Institute of economic affairs

Derniers articles

• Who’s afraid of free trade ?

  21 août 2017, par Kristian Niemietz
  Two reports published in the last few days have advocated the benefits of free trade. You might have expected them to be well received by the economics commentariat. In fact, many responses have been sceptical, with some downright hostile. What on earth has gone wrong? The first paper, written (...)

• Can the free market solve the ‘fake news’ problem ?

  18 août 2017, par Kristian Niemietz
  Those dismayed by the Brexit vote in the UK, or the election of Donald Trump in the US, often blame the phenomenon of ‘fake news’. Rather more worryingly, some have concluded that increased government intervention in the free exchange of information and opinions is now needed to ‘protect’ (...)

• Socialism – not oil prices – is to blame for Venezuela’s woes

  17 août 2017, par Kristian Niemietz
  So the Left is finally talking about Venezuela again. That is a good thing. For about a decade, large sections of the Left were in the grip of Venezuelamania. We would not hear the end of it. Venezuela’s version of socialism was their shining example, the model which the rest of the world should (...)

• The gender pay gap is explained by free choices and compensating differentials

  16 août 2017, par Kristian Niemietz — Uncategorized, compensating differentials, discrimination, gender pay gap, Len Shackleton, sexism
  The Guardian has recently published data on the gender pay gap in different parts of the Civil Service. Despite the gap having fallen since this exercise was last done, there has been predicable outrage. Labour says it is ‘appalling’ and ‘morally wrong’ for a pay gap to exist at all in the public (...)

• Adventures in Guardianland, Part 2 : Were the experts right on Brexit, after all ?

  15 août 2017, par Kristian Niemietz — Brexit, Economic Theory, economic forecasts, Jim Cheoros, recession
  Many experts predicted dire economic consequences if Britons should go against their advice and vote for Brexit. Prof Barry Eichengreen began his recent Guardian comment article – The experts strike back! How economists are being proved right on Brexit – by conceding that “The early (...)

• Nick Timothy’s ‘post-liberal conservatism’ : nonsense on stilts

  14 août 2017, par Kristian Niemietz
  Seven years ago, I published an IEA monograph, which was a spin-off from what would later become a dissertation. There were economies of scope in writing for both the IEA and for the university at the same time, but it also created a problem in terms of style. An IEA publication is supposed to (...)

• The “Household Fallacy” fallacy

  11 août 2017, par Kristian Niemietz
  Several economists have claimed that “austerity” is not only cruel but based on faulty economic theory. They accuse its supporters of committing the Household Fallacy. Writing in The Guardian earlier this year, Ann Pettifor, director of Policy Research in Macroeconomics, claimed that it is a (...)

• Adventures in Guardianland, Part 1 : How British central planning defeated the Nazis’ free-market war machine

  10 août 2017, par Kristian Niemietz
  Given Progressives’ oft-stated love of humankind, you’d think they would avoid hankering for the good old days of WWII, when a large proportion of humanity bent their efforts towards killing one another. But that is to forget something. When leaders decide it is time for “the continuation of (...)

• Healthcare : Lessons from Guernsey ?

  9 août 2017, par Kristian Niemietz — Healthcare, A&E, Guernsey, NHS, patient charges, private health insurance, William Walter
  With the NHS facing the unedifying prospect of its worst A&E waiting times in a long time, and bed-blocking up by 52 per cent in three years, a quiet corner of the British Isles has employed a healthcare funding model that keeps its health service in fighting form. Our healthcare system is (...)

• In defence of ‘overpaid’ university vice chancellors

  8 août 2017, par Kristian Niemietz
  I am sure that many UK university staff share politicians’ anger over vice-chancellors’ pay levels. The average university leader’s salary hit £258,000 in 2015-16, according to Times Higher Education’s recent survey, rising to more than £280,000 when pension contributions are included. Moreover, (...)

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