Prosperity Institute

Last updated

Prosperity Institute
Established2007(19 years ago) (2007)
Type Think tank
Purpose"Promoting policies that lift people from poverty to prosperity"
Headquarters11 Charles Street, London, W1J 5DW
Location
Key people
Dr Radomir Tylecote (Managing director)
Website prosperity.com

The Prosperity Institute, formerly known as the Legatum Institute, is a think tank based in London, founded in 2007. [1] [2] [3] Its stated mission is to promote and protect the principles that produce local and national prosperity. [4]

Contents

The Institute is best known for publishing the annual Legatum Prosperity Index, which measures national prosperity across 167 countries using approximately 300 indicators spanning economic and social wellbeing. [5] It also hosted the Social Metrics Commission, whose methodology for measuring poverty was adopted by the UK Department for Work and Pensions, [6] and founded the Courage in Journalism Award honouring journalists killed for their work. [7]

The Institute is principally funded by the Legatum Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Dubai-based Legatum Group founded by New Zealand businessman Christopher Chandler. [8] The Foundation also supports other charitable initiatives separate from the Institute, including the END Fund (neglected tropical diseases), the Freedom Fund (modern slavery), and the Luminos Fund (education). [9]

The Institute has been influential in UK policy debates, particularly regarding trade policy and Brexit, and its researchers have had regular access to government ministers. [10] It has also faced scrutiny over funding transparency. [11]

History, operations and funding

Founding and structure

The Legatum Institute was founded in 2007, funded by the Dubai-based Legatum Group, owned by businessman and hedge fund manager Christopher Chandler. [12] Chandler and his brother, Richard, built their fortune through a range of investments in the 1990s and 2000s, notably in Russia as well as in Hong Kong property and Japanese banking sectors. [8]

The Institute operates as part of what Legatum describes as "a global community of organisations founded and supported by Legatum Foundation." [13] Other organisations within this network—including the END Fund (combating neglected tropical diseases), the Freedom Fund (addressing modern slavery), the Luminos Fund (education for out-of-school children), and the Legatum Center at MIT—are separate entities also supported by the Foundation, and are not part of the Institute itself. [13]

In 2023, the charitable organisation Legatum Institute Foundation was succeeded by Prosperity Institute Limited, a private company fully funded by Legatum. [14] [15] The Institute rebranded from "Legatum Institute" to "Prosperity Institute" in January 2025. [16]

Funding and transparency

The Institute receives the majority of its funding from the Legatum Foundation. According to Financial Times reporting in 2017, £3.9 million of the Institute's £4.3 million income came from the Foundation, with additional support from over 40 donors. [10] The Institute states that donors may remain anonymous if they wish. [11]

In November 2022, the funding transparency advocacy group Who Funds You? rated the Institute as "E", its lowest transparency rating, noting that donors are not publicly disclosed. [17]

Leadership

The Institute is located in Mayfair and is controlled by four directors, only one of whom resides in the UK. [18]

Philippa Stroud (formerly executive director of the Centre for Social Justice, and a Conservative Party peer in the House of Lords) was appointed CEO of the Legatum Institute in 2016 and left this post in March 2023 to head up the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship. [19] Dr Radomir Tylecote serves as Managing Director as of 2025.

In 2018, Bob Seely, a Conservative MP, used parliamentary privilege to allege that Christopher Chandler had links to Russian intelligence, claiming that he and other MPs had seen intelligence documents suggesting Chandler might be a counterintelligence concern. [20] Chandler and the Institute strongly denied these accusations.

