This overview report provides an assessment of social policy developments under the three...
Economic policy
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23/08/2012
Rich gain most from ‘quantitative easing’
The richest households have seen the value of their assets increase substantially as a result of the Bank of England’s extraordinary interventions in gilts markets following the global financial crash.
Since 2008 the Bank of England has spent around £375 billion on asset purchases (almost entirely gilts, or government bonds). This so-called ‘quantitative easing’ policy, designed to bolster liquidity in financial markets, has pushed up the price not only of gilts but also of corporate bonds and equities. A new Bank of England paper tries to estimate how this has affected the distribution of wealth in a variety of ways.
Category: Reports -
01/08/2012
Progress for the Poor by Lane Kenworthy
Oxford, Oxford University Press, 176 pp, ISBN 978-0-19-959152-7 (hbk)
Kenworthy examines the relationship between economic growth and changes in living standards among low-to-middle income households in 20 rich nations, including the UK and the USA, over the period from 1979 to 2005. He also examines how this relationship varies between countries, and what drives this variation.
Kenworthy argues that one of the principal goals of antipoverty efforts should be to improve the absolute living standards of the least well-off. He addresses a set of questions at the heart of political economy:
Category: -
25/06/2012
‘Negative impact’ of recession on children
The recession is having a negative impact on the lives of children, says a cross-party group of MPs and peers. They highlight cuts to services, squeezed charity and community group funding, and increasing strain on family budgets.
Category: Reports -
10/05/2012
Greater equality ‘essential for economic recovery’
Sustainable recovery from the financial crisis will require restoring the share of wages in national income to post-war levels, and the breaking-up of concentrations of income and wealth, according to a report by a new think tank.
The report points out that historical evidence suggests a strong link between inequality and economic instability. The two most damaging recessions of the last century – the Great Depression of the 1930s and the Great Crash of 2008 – were both preceded by sharp rises in inequality.
The proceeds of growth, when it returns, are likely to continue to be very unequally shared. If the risk of near-permanent stagnation is to be avoided, it is argued, this fundamental imbalance needs to be rectified.
Source: Stewart Lansley, Rising Inequality and Financial Crises: Why Greater Equality is Essential for Recovery, Centre for Labour and Social Studies
Category: Reports -
20/03/2012
Progress for the Poor
Lane Kenworthy, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 176 pp, ISBN 978-0-19-959152-7 (hbk)
Reviewed by Stewart Lansley
Kenworthy examines the relationship between economic growth and changes in living standards among low-to-middle income households in 20 rich nations, including the UK and the USA, over the period from 1979 to 2005. He also examines how this relationship varies between countries, and what drives this variation.
Kenworthy argues that one of the principal goals of antipoverty efforts should be to improve the absolute living standards of the least well-off. He addresses a set of questions at the heart of political economy:
Category: -
20/03/2012
The Cost of Inequality: Three Decades of the Super-Rich and the Economy
Stewart Lansley, London, Gibson Square Books, 320 pp, ISBN-10: 1908096063 (hbk)
Reviewed by Joanna Mack
Lansley argues that the soaring inequality of recent decades is not just an issue of social justice but has also had significant negative implications for the economy. The increased concentration of income and wealth at the top of society since the early 1980s, especially in the UK and the USA and more latterly in parts of continental Europe, has led to greater economic turbulence, slower growth and greater economic fragility, culminating in the crash of 2008/09.
The author maintains that the persistence of inequality is now central to the lack of global recovery. He also:
examines the impact on economic performance of the sustained wage squeeze and increased income concentration at the top of society in the UK and the USA over the last 30 years
Category: -
18/01/2012
Burden of economic downturn taken by low paid
The lowest paid have taken the brunt of the downturn in the UK economy from 2007 to 2011, finds a TUC Touchstone Extra report, All In This Together. The rise in unemployment and falls in real wages have been concentrated among the lowest paid, while those at the very top have seen their pay increase. The report provides an in-depth examination of the impact of the downturn on the workforce. One of the principal effects has been job losses. Looking at the groups that have been most likely to lose their jobs, the report finds:
Category: Reports -
12/01/2012
Rising inequality poses risks to global stability
Rising youth unemployment, pressure on pensions and a growing gulf between rich and poor were ‘sowing the seeds of dystopia’ and putting at risk the gains from globalisation, according to the World Economic Forum’s report Global Risks:2012. The report, based on a survey of 469 experts from industry, government, academia and civil society, examines 50 global risks, their interplay and how they are likely to develop over the next ten years.
Category: Reports -
05/12/2011
President Obama criticises rising inequality in USA
In a major speech on the economy, President Obama has pointed to rising levels of inequality as a block on both economic growth and social mobility. Speaking in Osawatomie, Kansas, Obama examined the problem of income stagnation and the excessive concentrations of private wealth in the USA. Talking about inequality, he said:
This kind of inequality – a level we haven’t seen since the Great Depression – hurts us all. When middle-class families can no longer afford to buy the goods and services that businesses are selling, it drags down the entire economy, from top to bottom. America was built on the idea of broad-based prosperity – that’s why a CEO like Henry Ford made it his mission to pay his workers enough so that they could buy the cars they made. It’s also why a recent study showed that countries with less inequality tend to have stronger and steadier economic growth over the long run.
Category: News stories -
01/11/2011
Promoting a child focus in poverty impact analysis
Ways of generating evidence on the impacts of policy reforms on children are outlined in a joint paper from the World Bank and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Integrating a Child Focus into Poverty and Social Impact Analysis.
This Guidance Note outlines some of the potential poverty and social impacts of common economic and social policy reforms on children and gives an overview of existing tools and methods that can be used for analysing these impacts. It also outlines approaches for mitigating negative and enhancing positive effects on children and discusses how children’s perspectives can be included in a Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA).
The full paper is available from UNICEF.
Category: Reports
