uk

August 7, 2017

The Mirage of a ‘Clean Brexit’

When I went to a gym for the first time, in 1998 or so, membership options were very straightforward: you were either a member, or you weren’t. Some gyms would allow you to vary the length of the contracting period, but that was the height of flexibility.
March 29, 2017

Challenges for a Global Britain Outside the European Union – Migration, Trade and Finance

Today, March 29th 2017, Prime Minister Theresa May officially triggered Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, thereby beginning the formal process of withdrawing the United Kingdom from the European Union.
June 1, 2016

Brexit: a Natural Experiment for the EU

Can a country do better after leaving the EU? Indeed, we can perform an even more granular analysis and seek to establish in which policy areas the greater policy flexibility and decentralisation which comes with departure might outweigh the cost of losing the EU’s four freedoms and its constitutional barriers against bad government policy.
December 1, 2015

Reforms and Growth: The 2015 IBL Index of Liberalisations

EPICENTER’s Italian partner, Istituto Bruno Leoni, just released its 2015 Index of Liberalisations report. This study, first conducted in 2007 and led by Dr Carlo Stagnaro, ranks EU Member States according to how free and open their markets are in a range of sectors.
December 1, 2014

Taxing Problem: the UK’s Incoherent Tax System

The UK tax system is incoherent. Even ignoring benefits styled as tax credits and the withdrawal of child benefit, taxpayers can face seven different marginal rates of personal tax. In the long term, aiming for significantly lower levels of government spending could facilitate substantial marginal tax rate cuts, and the government should aim to return to a tax system with two, or preferably one, overall marginal rates of tax on income.
June 1, 2014

Punishing the Majority: Problems With Alcohol Policy in UK

Alcohol policy in Britain and many other countries aims to reduce per capita alcohol consumption in the belief that this will inevitably reduce heavy and harmful drinking. The cornerstone policies of this approach are advertising bans, licensing restrictions and higher taxes.