The COVID-19 crisis has brought to the fore increasing concerns about inequalities not only between different population groups – such as the gap between the rich and poor, young and old, and different ethnic groups – but also between people living in different places. Even prior to the crisis though, there was a sense that the UK is not only a highly geographically unequal country, but also an increasingly geographically unequal one.
Immigration remains a highly antagonistic issue and its purported effects in the labour market are still contestable. Against this background, the UK looks set to undertake a large overhaul of its immigration policy following the decision to leave the EU.
Following the provisional local government finance settlement for 2019–20, we look at how the funding cuts made over the four years between 2015–16 and 2019–20 are set to vary around the country.
A “patent box” is a term for the application of a lower corporate tax rate to the income derived from the ownership of patents. This tax subsidy instrument has been introduced in a number of countries since 2000. Using comprehensive data on patent filings at the European Patent Office, including information on ownership transfers pre‐ and post‐grant, we investigate the impact of the introduction of a patent box on international patent transfers, on the choice of ownership location, and on invention in the relevant country.
Overall, high-skilled individuals form an important group of potential migrants because of both their relatively high rates of mobility and their potential contribution to the host economy. Studying migrant selection in this context is particularly useful because these migrants face low formal barriers to migration and are unlikely to be credit constrained. The observed selection patterns underline the relevance of the Roy/Borjas model in this setting.
