The traditional theoretical view of minimum wage laws is that, because labor markets are competitive, the laws hurt employment while delivering little benefit to workers as a group. Empirical research has generally supported this view, finding that minimum wage increases are followed by...

Price controls across many sectors are currently being hotly debated. New controls in the housing market, more onerous minimum wages, minimum prices for alcohol, and freezes on energy prices are very high up the agenda of most politicians at the moment. Even without any further controls, wages,...

Rent controls are probably the best researched and understood form of price control in economics. Their consequences are widely regarded as being extremely damaging and UK experience confirms this.In Britain, the period of rent controls between 1915 and 1989 was associated with the private...

The approaches of the political parties to aspects of the ‘cost of living crisis’ seek to treat the symptoms of problems, rather than addressing the underlying causes. In particular, parties have advocated or implemented policies which completely ignore how existing government policies lead...

The ‘cost of living crisis’ is now a substantial part of the UK’s political discourse. The prices of essential goods in some product markets have become politicised in a way not seen for a generation, and there is widespread concern about low pay levels.Most of the new policies offered up...

The government’s finances are currently on an unsustainable trajectory.Whilst current levels of government debt are below the levels seen in previous periods in history, accumulating such large levels of debt during a long period of peacetime is more or less unknown.Government debt figures do...