Chandler filed a defamation lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia against Donald Berlin, a private investigator alleged to be the source of the claims. In September 2023, the court ruled the allegations were "a complete fabrication." [21] In October 2024, a federal jury awarded Chandler $8,000,001 in damages—the second-largest defamation verdict in Washington DC history. [22]

Separately, Labour MP Chris Bryant, who had joined in making allegations in 2018, accepted in July 2022 that the allegations were disproved, making a statement in the UK High Court. [23]

Legatum Prosperity Index

The Legatum Prosperity Index is the Institute's flagship annual publication, measuring national prosperity based on both material wealth and social wellbeing factors. First published in 2007, it has expanded from covering 50 countries to 167 countries and territories. [24] [25]

Methodology

The Index is structured around 12 pillars: Safety and Security, Personal Freedom, Governance, Social Capital, Investment Environment, Enterprise Conditions, Market Access and Infrastructure, Economic Quality, Living Conditions, Health, Education, and Natural Environment. [26] These pillars are underpinned by 67 policy-focused elements measured by approximately 300 indicators drawn from sources including the Gallup World Poll, World Development Indicators, Freedom House, and the Worldwide Governance Indicators. [27]

The methodology was developed with input from over 100 external advisors, including academics, researchers, and policy experts from universities and other organisations worldwide. [28] Oxford Analytica assisted in the early development of the Index.

Unlike simpler measures such as the Human Development Index (HDI), which uses four indicators, the Prosperity Index's multidimensional approach aims to capture a broader picture of national wellbeing beyond traditional economic metrics like GDP per capita.

Academic use

The Index has been used as a data source in peer-reviewed academic research. A 2021 study published in Technological Forecasting and Social Change used the Index to analyse pathways to prosperity across 142 countries, finding that education was the most critical driver of prosperity enhancement. [29] The Index is included in the Springer Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research as a reference measure. [30]

Notable findings

The Index consistently ranks Nordic countries among the most prosperous nations. In the 2023 rankings, Denmark topped the list, followed by Sweden, Norway, and Finland. South Sudan ranked last at 167th. [31]

The Institute has noted that approximately three-quarters of the 167 countries tracked experienced declining levels of freedom of expression and access to information over the decade to 2020. [32]

Research and policy work

Trade policy and CPTPP

The Institute has a substantial record of research on trade policy, particularly following the 2016 UK referendum on EU membership. Publications included "A Blueprint for UK Trade Policy" (2017) by economist and trade lawyer Shanker Singham and others, which advocated for the UK to pursue membership of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). [33]

In a 2021 parliamentary debate, Conservative MP Steve Baker credited the Legatum Institute's Special Trade Commission, and specifically its 2017 paper, with originating the idea of UK CPTPP membership, stating it was "greeted with derision at the time." [34] The UK formally applied to join CPTPP in 2021 and acceded in 2023.

Crawford Falconer, a commissioner on Legatum's Special Trade Commission and former New Zealand Ambassador to the World Trade Organization, was appointed as the UK government's Chief Trade Negotiation Adviser in 2017. [35]

Social Metrics Commission

The Institute hosted the Social Metrics Commission, an independent body founded in 2016 to develop new approaches to poverty measurement in the UK. [36] Chaired by Baroness Stroud, the Commission was designed to be cross-party, drawing members from different political backgrounds alongside data experts and representatives of organisations working with people in poverty. [37]

In September 2018, the Commission published "A New Measure of Poverty in the UK", which proposed a methodology accounting for factors previously omitted from poverty statistics, including inescapable costs such as childcare, the impact of disability, access to savings, and groups such as homeless individuals and those in overcrowded housing. [38] The report found that 14.4 million people were living in poverty in 2017, including 4.5 million children. [39]

On 17 May 2019, the Department for Work and Pensions announced it would develop official statistics based on the Commission's methodology. [40] The Work and Pensions Select Committee recommended the approach as the government's "official, central measure of poverty." [41] In January 2024, the DWP published its first "Below Average Resources" statistics based on the Commission's framework, describing it as "Official Statistics in Development." [42]

The Commission's modelling was used by Baroness Stroud and the Legatum Institute in a campaign calling for the Chancellor of the Exchequer to retain the £20 Universal Credit uplift in Autumn 2021. The Institute estimated that 840,000 people would be shielded from poverty if the cut was reversed. [43]

