Resolution Foundation Podcast

Trading places: What does Brexit mean for the UK’s economic strategy?

The UK’s political and policy debate on trade has become preoccupied with the nuts and bolts of individual trade deals – some real, some imaginary. Meanwhile bigger questions about the future path of the UK economy post-Brexit are ignored. Trade shapes our economic strengths and weaknesses, the jobs we do, and where we do them. More focus is needed on how trade fits into the UK’s wider economic plan – and how that in turn fits into a changing world economy.
What does wanting to be an open economy mean after Britain’s divorce from its biggest trading partner? Amid the immediate, direct effects of Brexit, can we see signs of the longer-lasting changes it might bring? How should a trade strategy align with other aspects of a new economic agenda, from ‘levelling up’ to the Prime Minister’s wish to move away from a low wage, low productivity labour market? And where does Britain fit in a new world order dominated by the EU, the US and China?
The Resolution Foundation is hosting an in-person and interactive webinar – as part of The Economy 2030 Inquiry, funded by the Nuffield Foundation – to debate and answer these questions. Following a presentation of the key highlights from new Resolution Foundation research on the role of trade in shaping a decade of economic change for Britain in the 2020s, we will hear from two leading experts on how we should approach this challenge.
Read the report here: https://economy2030.resolutionfoundation.org/reports/trading-places/ 

Pastures new: Is lower migration the route to a new, higher wage, British economy?

Lower migration was always going to be a consequence of the vote to leave the European Union and Covid-19 has accelerated that change. The short term results include empty petrol stations and supermarkets’ warning of a Turkey-less Christmas. But wages are also rising fast for HGV drivers and the Prime Minister now insists that weaning British business off its addiction to cheap foreign labour is the key to creating a new high-skill, high-productivity, high-pay model for the UK economy.
To what extent will lower migration feed through into higher wages or higher prices? Will productivity rise or output fall? Which people, firms and places will be most affected? How big a role does migration play in shaping the UK’s economic model and will lower migration complement or harm the UK’s wider economy strategy for the 2020s?
The Resolution Foundation is hosting an in-person and interactive webinar – as part of The Economy 2030 Inquiry, funded by the Nuffield Foundation – to debate and answer these questions. We will hear from leading experts on how Britain should approach this shift towards a lower migration labour market, and how it fits in with the wider change to Britain’s economic model. A companion event on the role of post-Brexit trade for the UK economy is being held the following day on Thursday 14th October.
Find the event slides on our website: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/pastures-new/ 

The carbon crunch? Delivering the next phase of the Net Zero transition

Over the course of the 2020s, the UK will embark on the crucial next phase of the transition toward a Net Zero economy. This will touch our lives and livelihoods like never before, as we decarbonise how we travel and heat our homes. And with COP 26 starting in Glasgow in little over a months’ time, the UK will need to demonstrate global leadership by facing up to the challenges ahead.
How should Net Zero be put at the heart of Britain’s post-pandemic economic plan? What are the barriers to making progress on decarbonisation? And how can we ensure that the costs and benefits of the Net Zero transition are distributed fairly across people and places throughout the country?
The Resolution Foundation is hosting an in-person and interactive webinar – as part of The Economy 2030 Inquiry, funded by the Nuffield Foundation – to debate and answer these questions. Following a presentation of the key highlights from new Resolution Foundation research on the choices and trade-offs around Net Zero, we will hear from two leading experts on where the UK should be heading.
Read the report here: https://economy2030.resolutionfoundation.org/reports/the-carbon-crunch/ 

