Britain's public sector deficit in the 1990s has been much too large to allow the public sector to maintain its balance sheet position. In order to do this the current account deficit has to be reduced from its 1995/6 figure of 3_ per cent of GDP to close to zero. Government plans show this...

Introduction When protection is discussed people normally have policies designed to restrict imports in mind. But the way in which the international economy has been affected by toxic financial assets issued in the United States suggests that countries might face problems not only because of the...

ABSTRACT We explore the effects of a temporary cut in VAT, identifying three possible effects: an income effect as people benefit from a lower cost of living during the period of the reduction, a substitution effect as people bring their consumption forward and an arbitrage effect as people buy...

We assess fiscal policy from the perspective of fairness between generations and the relationship between this and national saving, in the context where the United Kingdom is one of the lowest saving of all the OECD economies. Cross-section and pooled data suggest that governments are in a...

* This is a summary of the full article: "The Labour Government's economic record and economic prospects", taken from the National Institute Economic Review, no. 192, April 2005. The National Institute Economic Review is published quarterly by Sage Publications. Please visit the Sage...