Other policy areas

The Institute has advocated for regulatory reform and lower taxation, including in response to tax policy changes in the United States. [44] It has published critiques of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) frameworks and DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) policies in business and finance. [45]

Through its Sovereignty Unit, established in 2023, the Institute has advocated for national sovereignty relative to multilateral institutions and has criticised European regulatory harmonisation, including in defence policy. [46]

Researchers have published work arguing that high levels of immigration impede social integration, with the Institute's Guy Dampier calling for more restrictive policies such as extending the qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain. [47] [48]

The Institute's UK-US Special Relationship Unit advocates for closer trading relationships and lower tariffs between the UK and United States. [49]

Current programmes

As of 2025, the Institute operates several research and advocacy programmes: [50]

Courage in Journalism Award

The Institute founded the Courage in Journalism Award in 2017 following the murder of Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in October of that year. [51] The award was created to highlight the dangers faced by journalists around the world and to support press freedom. [52]

The award is presented posthumously to journalists whose determination to report on corruption and injustice cost them their lives. The panel of judges has included journalist Christina Lamb OBE among others. [53]

Recipients have included:

Role in Brexit

The think tank became prominent in UK policy debates following the 2016 EU membership referendum. [10] [56] In July 2017, the Institute formed the Special Trade Commission, headed by Shanker Singham, who had supported Remain in the referendum, and including former New Zealand Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organization Crawford Falconer as a commissioner. [56]

The Special Trade Commission's work was characterised by some commentators as pushing for a "hard Brexit", [57] although the Institute stated it took no public position in the lead-up to the EU referendum and that its post-referendum role was to support implementation of the result. [58]

According to the Financial Times , Singham met representatives of the Department for Exiting the European Union six times in the year to August 2017, including the department's permanent secretary. [10] The Times reported that Singham held regular meetings with Brexit Secretary David Davis and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox. [11]

Irish border proposals

In 2017, the Institute published a report examining potential solutions to the Northern Ireland border question, including the use of unmanned aerial vehicles for monitoring, the repurposing of the Special EU Programmes Body, and the creation of a special economic zone—an idea also proposed by the Republic of Ireland's main opposition party at the time. [59] The drone proposal was criticised; the report itself acknowledged challenges including cost and weather limitations. [60]

Charity Commission inquiry

In June 2018 the UK's Charity Commission stated that the Institute's "Brexit Inflection Report" could be seen as seeking to achieve a "particular final outcome", which would constitute political activity inconsistent with charitable status. The Commission requested the report be removed from the Institute's website. [61]

The team responsible for the Brexit-related work, including Singham and Matthew Elliott (who had joined as a senior fellow), departed the Institute in early 2018 to join the Institute of Economic Affairs. [62] In May 2018, the Institute announced it would end its Brexit-related research. [63]

The Charity Commission subsequently issued an apology regarding its handling of the matter. [64] [ better source needed ] The Institute is no longer registered as a charity. [15]

Plan A+ publication

In 2018, while at the Institute of Economic Affairs, Singham and Radomir Tylecote (now Managing Director of the Prosperity Institute) co-authored "Plan A+: Creating a Prosperous Post-Brexit UK." The Daily Telegraph described the publication as having "moved the centre of gravity in the Conservative Party." [65] Boris Johnson quoted from Plan A+ in his first speech as Prime Minister. [66]

Historic programmes

Public attitudes research

In 2015, the Institute commissioned YouGov to investigate public attitudes towards capitalism, which highlighted a nearly universal belief that the biggest corporations in the world had become successful through cheating and at the expense of the environment. [67]

In 2017, the Institute commissioned polling firm Populus to survey British public opinion on economic and social priorities. [68] The findings indicated that respondents' top priorities were: food and water security; emergency services; universal healthcare; housing; employment; and free compulsory education. Lower priorities included car ownership and cheap air travel.

