Latest News

CASE/new economics foundation special event
ABOUT TIME Examining the case for a shorter working week Public Lecture at the LSE

Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building, Lincoln's Inn Fields London WC2A 2AE
11 January 2012, 6.00-7.30 pm

As the economic crisis deepens, it is timely to consider the arguments for moving towards much shorter, more flexible paid working hours – sharing out jobs and unpaid time more fairly across the population. Following the new economics foundation’s highly-acclaimed report 21 Hours: Why a shorter working week can help us all to flourish in the 21st century, CASE and nef are bringing leading experts together to examine the social, environmental and economic implications. They will consider how far a shorter working week can help to address a range of urgent social, economic and environmental problems: unemployment, over-consumption, high carbon emissions, low well-being and entrenched inequalities. The event features:

• Juliet Schor, Professor of Sociology at Boston College, and author of Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth, and The Overworked American;
• Lord Robert Skidelsky, Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick and biographer of J. M. Keynes, with Dr Edward Skidelsky, University of Exeter, and co-authors the forthcomingbook, How Much is Enough? Economics and the Good Life.
• Tim Jackson, Professor of Sustainable Development at Surrey University, and author of Prosperity without Growth.

Save the date! This is a public lecture,  with places available to all on a first-come-first-served basis.  Please arrive early to guarantee your place.  Join us afterwards for a drinks reception at 7.30 pm.  

Any enquiries please email: c.j.conner@lse.ac.uk.

LSE Housing Special Event
Families and young people in troubled neighbourhoods

Date: Thursday 1 December 2011
Time: 6.30-8pm
Venue: LSE campus, venue to be announced to ticketholders
Speakers: Iain Duncan Smith, Professor Jane Waldfogel, Professor Anne Power
Chair: Professor John Hills

The Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion tracked 200 families bringing up children in deprived neighbourhoods over ten years. The families told us a lot about their biggest worries and greatest needs. Streets and parks are unsafe; local facilities cost too much; energetic teenagers are not allowed to go further afield for fear of trouble so they often hang out on local streets. The thing families wanted most was for more for young people to do. Joblessness among low-skilled young people is extremely high in East London and other poor areas. Employers lose confidence and look for more highly qualified, more experienced and more privileged recruits, creating a vicious cycle for young people from troubled neighbourhoods. Families strive hard for their children, but young people need support. The riots this summer showed how fragile society’s hold is on community resilience, and how many parents fail to control or contain their young people. Most people brought to trial after the riots came from highly disadvantaged and fragmented urban communities.

Iain Duncan Smith, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, will talk about the importance of families to society; and explain how we can create better futures for our most disadvantaged children. Education, Sure Start for all ages, crime prevention, job training, outdoor space and youth activities all build community resilience.

Professor Jane Waldfogel from Columbia University, a specialist in family and child poverty; and Professor Anne Power, author of Family Futures, and Head of LSE Housing and Communities will respond.

For a transcript of Iain Duncan Smith's speech, please click here, and for a podcast of the event, please follow this link.

See photos from the event here.

Recent Publication: The Lesser Evil: Executive Accountability with Partisan Supporters
Gerard Padro i Miguel

Abstract
We develop a model of electoral accountability with primaries. Prior to the general election, the supporters of each of two parties decide which candidates to nominate. We show that supporters suffer from a fundamental tension: while they want politicians who will faithfully implement the party's agenda in office, they need politicians who can win elections. Accountability to supporters fails when supporters fear that by punishing or rewarding their incumbent for her loyalty or lack thereof, they unintendedly increase the electoral prospects of the opposing party. Therefore, accountability decreases with the importance that supporters assign to the elections, and it breaks down in two cases. First, a popular incumbent safely defects as she knows she will be re-nominated. Second, an unpopular incumbent defects because she knows she will be dismissed even if she follows the party line. These behaviors are labeled impunity and damnation respectively, and are illustrated with case studies.

"The Lesser Evil: Executive Accountability with Partisan Supporters" (with Erik Snowberg), forthcoming in Journal of Theoretical Politics.

LSE Housing special event
Cutting Carbon Costs: our big energy battle

Location: London School of Economics

Date: Tuesday 8th November 2011

Time: 9.30am to 4.30pm

Outline:
Our desire for comfort and our drive for economic growth make it increasingly difficult to meet our energy demand without irreversibly damaging our environment.  EU nations (in particular Germany, Scandinavia and Austria) have leapt far ahead of us in renewable energy.  Everyone agrees that without massive energy saving, renewables will not work.  This conference will present path breaking evidence on how to cut energy use in half and make renewables our biggest source of energy, looking at the complex technical problems of saving carbon, particularly in low income neighbourhoods. A full programme is available here

Presentations

Session 1: Cutting Carbon Costs is not as easy as it sounds

• Anne Power, London School of Economics: Cutting Carbon Costs - learning from Europe here
• Paul Ekins, UCL: How Germany’s Green Investment Bank opens the door to change: KfW’s revolving reinvestment fund here
• Christian Stolte, DENA: Germany's ambitious energy saving targets – how are they delivered? here

Session 2: How energy saving works?

• Paul Ciniglio, Radian: Housing associations lead the field here
• David Adams, Willmott Dixon: Private building companies seize the chance here
• Russell Smith, Parity Projects: Closing the skills gap here

Session 3: How can we win the energy battle?  Who pays? Who delivers?

• Dimitri Zenghelis, LSE and Cisco: Attracting green investment / underpinning green innovation here
• Paul King, UK Green Building Council: Zero Carbon Britain - no slides

Session 4:  Keynote speech – The Dangers of ‘Wait and See’ – the urgency of climate change

• Professor Nicholas Stern (Lord Stern of Brentford), Chair of the Grantham Research Institute - transcript here

Session 5: Achieving the UK’s ambitious targets

• Phil Wynn Owen, DECC: Making the Green Deal work here
• Jon Bright, DCLG: Why homes and communities drive the big energy picture here
• John Hills, LSE: Fuel poverty: The problem and why it matters for climate change policy here

Key questions:

• Can renewable energy do enough quickly enough?  What are the barriers? 
• How can we combat fuel poverty?
• Will the new ‘Green Deal’ work? 
• Will energy companies really help?
• Who will foot the bill?
• Why does retrofitting have a bad name? 
• Why are renewables more fashionable than insulation?
• Is there such a thing as ‘magic wallpaper’?
• Can poor communities gain?

Leading speakers:

• Professor Nicholas Stern (Lord Stern of Brentford), Chair of the Grantham Research Institute
• Professor John Hills, Director of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion & leading an independent review of fuel poverty measurement for DECC.
• Mr Christian Stolte, Head of the Energy-Efficient Buildings Division, German Energy Agency (DENA)
• Jon Bright, Director, Homelessness & Support, Building Standards & Climate Change, DCLG
• Phil Wynn Owen, Director General, National Climate Change & Consumer Support

Who should attend?

Local government officers Housing associations Planners Industry consultants and service suppliers Engineers Environmental organisations

Transport groups Trade associations Financial institutions Renewable and other energy companies Community groups trying to tackle the problems of carbon use at a local level

 

For more information please contact: Nicola Serle tel: 020 7955 6684, email: n.serle@lse.ac.uk
To book online please go to www.eshop.lse.ac.uk or download the booking form