We examine whether social ties influence the careers of company executives. We analyse appointments to UK company boards, and exploit detailed data on executives’ educational backgrounds, boardroom experience and affiliations to elite clubs. We find that social connections, through membership...

We examine whether discretionary government grants influence thelocation of new plants. Grants have a small effect in attracting plants to specificgeographic areas, but their effectiveness increases with agglomeration externalities,measured by the number of other plants in that location in the...

The ability to create a competitive and thriving economy is partly dependent onknowledge production and innovation. So how well is the UK performing in theseimportant areas? To assess the UK’s comparative performance, and gauge how itmight perform in the future, it is a useful exercise to...