The poll found that the British public favoured public ownership of water, electricity, gas, and railway sectors; believed taxes should rise to fund the NHS; supported higher levels of regulation; favoured caps on CEO pay; supported worker representation at board level; and supported abolishing zero-hour contracts. Respondents also held unfavourable views of "capitalism" as a concept, associating it with greed, selfishness, and corruption. [69]

The Institute published these findings despite their tension with its own free-market advocacy positions. Writing in The Sunday Times , Will Clothier used the poll to reflect that "capitalism has delivered for too few." [70]

Centre for Entrepreneurs

In October 2013, the Institute co-founded the Centre for Entrepreneurs (CFE) in partnership with entrepreneur Luke Johnson. [71] The CFE took ownership of Startup Britain in 2014 and has released research on the role universities should play in entrepreneurship [72] and the benefits of offering entrepreneurship schemes to pre-release prisoners. [73]

Other historic work

At the 2015 Africa Prosperity Summit, the Institute participated as a panellist during the session on "Stoking African Innovation: Ways and Means", which focused on addressing economic and social requirements. [74]

In July 2018, the Institute released a report linking anxiety, self-harm and other mental illness with high social media use among young people, arguing that this is damaging families and young people's relationships with other adults. [75]

Events

The Institute holds regular public events. In 2012, the Dalai Lama spoke at an event called "Ethics for a More Prosperous World." [76] In 2018, the Institute hosted gatherings bringing together thinkers from different perspectives to debate under the Chatham House Rule. [77]

Fellows

The Institute maintains a fellowship programme drawing figures from across the political spectrum and various professional backgrounds. [78]

Current fellows include:

