Formation | 1938 |
---|---|
Type | Research institution |
Headquarters | 2 Dean Trench St, Westminster, London SW1P 3HE |
Location | |
Director | Professor Jagjit Chadha OBE |
Website | www.niesr.ac.uk/ |
The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), established in 1938, [1] is Britain's oldest independent economic research institute. The institute is a London-based [2] [3] independent UK registered charity that carries out academic research of relevance to business and policy makers, [4] both nationally and internationally.
The institute receives no core funding from government or other sources. The bulk of funding comes from research projects awarded or commissioned by a variety of sources, including government, all acknowledged in full in their published materials. The terms of their grants prohibit any involvement from funding bodies in determining or influencing content. Funders include government departments and agencies, the research councils (particularly the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)), charitable foundations, the European Commission, and the private sector.
The institute is a partner with the ESRC's Centre for Macroeconomics and The Productivity Institute, and is responsible for the Productivity Commission. [5] It also has close ties with both Cardiff and Glasgow universities.
The NIESR was established in 1938 with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Pilgrim Trust, the Leverhulme Trust and the Halley Stewart Trust. [1] The vision of its founders was to carry out research to improve understanding of the economic and social forces that affect people's lives, and the ways in which policy can bring about change. [6]
Professor Noel Hall was the first director of the institute, before its official existence in 1938, from 1937 until 1940. Geoffrey Crowther then became "acting" director from 1940 but was called upon for war service in June of that year. From June 1940 to 1949, Sir Henry Clay [7] carried out the duties of director and chair of council. [1]
There have been chairs of council since the institute was created. The first was Lord Stamp, [11] from 1937 to 1942. He was succeeded by Sir Henry Clay, who held the position from 1942 until 1949. Subsequent chairs included Humphrey Mynors, Sir Austin Robinson, [12] Sir John Woods, Sir Robert Hall, [13] Sir Hugh Week, Sir Donald MacDougall, [14] and Sir Kenneth Berrill. [1] Diane Coyle became the first woman to hold the position in the history of the institute, [15] taking over the position from Sir Tim Besley. Since November 2018, Professor Nicholas Crafts CBE has held the position.
Lord Burns was president from 2003 to 2010, followed by Sir Nicholas Monck from 2011 to 2013, and subsequently Sir Charles Bean. The current president is Sir Paul Tucker.
The Institute has nearly 150 Governors, who have a role in the accountability and governance of NIESR as a registered charity. They are drawn from academia, business, government and media, and include Ed Conway, Baron Terence Higgins, Rachel Lomax, Jesse Norman, Frances O'Grady, and Baroness Shriti Vadera. Governors also give monthly talks at the Institute, which are open to the public.
Research areas covered by the National Institute include Destitution, Exclusion, and Strategies for Well-Being; [16] Education and Skills; [17] Labour, Employment and Wages; [18] Macro-Economic Modelling and Forecasting; [19] Macro-Economics of Climate Change; [20] Monetary Theory and Policy; [21] Political Economy; [22] and Productivity, Trade, and Regional Economies. [23]
Since 1959, the NIESR has published the National Institute Economic Review . [24] Principal topics covered by the Review include economic modelling and analysis, education and training, productivity and competitiveness, and workings of the international economy. Each edition Includes detailed forecasts of both UK and World Economies, a commentary, and special articles by Institute researchers and external authors. Since 2021, the UK [25] and Global [26] Economic Outlook have been published in-house.
Since 2021, the Institute has published its outlooks for the UK and Global economy online, with a limited print run in-house. Each is published quarterly following a Spring/Summer/Autumn/Winter pattern. The UK Outlook is free to view and download, whereas the Global publication requires a subscription.
Each month NIESR tracks a series of key economic indicators, including Consumer Price Inflation (CPI), Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Wages, and uses this data to forecast the future of the UK economy. In addition, each quarter they publish a Term Premium Tracker and have, from February 2021 until February 2022, tracked UK Covid-19 infection rates.
Each year NIESR hold a regular series of events, [27] including annual lectures to celebrate the work of Sig Prais, Christopher Dow, Phyllis Deane, and Richard Stone. In partnership with The Anglo-German Foundation, NIESR hosts a biennial lecture on public policy. A quarterly Business Conditions Forum brings together business leaders under Chatham House rules to discuss the latest topics driving the economy.
An important output of NIESR has been a macroeconomic model called NiGEM (National Institute's Global Econometric Model) [28] which is used to produce quarterly forecasts for the UK and global economy (published in the National Institute Economic Review ). Forecasts are also published for various other OECD countries. The model is used by the UK Treasury, IMF, Bank of England, the OECD and European Central Bank. [28] [29] [30]
NIESR also produces a regional economic model, called NiREMS (National Institute Regional Economic Modelling System [31] ), which combines data from NiGEM and LINDA to create economic projections for the 12 Government Regions of the UK. LINDA (Lifetime Income Distributional Analysis [32] ) is a microsimulation model, which simulates individual level data over periods of time, accounting for diverse socio-economic parameters.
