Green Alert

This paper urges EU decision makers to avoid entering a tit-for-tat subsidy battle with the Unites States in response to the US Inflation Reduction …

Tackling Europe’s Cost of Living Crisis

This paper analyses how excessive taxation and regulations are worsening inflationary pressures in eight European countries. As a result of heavy state intervention, European …

Out of Pocket

This paper examines the tax and regulatory policies fuelling inflation across five European countries. The detailed analysis of high price levels in Germany, Italy, …

The realities of France’s fragile economy

It is well known that high production taxes and social contributions in France have been stifling the economy for some time. Prior to the …

The Minimum Corporate Tax Directive and EU Challenges Today

At the end of 2021, the European Commission released a “Proposal for a council directive on ensuring a global minimum level of taxation for …

How the status quo serves platform workers and consumers

The European Commission has proposed a Directive of the European Parliament and Council on improving working conditions on platform work. The proposal lays down …

Changing the rules: A unilateral approach to non-tariff barriers

From 2023, all EU goods destined for the UK market will need to be certified with a new regulatory customs mark, recognising the regulatory independence of the …

Raising barriers

The voting patterns of political parties in the national parliaments of Greece, Italy and Spain, and of their members of the European Parliament, show …

Taxation Matters

As the International Tax Competitiveness Index states, the structure of a country’s tax code is an important determinant of its economic performance. A well-structured …

Nanny State Index 2021

The 2021 edition of the Nanny State Index, which has been expanded to 30 countries in Europe, shows that Germany has taken the top spot …

Taxing Capital – An International Comparison

The taxation of capital—at both the individual and the corporate level – is much debated and affects economic growth by lowering the incentives to …

Index of Liberalisation 2020

The Index of Liberalisation unveils which countries rank best in economic liberalisation and provides insight on countries with the infrastructure to rebound quicker following …

The EU National Energy and Climate Plans

With the Clean Energy for All Europeans package, the European Union has committed to being carbon-neutral by 2050. In order to achieve this goal, …

The economic cost of Catalonia’s hypothetical independence

Since the 2017 constitutional crisis in Catalonia, the momentum to secede from Spain has grown, but the potential economic impact has not been thoroughly …

Obesity and Overweight in Italy and the OECD Area

The way obesity is measured throughout the EU and OECD countries is significantly flawed. This paper shows that existing international comparisons measuring obesity are …

How to contain the crisis and reform the Polish justice system?

The crisis in the rule of law that Poland has witnessed since 2015 must be contained as soon as possible. Any proposal to restore …

The rule of law crisis in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to serious health and economic emergencies all over the world. Moreover, it has also affected democratic institutions and the …

The Unemployment Trap in Lithuania

Prior to the crisis triggered by the COVID-19 outbreak, the Lithuanian economy had been enjoying a rapid growth. Yet, while the number of available …

EU Accession and Economic Freedom

The access to European Union and the status of EU membership require significant reforms in order for a country to align with the Union’s …

Rule of law in Poland 2020

As a member of various international and European organisations, Poland is bound by the requirement to respect the rule of law so as to …

The East German Healthcare Phenomenon

The reunification of West Germany and East Germany took place 30 years ago, ending a period of around 45 years during which Germany had …

Economically free countries have fewer and less severe economic crises

With most of the world in a deep economic crisis due to coronavirus and the government reactions to it, knowledge of effective crisis policy …

The future of European Tax Competition Essay Prize

As the International Tax Competitiveness Index states, the structure of a country’s tax code is an important determinant of its economic performance. A well-structured …

International Tax Competitiveness Index

The International Tax Competitiveness Index (ITCI) seeks to measure the extent to which a country’s tax system adheres to two important aspects of tax …

Working conditions of platform workers

The European Commission has published a study on working conditions of platform workers. The report identifies key challenges related to platform work, such as …

Rule of law in Poland

The presidential elections in Poland in 2020, which were won by the incumbent Andrzej Duda, the candidate of the ruling Law and Justice party, …

Economic Freedom of the World

The  Economic Freedom of the World Index measures the degree to which the policies and institutions of countries are supportive of economic freedom. The …

You Had One Job

The World Health Organization (WHO) and Public Health England (PHE) have been widely criticised for their response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Serious questions have …

