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The widespread closing of youth clubs during the 2010s, driven by government austerity measures, led to falling educational performance and increasing rates of youth offending. The long-term financial implications – through reduced lifetime earnings and higher crime-related costs – are also stark.

Kenya’s government faces the challenge of meeting its debt obligations, while avoiding further unrest. President William Ruto must find ways to raise money, manage the economic recovery from Covid-19 and respond to the threat of climate change.

Aviation is a truly global industry, with airlines competing at home and abroad on price and quality, but also subject to a complicated mixture of domestic and international regulations. A country’s airports constitute a big part of the economy, contributing to trade, tourism, education and more.

Competition creates an opportunity for new ideas to enter the economy, allows more dynamic entrants to displace inefficient incumbents and offers incentives for firms to keep innovating. A new Competition and Markets Authority report examines how competition in the UK has changed in recent decades.

Over the last two decades, the proportion of national income going to employees and the self-employed – the labour share – has declined in many advanced economies. This has not happened in the UK, which might seem like good news for workers, but it conceals slow wage growth and rising inequality.

Restoring economic growth after a long period of stagnation is a key part of the solution for the UK’s many social challenges, including struggling schools, poor health and rising child poverty. The government’s coming choices on taxes, public spending and investment will be crucial.

The Labour government will present its first budget in late October. The new chancellor has inherited an economy with at least four big problems: low productivity growth; stagnant living standards; persistent regional inequality; and a fiscal framework that is stifling much-needed public investment.

The global financial crisis of 2007-09 had a huge impact on Ireland, with soaring unemployment and a big rise in public debt as the government bailed out the country’s banks. But the Irish economy has bounced back strongly since 2012, primarily due to globalisation and foreign direct investment.

Autonomous vehicles could change our urban spaces and transport systems by altering commuting patterns, improving safety and decreasing congestion and emissions. Rapid advancements in artificial intelligence have the potential to accelerate these trends.

Policy-makers, the media and the public tend to assume that winning medals at the Olympic Games promotes grassroots sporting activity, bringing health and wellbeing benefits for the whole population. Research evidence suggests that there is no such effect.

The outcome of the UK general election did not come as a surprise. Labour’s win seems to have already been ‘priced in’ to bond and stock markets, which means there has been little reaction on either. The same cannot be said for recent parliamentary elections elsewhere in Europe.

Every year, large sums of money are paid to the leaders of the UK’s biggest companies. Some commentators describe these pay packages as being exorbitant, while others believe that today’s levels of executive remuneration are fit-for-purpose or should be even higher.

Northern Ireland has poorer productivity than the other two devolved nations. At a recent event in Belfast, researchers, politicians and policy officials discussed the roles of skills, training, childcare and apprenticeships in boosting the nation’s economic performance.

Kenya’s government faces the challenge of meeting its debt obligations, while avoiding further unrest. President William Ruto must find ways to raise money, manage the economic recovery from Covid-19 and respond to the threat of climate change.

Caps on the numbers of visitors allowed at certain destinations aim to relieve pressure on hotspots of overtourism. Their introduction presents an opportunity for other places to attract more tourists and students, boost their economies and promote a more sustainable and equitable tourism industry.

Faced with the threat of climate change and other environmental damage, some say that the solution is a reversal of our collective commitment to continued economic growth. But the idea of degrowth has a range of definitions – and reviews of research on the topic reach contrasting conclusions.

Institutions that have been in place for centuries and cutting-edge new technologies both have big effects on society. Daron Acemoglu, co-recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, talks to Graeme Roy about how we can harness institutions and technologies for the common good.

Successive UK governments have struggled to promote economic growth in the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2007-09. In an interview conducted in late 2023, former business secretary Vince Cable talks to John Turner about some of the persistent challenges for policy-makers.

Buying tickets for big music events like the Oasis reunion or Taylor Swift’s Eras tour is a hassle. That’s because fixed supply and fixed price are incompatible. Improvements to the system could be made – perhaps by using a ballot or flexible pricing, as airlines do – but nothing is perfect.

Conserving the Congo Basin is essential for preserving biodiversity and averting climate catastrophe. But safeguarding this precious ecosystem has to be balanced with the needs of some of the world’s poorest people. Managing the environmental and economic interconnections is a global challenge.

Policy-makers, the media and the public tend to assume that winning medals at the Olympic Games promotes grassroots sporting activity, bringing health and wellbeing benefits for the whole population. Research evidence suggests that there is no such effect.

The outcome of the UK general election did not come as a surprise. Labour’s win seems to have already been ‘priced in’ to bond and stock markets, which means there has been little reaction on either. The same cannot be said for recent parliamentary elections elsewhere in Europe.

A long-run perspective confirms that the generally low quality of UK management helps to explain the poor performance of companies and the wider economy. Improvement could come from better dissemination of modern management practices, alongside high-quality training and development programmes.