Ben Southwood
Adam Smith Institute
United Kingdom
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Past articles by Ben:
Why we should tax improved land values —
Tax is complex, and it's natural that people would change their mind when they come into contact with new arguments and new evidence. In the past I've argued that we should only tax unimproved land values. After all, taxing improved land values reduces the incentive to improve land. But I've changed → Read More
Why we should tax improved land values —
Tax is complex, and it's natural that people would change their mind when they come into contact with new arguments and new evidence. In the past I've argued that we should only tax unimproved land values. After all, taxing improved land values reduces the incentive to improve land. But I've changed → Read More
Against rural broadband —
Society got very excited about the invention of the car. From the 1950s onwards especially, governments around the world began huge road-building projects, bulldozing swathes of cities for huge multi-lane dual carriageways. This frenzy has subsided, and it's largely clear how this ideologica → Read More
Airbnb and discrimination —
I have repeatedly blogged about discrimination, especially against women and non-whites in labour markets. On raw numbers we often see different outcomes between groups, and since we know that discrimination goes on, we often instinctively attribute these "gaps" to discrimination, as → Read More
Rents direct investment and innovation to where it is most useful —
Market power is when a firm can charge more than the cost of making a new unit, because of barriers to entry. In a competitive market where firms rent their capital, they can only charge marginal cost: if not, other firms would pop up and steal the market by undercutting them. Some of the most → Read More
The Millennial Manifesto —
Several analysts have pointed to what they perceive as unfair treatment of young people in the UK relative to how the population in general is treated. The feeling that insufficient attention is paid to the problems and difficulties they face is reportedly widespread among young people thems → Read More
Regional inequality: also a housing supply problem —
Over the past few years compelling evidence has come out suggesting that housing policy errors are behind slow productivity growth, wealth inequality, and the cost of living crisis. But a raft of new work suggests housing policy errors might also be a key explanation for rising regional ineq → Read More
YIMBY: How To End The Housing Crisis, Boost The Economy And Win More Votes —
* It has become widely accepted, including by the government, that the UK is in the midst of a “housing crisis”, where prices and rents have rocketed in key locations. * There are a range of policies that would solve this, and many of them are well known. But none have → Read More
A neoliberal framework for intellectual property —
When I was younger I was very libertarian, and like many libertarians I was very sceptical of intellectual property. It might seem strange to a non-libertarian—libertarians love property rights!—but it's obvious to a libertarian. Property rights over your body, your land, your house and your → Read More
RPI is silly, but not completely crazy —
Chris Giles, the FT's economics editor, has recently been waging a war on the retail prices index (RPI)—Britain's venerable price statistic used to set rail prices, student loans interest, and repayment of some gilts. I'm a fan of Chris, but I think he's gone a bit far: yes, RPI is a bad index → Read More
Money is a veil over economic understanding —
One genre of claim I hear a lot on Twitter goes something like this: "pounds spent the economy so firms have more money so they invest more", or "more stuff consumed means more confidence for investors". I think this confusion comes partly from half-digested media economics → Read More
Economic possibilities for our grandchildren, video games version —
Famously, John Maynard Keynes predicted in 1930 that in a few generations time people would only work 15 hours a week: productivity would have risen so much that higher living standards would be possible with less work. He thought that people would use higher productivity (and the resultant → Read More
Instrumental Variables: How the UK can become a world leader in medical innovation —
Introduction A little under a year ago, the New York Times reported on do-it-yourself insulin pumps. Tech savvy people, mostly parents to diabetics, were pairing glucose sensors with insulin pumps. These would allow caregivers to constantly monitor glucose levels. Some even made what are, i → Read More
Free market welfare: not this! —
Out of all the think tanks in the world, probably the one that has the closest "fit" with the ASI is the Niskanen Centre in Washington DC. They share our pragmatic, compassionate, and neoliberal outlook, proposing liberal market-orientated policies that raise the wealth, and welfare, → Read More
Short termism n: electric boogaloo —
Lots of people think businesses are short termist, especially nowadays, and that this is one reason why productivity growth seems a bit slower now, especially since the crisis. I've always had trouble understanding the mechanism. In their view firms can either do more investment and raise t → Read More
Labour’s fare cap is a bung to train passengers —
Commenting on Jeremy Corbyn's pledge to cut commuter rail bills by £1000, Adam Smith Institute Head of Research Ben Southwood said: Labour’s fare cap is a bung to train passengers which will be paid in higher taxes on those who cycle, drive, or get the bus instead. Railway improvements cos → Read More
DEBATE: Should the next government force employers to give employees on zero-hours contracts the “right to request” fixed hours?
DEBATE: Should the next government force employers to give employees on zero-hours contracts the “right to request” fixed hours? → Read More
Theresa May is trying to turn us into Italy —
In response to Theresa May's pledge of a raft of new European-style workers regulations, as well as a crackdown on the gig economy, the ASI's head of research damned them as risky. Ben Southwood, Head of Research at the Adam Smith Institute, said: Theresa May’s decision to copy Ed Miliband → Read More
Where house prices come from —
In the UK, housing is mostly provided by the market.* But supply and demand are not the only concepts you need if you want to understand why London house prices are so high, and indeed why they have been rising. You also need to think about expectations and about interest rates. When you re → Read More
As Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn pledges £10 an hour, has the National Living Wage opened a Pandora’s box of state wage setting?
When the government announced the National Living Wage (NLW), one risk was that a faster schedule of hikes in the wage floor would lower employment. → Read More