Challenges related to fair minimum wages

This position paper is a response to the European Commission’s second phase consultation with social partners. The EC’s initiative has a general objective of …

The response to the pandemic: A Hayekian view

Socio-economic systems should be understood as ‘complex’ phenomena that cannot effectively be controlled or managed through central planning. In general, markets and other decentralised …

Chinese Puzzle

Covid–19 is provoking a major reorientation of the foreign policy of the US and Europe. At the heart of this is their changing relationship …

Aiming at a common market, not redistribution

In 2018 the European Commission presented its proposed EU budget as “new,” “modern” and “focused.” However, in terms of its expenditure and revenue the …

Freight Expectations: Post-pandemic prospects for global trade

The World Trade Organization has predicted that global trade in goods will drop by between 13 and 32 per cent in 2020 as a …

Coronavirus and the economic value of human life

The Covid-19 crisis has provided many grim examples of some familiar problems in health economics and cost-benefit analysis, and of the ‘tragic choices’ that …

Inflation: The next threat?

The policy reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic will increase budget deficits massively in all the world’s leading countries. The deficits will to a significant …

Model Behaviour: How economists can shape the post-lockdown word

The seminal work on epidemiological models was carried out in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The models have developed substantially since then, but …

The problem is not testing capacity but testing participation

This paper argues that testing participation – and not testing capacity – is the biggest obstacle to a successful “test and isolate” strategy, as …

Going Viral: The History and Economics of Pandemics

Pandemics are a recurring feature of human history. In the modern world, since the 1770s, we have had a series of pandemics, with a …

Responses to COVID-19 of governments in selected countries

The COVID-19 pandemic is a serious challenge for societies around the world. In response to it not only individuals are changing their behaviour, but …

How much will the shutdown of the Danish economy cost?

This analysis is based on five scenarios for the length of the shutdown and an attempt to rate the industry’s production losses. The scenarios …

To Ban or Not to Ban

A ban on opening a new supermarket is evidence that people want a new supermarket, for if they did not there would be no …

Rent controls: How they damage the housing market, the economy and society

Rent controls are now being discussed in cities like Berlin, London, and New York. Sweden has had rent controls since 1942. There are at …

Universal Basic Income: Is it a good idea?

The idea of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) is currently the subject of much interest and discussion in the UK, with support and opposition …

Employment Flexibility Index 2020

For the third year in a row, the Lithuanian Free Market Institute and its partner organisations present the Employment Flexibility Index, that ranks a …

Nanny State On Tour

This study calculates how much UK foreign aid was spent (in 2018 prices) on lifestyle interventions targeting smoking, drinking, eating and sedentary behaviour.UK taxpayers …

Taxing High Incomes

This report compares top effective marginal tax rates on labour income in 41 OECD and EU countries.
The top effective marginal tax rate is …

Reducing Shadow Economies

Across Europe, shadow markets constitute a significant portion of the economy. According to some estimates an average of 16 percent of GDP in EU …

School of Thought – 101 Great Liberal Thinkers

School of Thought – 101 Great Liberal Thinkers profiles the lives and ideas of some of the leading thinkers on individual liberty – from ancient …

School Choice Around the World

Education reforms that allow new educational providers to supply schooling into a state system can improve parental satisfaction and raise learning outcomes through consumer …

Tailoring the work and leisure trade-off

Legal interventions in hiring and firing practices are often referred to as employment protection legislation that include working hours, health and safety requirements. The …

The Case Against Tech Taxes

This paper explains why additional taxes on the turnover of companies with a large digital presence would be disproportionate, discriminatory and damage the European …

The parliamentary voting behaviour of populist parties in Greece

Timbro’s methodological distinction in the Authoritarian Populism Index between extreme and authoritarian populist parties is highly relevant in the Greek political environment, as shown …

Not everyone’s cup of tea

MiFID II, together with MiFIR (Regulation (EU) No 600/2014), was intended to create a more transparent, competitive and integrated financial market in the EU …

Nanny State Index

Germany has overtaken the Czech Republic to become the EU’s most liberal country, according to the 2019 edition of the Nanny State Index. Finland …

Still Hand in Glove?