The Copley Medal is the most prestigious award of the Royal Society, conferred "for sustained, outstanding achievements in any field of science". It alternates between the physical sciences or mathematics and the biological sciences. Given annually, the medal is the oldest Royal Society medal awarded and the oldest surviving scientific award in the world, having first been given in 1731 to Stephen Gray, for "his new Electrical Experiments: – as an encouragement to him for the readiness he has always shown in obliging the Society with his discoveries and improvements in this part of Natural Knowledge". The medal is made of silver-gilt and awarded with a £25,000 prize.
The Keeper or Master of the Rolls and Records of the Chancery of England, known as the Master of the Rolls, is the President of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales and Head of Civil Justice. As a judge, the Master of the Rolls is second in seniority in England and Wales only to the Lord Chief Justice. The position dates from at least 1286, although it is believed that the office probably existed earlier than that.
Dollar Academy, founded in 1818 by slave trader John McNabb, is a private co-educational day and boarding school in Scotland. The open campus occupies a 70-acre (28 ha) site in the centre of Dollar, Clackmannanshire, at the foot of the Ochil Hills.
The Buchanan Medal is awarded by the Royal Society "in recognition of distinguished contribution to the medical sciences generally". The award was created in 1897 from a fund to the memory of London physician Sir George Buchanan (1831–1895). It was to be awarded once every five years, but since 1990 the medal has been awarded every two years.
The British Poet Laureate is an honorary position appointed by the monarch of the United Kingdom, currently on the advice of the prime minister. The role does not entail any specific duties, but there is an expectation that the holder will write verse for significant national occasions. The origins of the laureateship date back to 1616 when a pension was provided to Ben Jonson, but the first official holder of the position was John Dryden, appointed in 1668 by Charles II. On the death of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who held the post between November 1850 and October 1892, there was a break of four years as a mark of respect; Tennyson's laureate poems "Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington" and "The Charge of the Light Brigade" were particularly cherished by the Victorian public. Three poets, Thomas Gray, Samuel Rogers and Walter Scott, turned down the laureateship. Historically appointed for an unfixed term and typically held for life, since 1999 the position has been for a term of ten years. The holder of the position as at 2024 is Simon Armitage who succeeded Carol Ann Duffy in May 2019 after 10 years in office.
The Lieutenant of the Tower of London serves directly under the Constable of the Tower. The office has been appointed at least since the 13th century. There were formerly many privileges, immunities and perquisites attached to the office. Like the Constable, the Lieutenant was usually appointed by letters patent, either for life or during the King's pleasure.
Justice of the Common Pleas was a puisne judicial position within the Court of Common Pleas of England and Wales, under the Chief Justice. The Common Pleas was the primary court of common law within England and Wales, dealing with "common" pleas. It was created out of the common law jurisdiction of the Exchequer of Pleas, with splits forming during the 1190s and the division becoming formal by the beginning of the 13th century. The court became a key part of the Westminster courts, along with the Exchequer of Pleas and the Court of King's Bench, but with the Writ of Quominus and the Statute of Westminster, both tried to extend their jurisdiction into the realm of common pleas. As a result, the courts jockeyed for power. In 1828 Henry Brougham, a Member of Parliament, complained in Parliament that as long as there were three courts unevenness was inevitable, saying that "It is not in the power of the courts, even if all were monopolies and other restrictions done away, to distribute business equally, as long as suitors are left free to choose their own tribunal", and that there would always be a favourite court, which would therefore attract the best lawyers and judges and entrench its position. The outcome was the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1873, under which all the central courts were made part of a single Supreme Court of Judicature. Eventually the government created a High Court of Justice under Lord Coleridge by an Order in Council of 16 December 1880. At this point, the Common Pleas formally ceased to exist.
English county histories, in other words historical and topographical works concerned with individual ancient counties of England, were produced by antiquarians from the late 16th century onwards. The content was variable: most focused on recording the ownership of estates and the descent of lordships of manors, thus the genealogies of county families, heraldry and other antiquarian material. In the introduction to one typical early work of this style, The Antiquities of Warwickshire published in 1656, the author William Dugdale writes:
I offer unto you my noble countriemen, as the most proper persons to whom it can be presented wherein you will see very much of your worthy ancestors, to whose memory I have erected it as a monumentall pillar and to shew in what honour they lived in those flourishing ages past. In this kind, or not much different, have divers persons in forrein parts very learnedly written; some whereof I have noted in my preface: and I could wish that there were more that would adventure in the like manner for the rest of the counties of this nation, considering how acceptable those are, which others have already performed
Eastman's Royal Naval Academy, originally in Southsea and later at Winchester, both in England, was a preparatory school. Between 1855 and 1923 it was known primarily as a school that prepared boys for entry to the Royal Navy. Thereafter, it was renamed Eastman's Preparatory School and continued until the 1940s. According to Jonathan Betts, it was "considered one of the top schools for boys intended for the Navy".
The Monthly Mirror was an English literary periodical, published from 1795 to 1811, founded by Thomas Bellamy, and later jointly owned by Thomas Hill and John Litchfield. It was published by Vernor & Hood from the second half of 1798.
The Phytologist was a British botanical journal, appearing first as Phytologist: a popular botanical miscellany. It was founded in 1841 as a monthly, edited by George Luxford. Luxford died in 1854, and the title was taken over by Alexander Irvine and William Pamplin, who ran it to 1863 with subtitle "a botanical journal".