costas Milas, Economics|0 Comments|

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Investing in the future of the UK: LSE relaunches its Growth Commission

Investing in the future of the UK: LSE relaunches its Growth Commission

© Copyright Martyn Pattison and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
The LSE Growth Commission was set up in 2012 to provide authoritative and evidence-based policy recommendations that target sustainable and inclusive long-term growth in the UK. In 2013 the Commission published a Report, Investing for Prosperity: A Manifesto for Growth, which focused on three main areas where […]

November 2nd, 2016|Anna Valero, CEP, Department of Economics, Economics, LSE Authors, LSE Growth Commission|1 Comment|

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Four principles for the UK’s Brexit trade negotiations

Four principles for the UK’s Brexit trade negotiations

Drill sergeant, by Defence Images, under a CC-BY-SA-2.0 licence
An independent trade policy presents both challenges and opportunities. The most important challenge would be to reach a new trade agreement with the European Union (EU). The UK has yet to decide what relationship with the EU it wants following Brexit. But whatever it chooses, the government’s ability to achieve its goals will […]

October 29th, 2016|CEP, Department of Economics, Economics, LSE Authors, Thomas Sampson|1 Comment|

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India’s reforms to attract investment present opportunities for European firms

India’s reforms to attract investment present opportunities for European firms

Mumbai, by Walkerssk, under a CC0 licence
Since independence in 1947 until 1991, India’s policy towards foreign direct investment (FDI) was ad hoc, and lacked consistent direction and proper institutions (Sahoo 2006; Sahoo et al. 2013). As a result, FDI inflows into India were negligible. However, following the balance-of-payments crisis in 1991, the comprehensive structural economic reforms included steps to […]

October 28th, 2016|Economics, Global Business, Pravakar Sahoo|0 Comments|

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After the US elections, how do we return to a constructive debate about trade?

After the US elections, how do we return to a constructive debate about trade?

Container, by GREGOR, under a CC0 licence
Trade is hardly ever a prominent US election issue, and yet this year it has become the campaign’s defining economic theme. That’s because politicians on both sides of the political spectrum have decided to blame free trade agreements for what is really a much deeper post-crisis economic malaise, characterised by persistently weak job markets […]

October 25th, 2016|Economics, Pedro Nicolaci da Costa|1 Comment|

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Bitcoin may have implications for monetary policy

Bitcoin may have implications for monetary policy

Bitcoin, by Zach Copley, under a CC-BY-SA-2.0 licence
While excitement about Bitcoin appears to have subsided, the blockchain technology underlying Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is attracting growing interest (e.g. Oliver Wyman 2016). Central banks have joined the FinTechs and bricks-and-mortar financial institutions in paying attention (Economist 2016). Not a week passes without a monetary authority declaring interest in the technology, and […]

October 21st, 2016|Dirk Niepelt, Economics, Information & Technology|0 Comments|

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Why do 16% of the world’s adults dream of moving to another country permanently?

Why do 16% of the world’s adults dream of moving to another country permanently?

Times Square, by m01229, under a CC-BY-2.0 licence
In 2009, a Gallup survey found that about 16 per cent of the world’s adult population would like to permanently migrate to another country. International migration of such magnitude may have far-reaching consequences for sending and destination countries. For instance, between destination countries it may induce competition for talent, i.e. high-skill migrants, in order to […]

October 19th, 2016|Daniel Meierrieks, Economics, Laura Renner|0 Comments|

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New immigrants don’t affect the job prospects of UK-born workers

New immigrants don’t affect the job prospects of UK-born workers

Barista smiling at counter, by mendhak, under a CC-BY-SA-2.0 licence
Membership of the European Union (EU) has direct effects on the UK labour market via the free movement of labour and the contribution of immigration to GDP, the fiscal budget and productivity. It also has indirect effects via the impact of trade flows and foreign direct investment on aggregate economic activity.
But […]

October 18th, 2016|Barbara Petrongolo, CEP, Economics, LSE Authors|1 Comment|

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Punishing Britain with a tough Brexit will harm everyone

Punishing Britain with a tough Brexit will harm everyone

Photo: Luca Viskardi via a CC-BY-SA 2.0 licence
Reconfiguring the relationship between the UK and the EU is a complex undertaking. Delays, procrastination and uncertainty are bad for both sides. We need a rapid decision on the fundamental issues at stake – and a decision by the EU to behave as constructively as possible toward the UK would be hugely beneficial.