Following on from research published by the IEA between 2012 and 2014, this discussion paper revisits the issue of state-funded activism in the UK …

Better Regulation: Risks, Markets, Responsibility

A popular explanation for economic scandals, crises and suboptimal market outcomes is the lack of government regulation. This interpretation is intensively promoted by the …

Corporate Tax Out of Control

Do European companies pay their fair share of tax? Many companies headquartered in France, Germany, Italy and Spain show very low effective corporate tax …

The Mass Demonstrations in France is a Reaction to the Effects of Interventionism, Not Liberalism

Mass protests of the “yellow vests” have been taking place in France since 17 November 2018. The catalyst of the demonstration was a fuel …

Employment Flexibility Index 2019

The Employment Flexibility Index 2019 of the member states of the European Union (EU) and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) provides …

Note about the White House Report ‘Opportunity Costs of Socialism’

The White House’s Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) has published a report: “The Opportunity Costs of Socialism”. It is an interesting report with many …

Shadow economy: Understanding drivers, reducing incentives

The aim of this publication is to present and analyse the results of representative population surveys into public perceptions of the shadow economy and …

The fight against poverty depends on economic freedom

The most obvious benefit of economic freedom is that, as a system, it is the most conducive to widespread prosperity, that is, to high …

Free trade and how it enriches us

Free trade improves the well-being of all parties to it. The most significant way that trade achieves this outcome is by enabling and incentivising …

Fixed-term Employment for Long-term Competitiveness

Labour market flexibility may be characterized by the market participants’ abilities to deviate from standard labour regulations and typical forms of employment. Such possibilities …

The Social and Fiscal Contribution of French Top 40 Companies

The social and fiscal contribution from large companies in France and worldwide remains largely unrecognised. Traditional accounting and financial presentations do not provide for …

Minimum Wage Regulation; It’s Complicated

Raising mandatory minimum wage might seem to be a simple policy that serves to increase wages for low-income earners. Politicians use this policy with …

Of course sin taxes are regressive

There should be no debate about whether taxes on food, alcohol, tobacco and soft drinks (‘sin taxes’) are regressive. It can be easily demonstrated …

Labour Migration and Employment Flexibility

Economic migrants rarely displace local labour force. Immigrants are more likely to complement existing labour force creating opportunities for growth and bringing needed skills. …

Offshore bet

The popular account of offshore financial centres as hotbeds of tax evasion is an outdated caricature that bears little resemblance to how OFCs operate. …

Robocalypse Now?

It is claimed that robots, algorithms and artificial intelligence are going to destroy jobs on an unprecedented scale. These developments, unlike past bouts of technical …

Nanny State Index – Nicotine Supplement

Our new league table of nanny state regulation shows that punitive taxation and excessive regulation of safer nicotine alternatives has increased across the EU. …

Growing protectionism after the financial crisis

The weak global GDP growth since the financial crisis in 2007-2009 has coincided with unusually weak growth in global trade.
The average global tariff …

Fast Food Outlets and Obesity: What is the evidence?

Several local authorities in Britain have introduced ‘zoning laws’ to restrict fast food outlets within a certain distance of schools. Public Health England, the …

Socially Useless? The Crucial Contribution of Finance to Economic Life

Financial firms serve many useful functions which individuals and households could scarcely undertake on their own. These functions include maturity transformation, matching lenders and …

Financial Stability Without Central Banks

A ‘free’ banking system without a central bank provides incentives for banks to act with restraint. Their lending policies are, in effect, tied to …

London’s Global Reach and the Half a Trillion Dollars Equity Prize

As the world’s leading international financial centre, London faces fascinating opportunities as well as some significant challenges in coming years. This is as a …

Digital Resellers: The Case for Secondary Ticket Markets

The reselling of tickets for events has a long history, dating back at least to Roman times.
Such secondary markets in tickets are no different …

Supervising the Tech Giants

The rise of the ‘tech giants’ is, of course, a significant commercial threat to more traditional media, but it also raises some potentially important …

Super Index 2017

According the latest IBL Super Index, Italy is the sick man of Europe. Despite relatively rosy macroeconomic projections for the whole EU, the gap …

