First published in 1983, Strikes in Post-War Britain provides the first systematic long-run examination of official strike statistics since the war. It is based on a wealth of new material and analysis.The overall strike pattern is first compared with the relevant data on economic activity rates—e.g. movements in prices, output, and employment. Theories linking strikes with variations in all these factors are examined in some detail. Studies of strike prone industries and ...

Where Does Money Come From? reveals how, contrary to public perception, the bulk of today's money supply is created and allocated by commercial banks in their role as providers of credit. The authors argue that this system is inherently unstable, with little effective regulation of how much credit is provided, or whether it is used for productive or speculative purposes. Based on detailed research and consultation with experts, including from the Bank of England, Where Does Mo...

“If [The End of Alchemy] gets the attention it deserves, it might just save the world.” —Michael Lewis, Bloomberg ViewSomething is wrong with our banking system. We all sense that, but Mervyn King knows it firsthand; his ten years at the helm of the Bank of England, including at the height of the financial crisis, revealed profound truths about the mechanisms of our capitalist society. In The End of Alchemy he offers us an essential work ...

Bored with endless grandstanding and people being wise after the event? Then The Age of Instability is the one book you should read on the financial crisis. Setting the near collapse of the international financial markets and banking system in a global and historical context, Sunday Times economics editor and bestselling author David Smith looks not only at the political and economic factors that contributed to the fall of Lehmans, collapse of Iceland and disintegration o...

The questions surrounding how the Irish economy was brought to the brink – who was to blame, and who should pay for these mistakes – have been rightly debated at length. But beyond this very legitimate exercise, there are deeper questions that need to be answered.These questions relate to why we made the decisions we did, not just in the last 10 years, but over the last 80. How did certain industries become prominent at the expense of others, banking as opposed to ...

In 1979, Margaret Thatcher’s new government was faced with rampant double-digit inflation, rising unemployment and flatlining economic growth. In response, Thatcher pursued an economic policy which rejected the old orthodoxies and was promoted by only a minority of economists: a policy based on the doctrine of monetarism.Tim Lankester was the private secretary for economic affairs to Thatcher during the early years of her government. His insider’s account explains her attitudes and...

This book looks at how Ireland as a small open economy can prosper in the medium term. It contains recommendations from Irelands top economic and policy commentators for boosting and sustaining the post-crisis economy. The book is policy relevant accessible and written to stimulate public debate.

Two-thirds of UK government spending now goes on the welfare state and where the money is spent – healthcare, education, pensions, benefits – is the centre of political and public debate.Much of that debate is dominated by the myth that the population divides into those who benefit from the welfare state and those who pay into it – 'skivers' and 'strivers', 'them' and 'us'.This ground-breaking book, written by one of the UK’s leading social policy experts, uses extensive re...

The Right to Buy has had a massive impact on Housing in the UK for 35 years and in 2015 there were proposals to extend it. But what is the Right to Buy policy, how has it developed and what has its impact been? What evidence is there about the wider and unintended consequences of the policy? How are the proposals to extend the policy in England likely to affect future housing provision and what alternatives are there?In The Right to Buy, Alan Murie provides an authoritative account...

Originally published in 1995. A comprehensive survey of housing policy throughout Europe, anchored in a thorough analysis of the UK, this book is a text for students of housing at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The book considers housing tenure types and looks at standards of living, housing stock, housing allowances and subsidies and European funds. There are separate chapters for France, Germany, Spain, The Netherlands and Sweden. The later chapters focus on Britain and look more...

This is Volume II of Professor Parker's authoritative Official History of Privatisation, covering the period from the re-election of Margaret Thatcher in 1987 to the election of Tony Blair in 1997.Volume II considers in detail several of the major privatisations, including those of airports, steel, water, electricity, coal and the railways, as well as a number of smaller ones. Each privatisation involved major challenges in terms of industrial restructuring, organising suc...

This is the first book which authoritatively reviews the UK expenditure on education from 1920 – 1955, both by local authorities and private schools. The book takes the main elements of education in turn and discusses them in detail. There are original studies of local authority finance, of teachers’ pay and of the economics of private education. It examines educational spending by social class and compares the growth of educational services in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Irel...