Previous fellows have included Nicholas Crafts, Peter Pomerantsev, Gisela Stuart and Matthew Elliott.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The Legatum Institute Foundation". Companies House. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  2. ↑ "Legatum Institute Foundation". Charity Commission. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  3. ↑ Honey (21 January 2025). "The Legatum Institute renamed The Prosperity Institute as it further advances the principles and ideas that create national prosperity". Prosperity Institute. Retrieved 22 April 2025.
  4. ↑ "Our Mission". Prosperity Institute. Retrieved 22 April 2025.
  5. ↑ "Rankings". Legatum Prosperity Index. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  6. ↑ Giles, Chris (17 May 2019). "Ministers urged to make new poverty measure official". Financial Times. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
  7. ↑ Muscat, Caroline (16 December 2017). "Two months since Daphne's death". The Shift. Retrieved 20 June 2019.
  8. 1 2 O'Murchu, Cynthia (29 January 2017). "Malta grants EU citizenship to Legatum backer". Financial Times. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
  9. ↑ "About Legatum". Legatum Group. Retrieved 26 January 2026.
  10. 1 2 3 4 O'Murchu, Cynthia (4 December 2017). "Legatum: the think-tank at intellectual heart of 'hard' Brexit". Financial Times . Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  11. 1 2 3 Leroux, Marcus (14 October 2017). "Christopher Chandler: billionaire behind Legatum think tank has unrivalled access to Brexit MPs". The Times. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
  12. ↑ "Londoner's Diary: Love's Legatum Lost in battle over Brexit". Evening Standard. 8 December 2016. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  13. 1 2 "About Legatum". Legatum Group. Retrieved 26 January 2026.
  14. ↑ "Our Mission". Prosperity Institute. Retrieved 15 November 2024.
  15. 1 2 "PROSPERITY INSTITUTE LIMITED - Company Overview". Companies House. Retrieved 26 January 2026.
  16. ↑ Honey (21 January 2025). "The Legatum Institute renamed The Prosperity Institute". Prosperity Institute. Retrieved 22 April 2025.
  17. ↑ "Who Funds You? Legatum Institute".
  18. ↑ "Prosperity Institute Limited". gov.UK. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
  19. ↑ Cordell, Jake (12 September 2016). "Conservative peer Baroness Stroud to become chief executive of Legatum Institute". City A.M. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  20. ↑ "Founder of pro-Brexit thinktank has link with Russian intelligence, says MP". The Guardian. 1 May 2018. Retrieved 19 September 2021.
  21. ↑ Barr, Luke (25 October 2024). "Billionaire GB News backer awarded £6m in 'Russian spy' defamation case". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 18 December 2024.
  22. ↑ "Christopher Chandler, Founder of Legatum, Wins Defamation Case and is Awarded $8,000,001 Damages by Jury". PR Newswire. 22 October 2024. Retrieved 26 January 2026.
  23. ↑ Sparrow, Andrew (27 July 2022). "Chris Bryant forced to admit billionaire's money-laundering claims were wrong". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 January 2026.
  24. ↑ Harley-McKeown, Lucy (15 November 2020). "Terrorism, health care holds U.S. down at 18th place in global prosperity index". Newsweek. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  25. ↑ "List of thinktanks in the UK". The Guardian. 30 September 2013. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
  26. ↑ "About the Index". Legatum Prosperity Index. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  27. ↑ "Methodology". Legatum Prosperity Index. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  28. ↑ Springer, Jon (14 November 2014). "Legatum's 2014 Prosperity Index: Asia Positives For Entrepreneurship, Indonesia, Mongolia". Forbes. Archived from the original on 7 September 2018. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  29. ↑ "The pathway to prosperity in a developing country: a focus on the critical factors". Technological Forecasting and Social Change. 173. 2021. doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121169.
  30. ↑ "Legatum Prosperity Index". Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer. 2014.
  31. ↑ "Rankings". Legatum Prosperity Index. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  32. ↑ "Remember the courageous journalists who defy the decline of press freedom". Reaction. 1 May 2019. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
  33. ↑ Honey (5 April 2017). "A Blueprint for UK Trade Policy". Prosperity Institute. Retrieved 25 June 2025.
  34. ↑ "CPTPP". Hansard Parliament UK. 21 April 2021. Retrieved 26 January 2026.
  35. ↑ "Second Permanent Secretary and Chief Trade Negotiation Adviser Crawford Falconer". Gov.uk. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  36. ↑ Giles, Chris (16 September 2018). "New measure of poverty proposed for UK". Financial Times. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
  37. ↑ "Disability Support". Hansard Parliament UK. 19 December 2018. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
  38. ↑ "What is the new UK poverty measure – and why is it needed?". TheGuardian.com . 16 September 2018. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  39. ↑ "New study finds 4.5 million UK children living in poverty". TheGuardian.com . 16 September 2018. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  40. ↑ Giles, Chris (17 May 2019). "Ministers urged to make new poverty measure official". Financial Times. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