Employment Flexibility Index 2018

Denmark, the UK, and Ireland are the leading countries in the 2018 edition of LFMI’s Employment Flexibility Index. Portugal, Luxembourg, and France are the …

Perspectives for Poland

In the last 25 years, the Polish economy has grown faster than the economies of Western Europe and the US, which enabled a significant …

No platform? On the economics of P2B exchange

The picture that emerges from the EC surveys of consumers and business regarding platforms is not of a market in which users are routinely …

The day European Union governments spent the last of their annual revenues

EU central governments use up their resources December 6 on average, 25 days before the end of the year. This is almost seven days …

The Future of EU Finances

This Position Paper is a response to the Reflection Paper on the Future of EU Finances by the European Commission. The goal of this …

How the local government VAT exemption promotes tax increases in the EU

The author wishes to thank Oskar Henkow, Rebecca Millar, Anna Sandberg Nilsson and Anders Ydstedt for valuable comments.
Summary

As a general rule, …

Displacement Jobs – On the Swedish Employment Subsidies

The Swedish labor market makes use of twelve different forms of employment subsidies involving three percent of the entire active work force.
In this …

Tax Freedom Day 2017

The purpose of this study is to compare the tax and social security burdens of individual employees earning typical salaries in each of the …

Populism Index 2017

Auktoritär populism har övertagit liberalismens plats som den tredje ideologiska kraften i europeisk politik.
Väljarstödet för populistiska partier ligger kvar på rekordhöga nivåer men …

Is the Spanish job creation model fragile? The case of tourism

The situation on the Spanish labour market is being debated by specialists and policy makers with respect to two central questions: on the one …

Spanish Tax Freedom Day

In 2017, the average Spaniard will have worked 178 days in order to fulfill their tax obligations. In other words, Tax Freedom Day, calculated …

Platform for debate

Platform businesses bring together distinct but interdependent sets of users in such a way as to improve the welfare of each side of the …

Superindex

According to the latest IBL Super Index, the degree of internal divergence within Eurozone countries keeps increasing. This means that the gap between Eurozone …

Nanny State Index

The EPICENTER Nanny State Index is the only comprehensive league table of lifestyle regulations. The latest data suggest that the EU is becoming a …

Skill Mismatch: The New Challenge for Spain

As the Spanish economy recovers, rethinking education reform should be a top priority. Spanish workers are Europe’s most overqualified, but also suffer from the …

Cheap as Chips: Is a healthy diet affordable?

It is widely believed that healthy eating is relatively expensive whereas ‘junk food’ is relatively cheap. This has led to an assumption that poor diets …

Getting the State out of Pre-School & Childcare

Decisions on childcare arrangements were largely a private matter until the 1990s. A political consensus has since arisen that government action is needed to …

Obesity and the Public Purse

This is the first study to estimate the annual savings that overweight and obese people bring UK taxpayers by dying prematurely (in 2016 prices). …

The Solution to the Spanish Pension System

It is increasingly evident that public pensions are going to be hard to sustain in the future: the ratio of workers to pensioners is …

Free to Move

People greatly overestimate the immigrant share of the population and many wrongly believe that openness to migration harms Britons’ job prospects, burdens public finances …

Balancing the economy: The hand of government or the invisible hand?

The past record of industrial policy in the UK is a catalogue of waste and ineffectiveness. By the end of the 1970s it was …

Personal Pensions in the European Union

The development of personal pensions at the national and cross-border levels is hindered by high compulsory payments to public pension funds, restrictions on the …

Hire Authority

In recent years, smartphone-enabled applications such as Uber have gone a long way to resolve the market imperfections which gave rise to taxi regulation …

The Effect of Corporate Tax Base Harmonization in the EU

The European Commission (EC) has renewed its proposals on the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) initiative. The initiative refers to two proposals by …

Ploughing the Wrong Furrow

The precautionary principle provides non-farming interest groups with a pseudo-official means of influencing policy. The result is a drift towards overregulation and regulatory failures …

Bans on home-sharing won’t redress Berlin’s housing shortage

Diego Zuluaga // 04.05.2016
A law banning short-term apartment rentals just came into force in Berlin. The measure, which was passed in 2014 but …

