By Rainer Kattel, Wolfgang Drechsler and Erkki Karo What would a world without quantum mechanics look like? There would be no computers, no iPads, no mobile phones and certainly no satellites. Most 20th and 21st century electronics and, obviously, all the content that runs on them, from space communication to…

By Iacopo Gronchi Between January and April 2022, the World Bank’s energy price index rose by 26.3%. In Europe and the US this affected low-income households the most, and in Asia it culminated in the occupation of Sri Lanka’s presidential palace. These images may be reminiscent of the 1970s oil…

By David Eaves, Heidi Uchiyama and Rosemary Evans From 12–14 October 2022, digital consultancy Public Digital and UCL’s Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) co-hosted the 5th annual Digital Services Convening which was attended by experts in digital from around the world. Since its inception, the Digital Services Convening…

By Josh Ryan-Collins and Ilan Strauss The five major Big Tech firms are all U.S. companies. However, their reach and impact is global. Not only do they earn the majority of their revenues from abroad but their business models establish a competitive norm which European start-ups and tech companies must…

By Josh Ryan-Collins The new Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng today announced an extraordinary ‘mini-budget’ involving the biggest set of tax cuts in half a century alongside a raft of deregulation plans that he claims are part of a ‘new era focused on growth’. In reality, this is a return to a…

By Craig Berry Most economists would say that innovation happens when people (more precisely, firms) identify an opportunity to increase market share, and therefore profits, by providing a better product, or producing the same products more efficiently (or a bit of both). But plenty of people and firms make money…

By Josh Ryan-Collins The Bank of England yesterday forecast the longest recession since the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, lasting through the whole of 2023. This will involve unemployment rising from 3.8% to 5.5% and record falls in living standards, accompanied by double digit inflation for most of the period…

By Laurie Macfarlane This blog is a follow up to the event ‘Public Value of Art: Connecting value creation and culture’. The event is part of IIPP’s ‘Walking the talk: Getting serious about the UN Sustainable Development Goals’ series. The recording of the event will be published soon. The…

By Craig Berry Before she was eliminated from the race, Kemi Badenoch produced one of the few substantive policy ideas — beyond the clamour to cut taxes — to emerge from the Conservative Party leadership contest. In short, Badenoch proposed breaking up Her Majesty’s Treasury. The Treasury has long doubled-up…