Good job? How our experience of work has changed over the past 30 years

The world of work has changed substantially over the past 30 years – from what job we do, to how we do it and what we get paid. These things matter for our job satisfaction – indeed our life satisfaction, via the esteem we get from work, to the stress or success it can bring. For many people, jobs are such a large part of our lives that changes to them can shape our well-being – for good, and for bad.
What have been the big picture shifts in our experience of work over recent decades, and how does this differ by pay, occupation and gender? Is the commonly-held view that the quality of work has deteriorated wide of the mark? How do we feel about economic change when it affects the job we do? And what can policy makers do to improve our experience of work in the future?
The Resolution Foundation is hosting an in-person and interactive webinar – as part of The Economy 2030 Inquiry, funded by the Nuffield Foundation – to debate and answer these questions. Following a presentation of the key highlights from new research on people’s experience of work, we will hear from two leading experts on what they think has driven these past shifts, and where we could be heading in the future.
Read the report here: https://economy2030.resolutionfoundation.org/reports/work-experiences/ 

From boom to bust and back again: 200 years of economic change across Britain

Book launch for ‘Two hundred years of muddling through’ by Duncan Weldon
The UK is facing a decisive decade of change, responding to the triple shocks of Brexit, Covid-19 and the transition to Net Zero. But this is not the first time Britain has faced such a radical upheaval. From industrial revolutions and the rise and fall of the British empire, to world wars, the great depression and the creation of the welfare state, Britain has weathered many economic storms and resets over the past two centuries.
How has Britain managed previous periods of economic change? On each occasion, how much has our economic future been shaped by our economic past? And what can today’s policy makers learn from our history as they navigate the decade of economic change to come?
As part of The Economy 2030 Inquiry, the Resolution Foundation is hosting a book launch for Two Hundred Years of Muddling Through: The Surprising Story of the British Economy by Duncan Weldon. We will be joined by Judy Stephenson, Associate Professor at UCL, to discuss the themes of the book, and the wider questions about Britain’s experience of economic change in the past, present and future.
Watch the event back here: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/from-boom-to-bust-and-back-again/ 

A decisive decade for British business: In conversation with Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng

Having suffered the biggest economic contraction in 300 years, the UK economy is back on the road to recovery. But the Covid recovery is just one of many huge economic shifts confronting British businesses over the next decade as the country embarks on a new future outside the EU, faces an urgent transition towards a low-carbon economy, and grapples with rapid technological and population changes.
What will be the state of British firms as they emerge from the pandemic? How can Government strengthen the Covid recovery and deliver on ambitious net zero targets? Where will new found freedoms over regulation, competition policy and subsidies see new policy approaches? And what does the Levelling Up agenda mean for firms and workers?
As part of The Economy 2030 Inquiry, the Resolution Foundation is hosting an ‘In conversation with’ event with Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng to debate and discuss these questions.
Watch the event recording here: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/a-decisive-decade-for-british-business/ 

The UK’s decisive decade: Launch of The Economy 2030 Inquiry

The UK is on the brink of a decade of change. In the 2020s, the country will need to not just recover from Covid-19, but also emerge from the EU, urgently transition towards a Net Zero future, and adapt to transformative technology. Instead of simply being the post-pandemic period, this is the decisive decade in which the UK needs to rebuild its approach to economic success. While these shifts will profoundly affect all of our lives and livelihoods, the UK currently lacks a plan for navigating them.
What will be the nature of the change to come? How can its fall-out be managed, including supporting the losers that change creates? How can the UK reshape its path to economic success in this fundamentally changed context? And where can these changes help us to overcome the UK’s long standing problems of low productivity and high inequality?
In order to explore and answer the challenge of navigating a decade that will redefine Britain, the Resolution Foundation, in collaboration with the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics, is launching a ground-breaking new three-year project, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, The Economy 2030 Inquiry. This matters for far more than economics. Slow growth, high inequality, and badly-handled economic disruption undermine the wellbeing of individuals and their communities, foment social divisions and breed political problems.
The Resolution Foundation is hosting an interactive webinar to launch the Economy 2030 Inquiry. During the event, several of the Inquiry’s Commissioners – including Baroness Minouche Shafik and leading economist Dani Rodrik – will discuss the economic change that the UK is about to live through, and what we can learn from our own history and the experiences of other countries.
Read the launch report here: https://economy2030.resolutionfoundation.org/reports/the-uks-decisive-decade/