Between the first quarters of 1970 and 1980 the average price of new houses in the United Kingdom increased five-fold. Over the same period building societies grew to become major financial institutions, attracting almost 50 per cent of the personal sector's holdings of liquid assets, and...

Following the global financial crisis, many countries have embarked on fundamental reviews of their regulatory systems in an attempt to identify the causes of the near collapse in financial systems and to pave the way for a new approach to regulation. The focus of this paper concerns the...

A congestion charge was introduced in the centre of London in February 2003. At the outset, the charge was justified by local policy makers on the basis of an expected reduction in car journeys which would result in improvements in environmental amenity, relating to increased journey speeds...

This paper presents a study which examines the relationship between published school performance results and house prices in two UK cities. It is postulated that schools which perform better on the most widely recognised measure of performance become oversubscribed and give preference to...

The future challenges and prospects for institutions of higher education are explored in this paper in the context of a rapidly changing external environment arising from seismic shifts in the global socio-economic, political and technological arenas. The implications of these paradigm shifts...

In 2004 Poland entered the EU. This paper investigates the performance of the Polish banking industry over the period 1999–2004, by looking specifically at its comparative efficiency in relation to one of the largest banking sectors in the EU namely, that of the UK. Based on a range of...

This paper examines the relationship between state-funded secondary school performance and local residential property values in seven major English cities. When choosing which secondary school they wish their children to attend, parents will be aware of the school’s performance in Key Stage 3,...

This paper provides a critical assessment of the austerity measures that are being implemented in the crisis-stricken countries of the Eurozone, and in particular, the implications of internal devaluation for the Greek economy. The theoretical underpinnings and phases of internal devaluation are...