EU Antitrust vs. Google

Istituto Bruno Leoni, 20 January 2016
The extent of market power enjoyed by Google is a debatable question. The antitrust literature emphasises the importance …

Index of Liberalizations 2015

Istituto Bruno Leoni, November 2015
The Istituto Bruno Leoni’s Index of Liberalizations aims at identifying both the barriers to competition and the best practices …

Shadow Economies in the Baltic Sea Region 2015

Lithuanian Free Market Institute, November 2015
A new report by the Lithuanian Free Market Institute looks at perceptions and prevalence of the shadow economy …

Taxation and its negative impact on business investment activities

Gabriel A. Giménez Roche, November 2015
In its latest study, the Institut économique Molinari shows that corporate taxation continues to slow down economic recovery …

The Effect of Harmonisation of the Corporate Tax Base in the EU

Lithuanian Free Market Institute, November 2015
The European Commission has re-launched the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) initiative. CCCTB refers to a proposal …

French government will end year by going deeper in debt

Cécile Philippe and Nicolas Marques, November 2015
According to Eurostat data, the French government will have used up all of its resources by November …

Federal Britain: The Case for Decentralization

Philip Booth, November 2015
The UK’s current devolution settlement leads to unrepresentative government and has an inbuilt bias towards “big government”. This situation is …

The right to housing: a threat to property rights?

Nicolò Zanon, November 2015
In this IBL Occasional Paper, the author – a Justice of Italy’s Constitutional Court – discusses the legal and economic …

Social mobility in the UK

 
Christopher Snowdon, October 2015
 
In October 2015, David Cameron said: “Britain has the lowest social mobility in the developed world.” No such …

Taxing e‐cigs would be a mistake in the fight against smoking

 
Frédéric Sautet, September 2015
 
Following a series of volume decreases in sales of traditional cigarettes in France, sales appear to be stabilizing …

Net freedom instead of net neutrality for a successful digital market

 
Cécile Philippe, June 2015
 
The Digital Single Market (DSM) strategy for Europe includes several initiatives to be delivered by the end of …

Tax rulings and state aid: a treacherous mix

 
30 April 2015
 
The benchmark for assessing the legitimacy of any tax measure is the overall tax regime of the country in …

Slicing up the public sector: A radical proposal for devolution

 
Tom Packer and Matthew Sinclair, March 2015
 
The UK is highly centralised and devolution combined with fiscal decentralisation could bring significant economic …

All the conspiracy theories around TTIP

Smoking or vaping: the revolution in tobacco and nicotine consumption

 
Frédéric Sautet, March 2015
 
Long denigrated and accused of every imaginable evil, the tobacco market is undergoing a renaissance with innovations that …

Brexit: Directions for Britain Outside the EU

Ralph Buckle, Tim Hewish, John C. Hulsman, Iain Mansfield, Robert Oulds, February 2015
It is quite possible that there will be a referendum on …

Failure to liberalise energy markets jeopardises Energy Union

Simona Benedettini and Carlo Stagnaro, 16 January 2015
 
The liberalisation and integration of European energy retail markets is still far from complete. Retail …

The Sphynx and the Chimera: Antitrust proceedings in the European Union

Serena Sileoni, December 2014
 
Antitrust policy is an important part of European Union jurisprudence, yet its control is entrusted to procedures which do …

Taxing Problem: The UK’s incoherent tax system

Ryan Bourne, December 2014
The UK tax system is incoherent. Even ignoring benefits styled as tax credits and the withdrawal of child benefit, taxpayers …

IBL Index of Liberalizations 2014

Carlo Stagnaro, November 2014
 
The new edition of Istituto Bruno Leoni’s Index of Liberalizations ranks the UK as the most liberalized country in …

Too late for France? Finding and restoring the proper size of the modern state

 
Cécile Philippe, Institut Economique Molinari, October 2014
 
We are living in exciting times, with a whole series of beliefs and certainties being …

Against government planning over the airwaves: a free-market approach to spectrum management

 
Massimiliano Trovato, Istituto Bruno Leoni, October 2014
 
The development of television and mobile communications in the coming years will depend on the …