  41. ↑ "Social Security". Hansard Parliament UK. 4 March 2019. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
  42. ↑ "Below average resources for financial year 2022 to 2023". Department for Work and Pensions. Retrieved 26 January 2026.
  43. ↑ Bloom, Dan (19 September 2021). "Universal Credit architect demands £20 cut is axed to stop 840,000 plunging into poverty". The Mirror. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  44. ↑ Croft, Ethan (8 February 2025). "Trump tax cuts threaten to cost UK £18bn as companies flee to America". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 25 June 2025.
  45. ↑ "Parliamentary pensions' punishment of defence". The Critic Magazine. 15 April 2025. Retrieved 25 June 2025.
  46. ↑ Honey (17 June 2024). "Breaking Ranks: The Challenge of EU Defence Integration to the United Kingdom". Prosperity Institute. Retrieved 25 June 2025.
  47. ↑ Wastell, Laurie (15 May 2025). "How Labour ended up taking on the Boriswave". The Spectator. Retrieved 25 June 2025.
  48. ↑ Dampier, Guy (22 April 2025). "Embrace free markets, or expect more mass immigration". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 25 June 2025.
  49. ↑ Kincaid, Angus (8 May 2025). "Priorities for a UK-US Trade Deal". Prosperity Institute. Retrieved 25 June 2025.
  50. ↑ "Our Team". Prosperity Institute. Retrieved 26 January 2026. Staff biographies identify researchers by unit.
  51. ↑ Muscat, Caroline (16 December 2017). "Two months since Daphne's death". The Shift. Retrieved 20 June 2019.
  52. ↑ "Attacks on Journalists". 14 May 2019. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
  53. ↑ "Remember the courageous journalists who defy the decline of press freedom". Reaction. 1 May 2019. Retrieved 4 April 2021.
  54. ↑ Patricolo, Claudia (6 May 2019). "Ján Kuciak wins three journalism awards". Emerging Europe. Retrieved 20 June 2019.
  55. ↑ "Courage in Journalism Award Goes to the Martyr Raed al-Fares". The Syrian Observer. 28 February 2020. Retrieved 4 April 2021.
  56. 1 2 Alex Spence (22 May 2018). "The Definitive Story Of How A Former Washington Lobbyist Became 'The Brexiteers' Brain'". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
  57. ↑ "David Davis went to seminar that drew up hard Brexit blueprint". The Guardian. 2 October 2016. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
  58. ↑ "Why we've taken down an article on Christopher Chandler and the Legatum Institute". Left Foot Forward. 17 February 2018. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
  59. ↑ "Brexit: Airships could patrol Irish border, says think tank". BBC. 11 September 2017. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  60. ↑ "Legatum Institute's 'solution' for the Brexit border is highly problematic". LSE Brexit. 18 September 2017. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
  61. ↑ "Pro-Brexit thinktank broke charity rules on politics, watchdog says". The Guardian. 31 May 2018. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  62. ↑ "IEA poaches Legatums top team". City A.M. 9 March 2018. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
  63. ↑ "Legatum Institute calls time on its EU research". The Times . 30 May 2018. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
  64. ↑ Tylecote, Radomir (June 2021). The New Trade Route. IEA.
  65. ↑ "Boris Johnson's first speech as Prime Minister: in full". The Daily Telegraph. 24 July 2019. Retrieved 26 January 2026.
  66. ↑ "Boris Johnson's first speech as Prime Minister: in full". The Daily Telegraph. 24 July 2019. Retrieved 26 January 2026.
  67. ↑ "What the World Thinks of Capitalism". Shorthand Social. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  68. ↑ "Public opinion in the post-Brexit era: Economic attitudes in modern Britain". li.com. Legatum institute. 29 September 2017. Archived from the original on 29 September 2017.
  69. ↑ "Public opinion in the post-Brexit era: Economic attitudes in modern Britain" (PDF).
  70. ↑ Clothier, Will (9 October 2017). "No wonder nationalisation is popular when capitalism has delivered for too few" . The Times. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  71. ↑ "Entrepreneurs unite to form think tank". BQLive. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
  72. ↑ "The CFE highlights the role universities should play in supporting startups". New Asian Post. 27 April 2017. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
  73. ↑ "Turning prisoners into entrepreneurs would save 1.4bn per annum, claims CFE report". National Enterprise Network. 17 May 2016. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
  74. ↑ "LEGATUM INSTITUTE 2015 AFRICA PROSPERITY SUMMIT – PROMOTING WEALTH AND WELLBEING". Human Development Innovation Fund. Archived from the original on 3 September 2017. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  75. ↑ Hurst, Greg (24 July 2018). "Put down phones and talk to children, parents told". The Times. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
  76. ↑ "His Holiness the Dalai Lama Participates in a Symposium - Ethics for a More Prosperous World". dalailama.com. 24 October 2012. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
  77. ↑ Juliet Samuel (19 January 2018). "Teach authoritarian students to debate and 'no platforming' will be no more". Telegraph. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
  78. ↑ "Legatum Fellows". Legatum Institute.
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