Question 3: Should a windfall tax be used to (fully or partially) finance support to households?
Answer:
No
Confidence level:
Confident
Comment:
Although windfall taxes are economically efficient, if energy companies expect their profits to be subject to a windfall tax whenever prices rise, they will be disincentivised from investing. And this is particularly important as we want them to be leading investment into the green technologies that will help the UK move towards net zero.
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:
There are two issues here. We should let the price mechanism work to determine overall demand for energy, which is why I would not support a cap. And we should deal with the issue of the poorest households being hit particularly badly via redistribution.
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:
Worse off
Confidence level:
Very confident
Comment:
They will be better off relative to the counterfactual of 'no support'. But energy prices are still rising and this means the average household will be worse off.
Question 2: Which policies could best help reduce regional productivity disparities?
Answer:
Devolution of fiscal and administrative power
Confidence level:
Confident
Question 1: What is the primary factor driving regional productivity disparities in the UK?
Answer:
Agglomeration Effects
Confidence level:
Confident
About the CFM Surveys
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?