Question 3: Should a windfall tax be used to (fully or partially) finance support to households?
Answer:
Yes
Confidence level:
Extremely confident
Comment:
I can see no economic reason to allow energy producers to keep the gains from unusually high energy prices when their costs have not changed, and when you do not want to give them further incentives to extract more carbon because of man-made climate change.
Question 2: Which of the following is the best way to address the impact of rising energy costs on household finances?
Answer:
Conditional/targeted transfers
Confidence level:
Very confident
Comment:
Transfers should be based on both income levels and (previous) energy use. This preserves strong incentives to reduce energy use, and gets money to those who most need it.
Question 1: Overall, which of the following best characterises how the government’s proposed energy policies will leave the average UK household over the medium term:
Answer:
Better off
Confidence level:
Confident
Comment:
I expect these policies will be temporary, and funded by raising debt to a new higher level, with no policies in the medium term to reduce that higher debt to GDP level. Current households will be better off, and either future generations will be slightly worse off (if r>g) or higher debt/GDP will gradually decline (r<g).
Question 2: Which policies could best help reduce regional productivity disparities?
Answer:
Devolution of fiscal and administrative power
Confidence level:
Confident
Comment:
A major obstacle to improving productivity and prosperity outside London is H.M.Treasury, which has been very reluctant to fund major infrastructure projects outside the capital, and even more reluctant to allow any devolution of fiscal powers. While that continues, not much will change.
Question 1: What is the primary factor driving regional productivity disparities in the UK?
Answer:
Transportation and connectivity
Confidence level:
Confident
Comment:
There is no 'primary factor': all are important and quantifying which is the most important is hard. However the lack of connectivity of anywhere in the UK besides London is a problem we can do something about, and it would make a big difference to the UK's cities and the areas around them. A good example of this is the bus network, which works well in London but is failing elsewhere.
The CFM surveys informs the public about the views held by prominent economists based in Europe on important macroeconomic and public policy questions. Some surveys focus specifically on the UK economy (as the CFM is a UK research centre), but surveys can in principle focus on any macroeconomic question for any region. The surveys shed light on the extent to which there is agreement or disagreement among these experts. An important motivation for the survey is to give a more comprehensive overview of the beliefs held by economists and in particular to include the views of those economists whose opinions are not frequently heard in public debates.
Questions mainly focus on macroeconomic and public policy topics. Although there are some questions that focus specifically on the UK economy, the setup of the survey is much broader and considers questions related to other countries/regions and also considers questions not tied to a specific economy.
The surveys are done in collaboration with the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR).
Assisting Households Facing Rising Energy Costs
Question 3: Should a windfall tax be used to (fully or partially) finance support to households?
Question 2: Which of the following is the best way to address the impact of rising energy costs on household finances?
Question 1: Overall, which of the following best characterises how the government’s proposed energy policies will leave the average UK household over the medium term:
Levelling Up Productivity Gaps in the UK
Question 2: Which policies could best help reduce regional productivity disparities?
Question 1: What is the primary factor driving regional productivity disparities in the UK?
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