Institute of economic affairs

Derniers articles

• The government should not regulate how restaurants deal with tips and service charges

  19 juin 2018, par Kristian Niemietz
  Jeremy Corbyn has had another brainwave. The Labour leader wants to make it illegal for businesses to “pocket” tips and optional service charges. Some restaurants and hospitality firms currently collectivise what we add to our bills or give to waiters and waitresses. They might directly pool tips (...)

• There are reams of EU insurance regulation ripe for scrapping post-Brexit

  15 juin 2018, par Richard — Regulation, Brexit, EU regulation, insurance, Philip Booth, Solvency II
  Before the UK joined the European Union, we had a stable and vibrant financial sector which had always been one of the most lightly regulated in the world. Exchange controls from 1939 to 1979 combined with high inflation in the 1970s meant that some parts of the City became backwaters in global (...)

• Government subsidies have made our childcare sector even more dysfunctional

  14 juin 2018, par Madeline Grant — Government and Institutions, Policies, Regulation, Welfare
  The House of Commons Education Committee has been hearing about childcare and early years provision from various sector groups. The news isn’t good. Despite the huge amounts of taxpayers’ money now being pumped into childcare, it’s not working out the way politicians hoped. For one thing, as Liz (...)

• How the NHS hurts the poor

  13 juin 2018, par Richard — Healthcare, forced consumption, Jamie Whyte, NHS, poverty, taxation
  You must buy most things you want. But not healthcare. Healthcare is supplied at no charge by the state, funded from taxation. This is often claimed to help the poor. Spend more tax money on it, as suggested recently by the Institute for Fiscal Studies and promised by the Prime Minister, and (...)

• Should it be illegal for businesses to pocket tips ?

  12 juin 2018, par Richard — Labour Market, Jeremy Corbyn, minimum wage, National Living Wage, restaurant tips, Ryan Bourne
  Jeremy Corbyn has had another brainwave. The Labour leader wants to make it illegal for businesses to “pocket” tips and optional service charges. Some restaurants and hospitality firms currently collectivise what we add to our bills or give to waiters and waitresses. They might directly pool tips (...)

• The UK labour market performance does not deserve the opprobrium it gets

  8 juin 2018, par Madeline Grant — Labour Market, Policies, Regulation, Welfare
  The UK labour market is not some “Wild West”, where ruthless employers are free to exploit defenceless workers. The last thirty years have seen a proliferation of government regulation of employment, with laws on discrimination, minimum wages, unfair dismissal, union recognition, paid holidays, (...)

• Steel tariffs raise input costs and misallocate resources

  8 juin 2018, par Richard — Economic Theory, Trade, Development, and Immigration, Frederic Bastiat, protectionism, Ryan Bourne, steel tariffs
  Next time someone advocates a new government policy, here’s a simple test to tell whether they are serious or selling snake oil: are they willing to acknowledge the trade-offs inherent in their proposal? That might seem a banal – and low – hurdle to pass. But it has a remarkable ability to (...)

• The beneficial impact of offshore finance

  7 juin 2018, par Richard — Tax and Fiscal Policy, Diego Zuluaga, economic growth, offshore financial centres, tax havens
  Would the world be a better place if offshore finance didn’t exist? Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell doubtless thinks so, believing that the tax planning these jurisdictions make possible only hurts other countries. Yet a look at the evidence might surprise him. There is ample reason to venture (...)

• Tariff walls and trade wars equal government planning (Part 3)

  6 juin 2018, par Kristian Niemietz
  …continued from Part 2 China’s Drive for National and Global “Greatness” In the case of China, President Xi Jinping rules over a Communist Party and a political dictatorship that rejects the very notion of individual freedom and a free-market economy. China is a peculiar mix of State enterprises (...)

• Tariff walls and trade wars equal government planning (Part 2)

  5 juin 2018, par Kristian Niemietz
  …continued from Part 1. Protectionism Is Planning Winners and Losers Trade-restricting policies represent forms of governmental economic planning. It is usual to think of “planning” in the classic Soviet or Nazi sense of a government directly and comprehensively owning and/or controlling the means (...)

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