Nutrition taxes: a broken tool in public health policy

 
Frédéric Sautet, Institut Economique Molinari, October 2014
 
It is vital to understand that the impact of nutrition taxes on the consumption of …

The new equality: global development from Robin Hood to Botswana

 
Fredrik Segerfeldt, Timbro, September 2014
 
In the mid-1700s Europe and North America broke with thousands of years of economic stagnation. When power …

Nutrition taxes: a broken tool in public health policy

Frédéric Sautet, September 2014
Excess weight and obesity have been on the rise for more than 40 years in many countries around the world. …

Advertising in a Free Society

 
Ralph Harris and Arthur Seldon, September 2014
 
In practice it is impossible to distinguish between advertising that is intended to be persuasive …

The Green Bubble: How good intentions led to giddy speculation

 
Per Wimmer, Timbro, June 2014
 
We need clean energy if we are to meet the world’s growing energy needs while avoiding an …

Punishing the Majority: Problems with Alcohol Policy in UK

 
John C. Duffy and Christopher Snowdon, June 2014
 
Alcohol policy in Britain and many other countries aims to reduce per capita alcohol …

Position on expanding the Interchange Fee regulation to commercial payment cards

 
Lithuanian Free Market Institute, June 2014
 
The measures proposed by the European Commission are not suitable for achieving a single market in …

Facts and analysis: The small loans market and regulation in Lithuania

 
Lithuanian Free Market Institute, May 2014
 
The small loans market (quick credit, pay-day loans) often gets a lot of criticism in the …

A Human Challenge: Environment, growth and the future of our planet

 
Niklas Elert, Timbro, May 2014
 
Economic growth is not necessarily bad for the environment. On the contrary, a richer world is in …

Economic freedom in the EU: mediocre today – world leader tomorrow?

 
Gustav Blix, Timbro, May 2014
 
Five years since the outbreak of the most severe economic crisis of our time, there is widespread …

The energy bubble

 
Julio Pomes, Civismo, March 2014
 
It is regrettable that, as the United States achieves energy independence, Europe still lacks a strategy to …

IBL Memo: Policy framework for climate and energy in the period from 2020 to 2030

 
Istituto Bruno Leoni, March 2014
 
Current obligations by the EU to decrease GHG emissions by 20% by 2020 are the most ambitious …

The Government Debt Iceberg

 
Jagadeesh Gokhale, March 2014
 
Western governments have developed unfunded social insurance programmes where retiree benefits are paid for from the taxes of …

LFMI comments on European Commissions suggestions for the Tobacco Directive

 
Lithuanian Free Market Institute, March 2014
 
LFMI made a thorough analysis of European Commission’s proposal for the Tobacco directive (2001/37/EC), related public …

Sin taxes: the examples of alcohol and tobacco  

 
Valentin Petkantchin, March 2014
 
So‐called “sin” taxes are very much in fashion in France and elsewhere. With the aim of reducing “sinful” …

Enemies of Free Trade

 
Francisco Cabrillo, Civismo, February 2014
 
The combination of ideological prejudice and direct economic interests may yet do a great deal of harm …

Income from work – the fourth pillar of income provision in old age

 
Gabriel H. Sahlgren, IEA, January 2014
 
The benefits of increasing labour participation rates in old age flow both to the individual – …

From nationalisation to state control – the return of centralised energy planning

 
Colin Robinson, IEA, December 2013
 
For a short period, around the turn of the millennium, the UK energy market was highly competitive, …

Liberal voices. A response to the EC public consultation on sustainable buildings

 
Lithuanian Free Market Institute, November 2013
 
The European Commission wants to gather views and additional information on the possible introduction of EU …

Liberal voices. A response to the EC consultation on sustainability of the food system

 
Lithuanian Free Market Institute, November 2013
 
A growing number of analyses question the long-term sustainability of the current trends in the production …

Liberal voices. A response to the EC public consultation on the 2030 framework for climate and energy policies

 
Lithuanian Free Market Institute, November 2013
 
The EU has a clear framework to steer its energy and climate policies up to 2020.The …

Call to reform EU’s €7.5bn NGO budget

 
Lithuanian Free Market Institute, September 2013
 
Brussels, 24 September – The European Union spends €7.5 billion a year on non-governmental organisations, even …

