Trade has been a key driver in the growth in prosperity over the last few decades. By opening markets up to new suppliers and forcing firms to innovate in order to remain competitive, it leads to improvements in the quality, cost and range of goods and services on offer.
But the nature and context for trade has changed. Spurred on by technological innovation, modern supply chains are international and highly fragmented, and services can be more readily traded. Not everyone has benefited from the shift in traditional trade patterns. The rationale for free trade, and free trade itself, is being challenged.
Navigating this complexity is challenging but we have a long track record of analysing how sectors perform and interact. We analyse trade, competitiveness and sector performance and make sense of the complexity to allow you to make, or influence, better decisions.
Some challenging questions we can help you answer:
- Which sectors are most at risk from a change in the trading relationship between two regions. How would this affect a given sector and the wider economy in each?
- Was financial support for R&D activities in firms successful in boosting innovation and firm performance?
- How does the structure of a sector explain its performance and what is the outlook for its future prospects? How does this compare to the same sector in other countries?
Sectors, Trade & Competitiveness blog posts
In the Bleak Midwinter – UK output and employment outlook
In the Bleak Midwinter – UK output and employment outlook
The latest figures for output and employment confirm how the Coronavirus pandemic and associated lockdowns have taken their toll on the UK economy this year. Senior Adviser Andrew Sentance takes a closer look at the divergent experience of sectors in the UK and what lies ahead fo…
March 2020 Budget preview – battling the fiscal headwinds
March 2020 Budget preview – battling the fiscal headwinds
Senior Adviser, Andrew, writes about the budget.
Napoleon Bonaparte is widely quoted as saying he would rather have lucky generals who win battles than good generals. The “general” in charge of the British economy – Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak – has had a f…
Digital trade in a post-Brexit Britain
Digital trade in a post-Brexit Britain
You can see digital trade everywhere except in the trade statistics.
As the UK embarks on a prolonged period of negotiating post-Brexit trade deals this is a challenge to negotiators and policymakers.
A new report by Cambridge Econometrics for the Department for Internation…
Support for consumer spending is needed to lift UK economy out of recession
Support for consumer spending is needed to lift UK economy out of recession
Andrew Sentance assesses what interventions the UK government could make to limit the economic damage caused by the COVID-19 lockdown and encourage a more rapid recovery.
Last week’s Bank of England Monetary Policy Report made sobering reading in terms of the short-term outl…
Modelling the local economic impacts of the coronavirus
Modelling the local economic impacts of the coronavirus
The COVID-19 pandemic is a health crisis, which is quickly turning into a major economic shock. It affects all sectors of the economy, to varying degrees.
Here Ben Gardiner and Chris Thoung looks at three aspects of the economic impact of COVID-19 from a local …