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Regulation continues to hinder job creation
Len Shackleton
20 February 2013
2 comments

Today’s labour market figures again present a largely positive picture, with unemployment falling once more, employment rising sharply, and economic inactivity falling. But there is plenty...
Living Wage likely to destroy jobs and increase poverty
Len Shackleton
11 September 2012
2 comments

Last week Ed Miliband suggested that a new Labour government could introduce a requirement for all government contractors to pay a ‘living wage’ well in excess of the national minimum...
How minimum wages encourage discrimination
Karthik Reddy
1 August 2011
6 comments

An oft-overlooked effect of wage floors is that they permit and even encourage various forms of discrimination. Discrimination is an unfortunate yet persistent tendency that continues to exist in...
If the minimum wage cannot be scrapped, at least make it predictable
Kristian Niemietz
7 July 2011
3 comments

In social policy debates, collective memory is extraordinarily short-term. Once a transfer instrument has been around for a few years, it becomes part of the furniture, and anyone proposing it...
How and how not to debate minimum wages
Kristian Niemietz
22 June 2011
9 comments

In the March issue of Economic Affairs, a paper by Karthik Reddy analysed the empirical literature on the employment effects of minimum wages. The paper shows that there was indeed a period in...
If we want to improve the supply-side we need greater efforts to deregulate the labour market
Len Shackleton
18 February 2011
2 comments

A key part of promoting supply-side improvements in the UK economy has to be the loosening-up of employment regulation. Although the UK still has a rather freer labour market than some of its...
Cut out the red tape and get us back on track
Nick Hayns
27 January 2011
comments

It is not easy running a business in this country. You might think I'm making reference to the recession, and, indeed, that is certainly something that has served to heap misery on this nation...
Rational pessimism, Mervyn King and supply-side liberalisation
Philip Booth
26 January 2011
1 comment

As Mervyn King suggested last night, the prospects for living standards in the near future are grim. Higher economic growth will help and the government should therefore pursue policies that...
Minimum wage hike will harm job growth and competitiveness
Karthik Reddy
6 October 2010
2 comments

Nearly one million Britons will see their pay rise to £5.93 this week, from £5.80 per hour last week – representing a 2% rise in the adult minimum wage in accordance with...
The Tories need a rethink on the minimum wage
Mark Littlewood
28 October 2009
6 comments

With youth unemployment rising to 1 million, the government – or more realistically the Tories – need a radical rethink of the how the British labour market works. Or more to the point,...
It’s government that gums up markets
Philip Booth
14 October 2009
comments

According to Keynes, sticky prices in markets lead to a phenomenon whereby we can get disequilibrium in the labour market unless the government intervenes to prevent deflation. As ever, all the...
Economics on the web (16.06.09)
Richard Wellings
16 June 2009
comments

●  Philip Booth argues there is no real concept of a market in the British education system   ●  Gary Becker on Obama’s fatal conceit   ●  Samuel Brittan reviews...
Political football?
J. R. Shackleton
11 May 2009
2 comments

The government can’t keep out of anything. Last week we had the spectacle of Andy Burnham, the Culture Secretary, walking out of a meeting with football’s Premier League seriously...
Time to suspend the minimum wage
Philip Booth
20 February 2009
12 comments

This is not the first time this subject has been covered on the IEA blog – but the point needs repeating. We should remove all impediments to employment in a recession and this should include...
Unemployment and the minimum wage: the government cannot escape responsibility
John Meadowcroft
17 September 2008
21 comments

This morning the UK government announced that in the last quarter unemployment rose by more than 80,000 to a total of 1.7 million. We should never forget the countless personal tragedies that these...

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