Facts and analysis: An integrated European market for card, internet and mobile payments

 
Lithuanian Free Market Institute, September 2013
 
Regulation, specifically Interchange Fee caps on credit and debit cards, would be especially harmful to consumers …

The Dream of Alexandria: The dilemma of digital distribution

 
Per Strömbäck, Timbro, August 2013
 
Digitalisation carries a promise of growth, jobs and culture to all, but ironically, it is by and …

The Shadow Economy

 
Friedrich Schneider and Colin Williams, IEA, June 2013
 
Measurement of the shadow economy is notoriously difficult as it requires estimation of economic …

The proof of the pudding: Denmark’s fat tax fiasco

 
Christopher Snowdon, IEA, May 2013
 
Denmark’s fat tax remains the leading example of an ambitious anti-obesity policy being tested in the real …

Work longer, live healthier: The relationship between economic activity, health, and government policy

 
Gabriel H. Sahlgren, IEA , May 2013
 
Higher state pension ages are not only possible (given longer life expectancy) and desirable (given …

On our way to 9 billion: can Europe afford to lose out on the potential of GMOs?

 
Ivar Virgin, Timbro, April 2013
 
By 2050 the world will need to produce almost twice as much food and feed in the …

Euro Puppets: The European Commission’s remaking of civil society

Christopher Snowdon, March 2013
With public confidence in the European project waning, the idea of initiating a ‘civil dialogue’ with the public emerged in …

Google and antitrust – no evidence found

 
Massimiliano Trovato, Istituto Bruno Leoni, January 2013
 
The decision by the American antitrust regulator to acquit Google from charges of manipulating its …

Barriers to prosperity – developing countries and the need for trade liberalisation

 
Sushil Mohan, Sangeeta Khorana and Homagni Choudhury, IEA, November 2012
 
Non-tariff barriers are an important impediment to trade for less developed countries. …

Financial regulation: The need for a revolution

 
Philip Booth, et al., IEA, November 2012
 
We need an entirely new approach to regulation across the financial sector which is based …

The scrapping of the telecoms network

 
Massimiliano Trovato, Istituto Bruno Leoni, October 2012
 
The break-up of the Telecom Italia network, while positive from a market competition perspective, could …

A world waiting for antibiotics: six reasons why antibiotics resistance plagues the world

 
Waldemar Ingdahl, Timbro, June 2012
 
Every year, between 180 and 260 people in Sweden die as a result of antibiotic resistance. Responsibility …

Alcohol: a successful Swedish liberalisation

 
Mattias Svensson, Timbro, May 2012
 
For the past 20 years, Sweden has had considerably freer alcohol rules, not least thanks to EU …

The energy revolution is already here… But it did not come from where it was expected

 
Civismo, March 2012
 
Hydraulic fracturing, or ‘fracking’, has revolutionised world energy markets, making the United States into a net exporter of natural …

Peak whale, peak oil: on oil and the role of private property in natural-resource conservation

 
Erik Lakomaa, Timbro, March 2012
 
There are no historical examples of a raw material running out. Even if the available amount of …

Germany says goodbye to nuclear energy… for the second time

 
Juergen Donges, Civismo, June 2011
 
The cost of Ms Merkel’s decision to close all nuclear power stations by 2022 will be paid …

LFMI response to Public Consultation Permit granting procedures for energy infrastructure projects

 
Lithuanian Free Market Institute, May 2011
 
It should be understood that even the best sounding initiatives can be bogged down by the …

Are Green Jobs Real Jobs? The Case of Italy.

 
Luciano Lavecchia and Carlo Stagnaro, May 2010
 
The European Union has committed itself to increase the share of renewable energy up to …

Fair Trade without the Froth

 
Sushil Mohan, IEA, November 2010
 
This important study, whilst not doubting the position that Fair Trade is part and parcel of a …

Central banking, monetary stability and financial stability

 
Geoffrey Wood, et al., IEA, September 2009
 
How can future economic crises be avoided? A special issue of IEA journal Economic Affairs …

The ‘Google affair’ and the future of the internet

 
Massimiliano Trovato, Istituto Bruno Leoni, September 2009
 
Can the supply of material on the web be regulated? How to take action on …