Abstract

Speaker: Professor Christina Beatty

Title:’Reducing economic inactivity in the UK: An economic and political imperative’

Time: 19 February 2025, 18:00-19:30

Location: The Ramsden Room, St Catharine’s College.

The next St Catharine’s Political Economy Seminar will be held on Wednesday, 19 February 2025. Professor Christina Beatty will give a talk on “Reducing economic inactivity in the UK: An economic and political imperative”. The seminar will beheld in the Ramsden Room at St Catharine’s College from 6.00-7.30 pm. All are welcome. The seminar series is supported by the Cambridge Journal of Economics and the Economics and Policy Group at the Cambridge Judge Business School.

Talk Overview:

Economic inactivity has increasingly come to the fore of contemporary political and policy debates. Unemployment is low, vacancies are high and labour shortages in specific sectors are common, and yet employment rates remain stubbornly below pre-pandemic levels. Central to understanding this conundrum is the substantial increase in the number of working age adults who are not actively participating in the labour market – those neither in employment nor unemployed. The UK labour market has therefore emerged from the pandemic with an economic inactivity problem rather than an unemployment problem. However, national assessments of the issue often only provide an aggregate overview, whereas in reality a very distinct economic geography underpins the phenomenon. If national, regional and local government are to understand the trends, and develop policy solutions to address the issue, then the geography of economic inactivity needs to be recognised. Christina Beatty will draw on a range of research projects to illustrate the geography of economic inactivity in Britain and factors associated with recent observed trends in both the benefits system and the Labour Force Survey. The evidence presented questions whether the political rhetoric driving recent policy direction to increase the conditionality requirements for Universal Credit claimants is likely to have the desired effect of increasing labour market participation.

Speaker Overview:

Christina is a Professor of Applied Economic Geography in the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR) at Sheffield Hallam University. She is a social statistician by background with over 30 years’ experience of undertaking applied policy research. Christina is particularly interested in the intersection of welfare reform, labour markets, and housing policy in Britain. Her research often seeks to highlight the sub-regional impacts and unintended consequences of national policy decisions for different types of places in varied local economic contexts. Her research often focuses on the uneven impact of welfare reform; the dynamics of hidden unemployment and incapacity benefits; older industrial Britain; former coalfield areas; and Britain’s seaside towns. Christina has also worked on a number of large scale national policy evaluations for several central government departments. These include: The New Deal for Communities Evaluation; the Evaluation of Reforms to Local Housing Allowance System; and the 2023 Supported Housing Review.

This talk is part of the St Catharine’s Political Economy Seminar Series series. www.politicaleconomy.group.cam.ac.uk