publications 58 results

  • The storied state of economics: Review of Robert Shiller’s Narrative Economics | By Tim Jackson
    “Economists are tellers of stories and makers of poems,” wrote the economic historian Deidre McCloskey in 1990. It’s a curious observation for a profession that prides itself on hard-nosed, quantitative analysis and strives continually for predictive power. The Nobel-prizewinning economist Robert Shiller goes even further. His new book probes how social behaviour trumps statistics in determining the fate of economies—Tim Jackson weighs it up.
    Read More

  • Engagement in a new climate | Editorial for the Environmental Scientist
    Environmental engagement is on television screens, in the streets and at your local book group; everyone's doing it. Whether you're engrossed in the latest nature documentary or watching the news in the evening, environmental communicators are everywhere and everyone.—This edition of Environmental Scientist focuses on the new radicalism in environmental engagement; with an Editorial by Tim Jackson.
    Read More

  • HM Treasury’s Decarbonisation of the UK Economy and Green Finance Inquiry | Evidence Submission
    Earlier in 2019, the UK Treasury Select Committee launched an inquiry into the decarbonisation of the UK economy and green finance, set out to scrutinise the role of the Treasury department, regulators and financial services firms in supporting the UK Government’s climate change commitments. Drawing on recent CUSP reports, Tim Jackson submitted evidence.
    Read More

  • 2050 is too late—we must drastically cut emissions much sooner
    At current rates of reduction, the UK fair carbon budget will be spent in just four years' time, Tim Jackson writes in his blog for The Conversation. "Every year that progress is delayed, the challenge only gets bigger", he argues, we don't only need a credible strategy on zero carbon targets, but also emission pathways, with a defined level of negative emission technologies.
    Read More

  • Measuring Prosperity—Navigating the Options | Paper
    Since its development in the 1930s, GDP has been the most widely used measure of the health and progress of an economy, being adopted as the principal policy objective of countless national and international bodies across the world. Its many shortcomings as a measure of progress are well documented, and the alternative indicators of progress developed in response to these shortcomings have been diverse and numerous. This paper synthesises the literature, highlighting the importance of context and purpose in determining what makes a ‘good’ indicator.
    Read More

  • “All Models are Wrong”—The challenge of modelling ‘deep decarbonisation | Paper
    This briefing paper summarises the dilemma associated with using mainstream, macroeconomic models to guide disruptive, transformative change such as those that might occur under ‘deep decarbonisation’: a rapid transition to a net-zero carbon economy. Some form of macro-economic modelling framework is essential to enable policy-makers to exercise short- and long-term fiscal responsibility. Incremental models based on historical behaviour, however, are a poor guide to outcomes under circumstances of disruptive change.
    Read More

  • Living the Good Life on Instagram —An exploration of lay understandings of what it means to live well | Paper
    While the consumerist approach to what living well can mean permeates traditional media, the extent to which it appears in people’s own depictions of the good life is unclear. Using multimodal discourse analysis, this article uses a sample of posts tagged #goodlife and variants collected on Instagram to explore which understandings of the good life can be found on the platform, and what their wider implications in the consumer society are.
    Read More
  • Zero Carbon Sooner —The case for an early zero carbon target for the UK

    Zero Carbon Sooner —The case for an early zero carbon target for the UK | Paper
    This briefing paper addresses the question of when the UK should aim for zero (or net zero) carbon emissions. Tim Jackson is making the case for a (fair) zero carbon target of 2030, and calling for a policy strategy on emission pathways, with a defined level of negative emission technologies.
    Read More

  • Our Future in the Land | Final report of the RSA Food, Farming & Countryside Commission
    The RSA Food, Farming & Countryside Commission with CUSP director Tim Jackson as Commissioner and Chair of the Research Advisory Group have published their final report, calling for radical 10-year plan to transition to sustainable food system with more government support for healthy produce.
    Read More
  • Green, prosperous and fair: a vision for Europe’s future

    Green, prosperous and fair: a vision for Europe’s future
    After the most profound shake-up in decades, European politics stands at a pivotal point in its long history. With nationalist parties drawing support from communities who have been left behind and green parties benefiting from a huge upsurge of concern around climate breakdown and biodiversity loss, there is a unique opportunity, argues Tim Jackson, to build a new vision for Europe that is green, prosperous and fair.
    Read More
  • Beyond Redistribution—Confronting inequality in an era of low growth | An Economy That Works, Briefing Paper No 2

    Beyond Redistribution—Confronting inequality in an era of low growth | Policy Briefing for APPG on Limits to Growth
    The second in the series of briefing papers on building An Economy That Works explores inequality in the UK. It examines the evidence for rising inequality over the last fifty years, estimates the economic welfare lost to society from an unequal distribution of incomes and addresses the critical question of managing inequality in the context of declining growth rates.
    Read More
  • Consumerism as theodicy

    Paradise Lost?—The iron cage of consumerism
    Our systematic failure to address existential anxiety robs society of meaning and blinds us to the suffering of others; to persistent poverty; to the extinction of species; to the health of global ecosystems. With his think piece Angst essen Seele auf — Escaping the ‘iron cage’ of consumerism, Tim Jackson adds to an eclectic set of essays, published in honour of Wolfgang Sachs.
    Read More
  • An Economy That Works Briefing Paper Series, No 1 Tim Jackson

    Understanding the ‘New Normal’—The Challenge of Secular Stagnation | Policy Briefing for APPG on Limits to Growth
    This first in a series of briefing papers on building An Economy That Works explores the underlying phenomenon of ‘secular stagnation’ – a long-term decline in the rate of growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The paper examines the evidence, explores the causes and discusses the implications of what some now call the ‘new normal’.
    Read More

  • The Future Of Work — Lessons from the History of Utopian Thought | Paper
    This paper aims to contribute towards the development of a political economy of work fit for purpose in a world of social and environmental limits. In order to get beyond today’s dominant conceptions of work in a growth-based capitalism, Simon Mair, Angela Druckman and Tim Jackson explore the role of work in historical utopias.
    Read More
  • secular stagnation

    The Post-Growth Challenge — Secular Stagnation, Inequality and the Limits to Growth | Paper
    Sluggish recovery in the wake of the financial crisis has revived discussion of a ‘secular stagnation’. These conditions have been blamed for rising inequality and political instability. Tim Jackson contests this view, pointing instead to a steadfast refusal to address the ‘post-growth challenge’.
    Read More

  • Confronting inequality in a post-growth world – Basic income, factor substitution and the future of work | Paper
    Piketty argued that slow growth rates inevitably lead to rising inequality. If true, this hypothesis would pose serious challenges for a ‘post-growth’ society. If true, this hypothesis would pose serious challenges for a ‘post-growth’ society. Fiscal responses to this dilemma include Piketty’s own suggestion to tax capital assets and more recent suggestions to provide a universal basic income that would allow even the poorest in society to meet basic needs.
    Read More

  • Beyond Consumer Capitalism—Foundations for Sustainable Prosperity | Paper
    This paper explores the ramifications of the combined crises now faced by the prevailing growth-based model of economics. In paying a particular attention to the nature of enterprise, the quality of work, the structure of investment and the role of money, the paper develops the conceptual basis for social innovation in each of these areas, and provides empirical examples of such innovations.
    Read More

  • The Mindful Consumer | Paper
    This paper forms part of the exploration of the topic of consumption and wellbeing, in which earlier consultation and deliberation identified a key question of how societies might reduce or replace the role of consumption and consumerism in supporting human identity. Here, Alison Armstrong and Tim Jackson bring their cutting-edge research and deep experience in sustainable consumption to bear on the topic.
    Read More