All posts by: Hector Pollitt

Saving Santa and the North Pole’s economy

Posted by: Hector Pollitt
Publish date: 19th December, 2017 | 4:12pm19/12/2017
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In this light-hearted blogpost our Director, Hector Pollitt wonders how an economist would set about modelling the economy of the North Pole and finds that the challenges are not insurmountable.

But how on earth do you account for ‘magic’?  Is there a currency? What about…

Rise of the robots – and the fall of capitalism?

Posted by: Hector Pollitt
Publish date: 6th December, 2017 | 2:47pm6/12/2017
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Could robots bring about the downfall of capitalism? Will some humans become totally redundant or will workers simply find jobs in other sectors?

Hector Pollitt explains why scenarios currently being assessed at Cambridge Econometrics are pretty pessimistic as far as jobs are …

Reflections on COP23

Posted by: Hector Pollitt
Publish date: 23rd November, 2017 | 4:47pm23/11/2017
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It’s been a week since the Conference of the Parties (COP) in Bonn, so it must be time to start thinking about Christmas (or in my case this year, my wedding!). But before moving on completely it is worth spending some time reflecting on the events of the last few weeks.

COP23…

The gap to 2°C: it’s narrower than most people think

Posted by: Hector Pollitt
Publish date: 1st November, 2017 | 1:38pm1/11/2017
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Cambridge Econometrics’ projections suggest that the carbon emissions gap to 2°C might be 10 GtCO2e in 2030, notably less than projections by other research institutes, including those in the UNEP report published this week.  There is reason to be optimistic.

But …