It […]

October 15th, 2016|Economics, Stefan Kooths|0 Comments|

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China’s highly successful demand for technology transfer in high-speed trains

China’s highly successful demand for technology transfer in high-speed trains

Chinese high-speed train, by Scott Meltzer, Public Domain
The rate of growth in technological innovations in China has increased significantly in the past two decades (see Figure 1). What’s more, it is widely believed that the ability to learn from foreign technology and chase the global technological frontier relatively quickly has been a key contributor to China’s growth miracle (Van […]

October 13th, 2016|CEP, Department of Economics, Economics, LSE Authors, Yatang Lin, Yu Qin, Zhuan Xie|0 Comments|

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Global debt is at a record high of 225 per cent of the world’s GDP

Global debt is at a record high of 225 per cent of the world’s GDP

Credit card, by Ed Ivanushkin, under a CC-BY-SA-2.0 licence
In the midst of the Great Depression, the American economist Irving Fisher warned of the dangers of excessive debt and the deflationary pressures that follow on its tail. He saw debt and deflation as the big, bad actors. Now, their close relatives — too high debt and too low inflation — are […]

October 12th, 2016|Economics, Marialuz Moreno Badia, Vitor Gaspar|1 Comment|

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Greek women rushed to look for work when the crisis left their husbands jobless

Greek women rushed to look for work when the crisis left their husbands jobless

Athens street scene, by Luigi Guarino, under a CC-BY-2.0 licence
The “added worker effect” hypothesis suggests that the wives of unemployed husbands increase their job-finding efforts in order to maintain the family’s standard of living (Gruber and Cullen, 2000; Stephens, 2002). We investigate this hypothesis in the Greek labour market, which is characterized by increased job separation rates (layoffs, contract termination, […]

October 5th, 2016|Economics, Gender, Joan Daouli, Michael Demoussis, Nicholas Giannakopoulos|0 Comments|

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Why do females avoid maths, even if it boosts their careers?

Why do females avoid maths, even if it boosts their careers?

(No name) by Pixapopz, under a CC0 licence
Although the college gender gap has reversed, females are still under-represented in high-powered and high-paid careers as CEOs, Ph.D.s, and more generally in finance, business, science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) fields.

In a recent paper (Joensen and Nielsen, 2016), we assess three potential explanations for this inequality. First, are the labour market […]

October 4th, 2016|Economics, Gender, Helena Skyt Nielsen, Juanna Schrøter Joensen|0 Comments|

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Mining causes infrastructure bottlenecks that hurt nearby manufacturers

Mining causes infrastructure bottlenecks that hurt nearby manufacturers

Shaft #1 at Oyu Tolgoi copper mine in Ömnögovi Province, Mongolia, by Brücke-Osteuropa, own work, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain
The last two decades have witnessed an extraordinary expansion in global mining activity, an increasing share of which was concentrated in emerging markets. The world’s largest mines can nowadays be found in Africa, Asia and Latin America. This mining boom has reinvigorated the […]

September 28th, 2016|Economics, Ralph De Haas, Steven Poelhekke|0 Comments|

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Brexit was a rational vote by the losers from global trade

Brexit was a rational vote by the losers from global trade

Waiting in a breadline beside the Brooklyn Bridge during the Depression. Photo: pingnews.com. Public domain
Britons voted to leave the EU by 52% to 48%. The EU is a borderless area for the movement of goods, services, investment, labour, and more across 28 European countries. Those who voted for Brexit were often described as angrily rejecting the national and international […]

September 24th, 2016|Avinash Persaud, Economics|1 Comment|