Le Pont de Londres: Interactions between monetary and prudential policies in cross‐border lending

Using two unique confidential datasets summarizing the cross‐border lending of banks in France and the UK, we examine whether recipient‐country prudential policies can help to reduce the spillover effects of euro‐area (EA) monetary policy. We address this question from a novel angle, focused on the role of international financial centres, by considering differences in bank size and location (lending from French headquarters vs. from French affiliates located in the UK). For small French banks that lack a presence in international financial centres, the response of direct cross‐border lending from France to EA monetary policy is partially offset by recipient‐country prudential policy. For larger banks, however, the offsetting effect applies only to lending that passes through foreign affiliates located in London. This suggests the existence of a “London Bridge”: banks adapt their flows to the UK conditional on EA monetary policy and global prudential policies; and from their UK affiliates to third‐party countries in a manner that depends on local prudential settings.     

Keeping up or Falling behind? The Impact of Benefit and Tax Uprating on Incomes and Poverty*

Each year, the government decides how much to raise benefits and tax allowances. In the UK, the basis for these upratings is rarely debated, yet has major long‐term consequences for the relative living standards of different groups as well as for the public finances. This paper considers the medium‐term implications of present uprating policies, which vary across parameters of the tax–benefit system. Continuing these policies for 20 years, other things staying the same, would result in a near doubling of the child poverty rate alongside a substantial gain to the public finances. At the same time, pensioners are largely protected by the earnings indexation of pensioner benefits including, in time, the basic state pension. We show how difficult it will be to meet the UK child poverty targets unless the greater inequality inherent in the current regime for uprating payments and allowances is redressed.     

Following or Leading Public Opinion? Social Security Policy and Public Attitudes Since 1997

This paper examines New Labour's social security and related policies since 1997 in the light of evidence on public attitudes. The list of measures where policies have been in or have come into line with public attitudes is much longer than the list of measures where policies have been out of line with public attitudes or appear to have led them. One interpretation is that policy has been led by opinion surveys and focus groups, with opportunities lost to take more radical action and then persuade people of the need and justification for it. An alternative would be that policy has navigated with the grain of some of the more progressive parts of public opinion to achieve a result that has carried the public with it, in a way that would not have been sustainable if there had simply been an increase in the generosity of an unreformed social security system.     

A conceptual approach for analyzing social/external information forces

A conceptual approach for analyzing social/external informational forces is developed for use in examining specific environment issues. A taxonomy is formulated to guide identification and study of the: (1) levels of socio-environmental systems; (2) specific flows between and within the relevant subsystems; and (3) the processes that operate within and between the subsystem. An approach to examining environmental systems is presented based on purpose of analysis, relevant goal structure, and model building focus. An illustrative model is developed and applied to unit-pricing at the retail level. Finally, the implications of attempting to analyze macro-social information flows are considered.     

Engaging Employees in Sustainable Development – a Case Study of Environmental Education and Awareness Training in Hong Kong

Environmental education and awareness training can help to develop and encourage a transition to a greener corporate culture. A series of environmental education and awareness training programmes of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC) (Hong Kong) was used as a case study to assess how learning transfers through nature‐based environmental education and awareness training and to investigate the possible outcomes of providing nature‐based training to employees. Evaluation of the training outcomes, in terms of changes in employees’ environmental knowledge, attitudes and behaviour, was surveyed by using retrospective post‐ and then‐test questionnaires. Results showed that employees who joined these programmes gained knowledge and changed their values and behaviour towards the environment significantly. The study also indicated the establishment of trust in and satisfaction with the organization among employees through the training, which in turn promoted employees’ organizational commitment towards corporate sustainability. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Tony Atkinson and his Legacy

Tony Atkinson is universally celebrated for his outstanding contributions to the measurement and analysis of inequality, but he never saw the study of inequality as a separate branch of economics. He was an economist in the classical sense, rejecting any sub‐field labelling of his interests and expertise, and he made contributions right across economics. His death on 1 January 2017 deprived the world of both an intellectual giant and a deeply committed public servant in the broadest sense of the term. This collective tribute highlights the range, depth and importance of Tony's enormous legacy, the product of almost fifty years’ work.     

Implementing road-use pricing by stealth

The recent White Paper indicates the start of serious attention to the use of road-use pricing, while the hard edge of the argument is to be found in the Treasury's Comprehensive Spending Review. What has yet to be examined is the problem of equipping the nation's vehicles with the necessary devices, effective for the purpose over the whole country. This could be done by replacing the paper 'tax disc' with a standardised electronic tag - carrying stored credit-units - which could provide for road-use payments as and where they come to be introduced.     

Policy Implications of New Data on Income Mobility

The existence of income mobility may moderate concerns about growing inequalities, especially if income mobility has increased. However, the evidence for rising mobility is equivocal, and its extent is not enough to offset the growth of cross-sectional inequality. There is a case for greater concern for, and different policies towards, those persistently or recurrently poor than those only temporarily poor, but the data analysed here suggest that the bulk of low income observations come from the first two categories. Analysis of income mobility may help understand why people's incomes follow different trajectories and how policy might affect this.