H&P co-founder Professor Simon Szreter (Cambridge) and Hilary Cooper gave the keynote at the Economist Conference of the Department for Work and Pensions on 5 October.
The keynote followed their essay, "Incentivising an Ethical Economics", which jointly won the 2019 IPPR Economics Prize, and explored whether welfare is really a burden on the productive economy that can be cut in times of difficulty. Their core argument is that welfare is more correctly conceived as a growth promoter, from the Elizabethan Poor Law which facilitated the origins of modern economic growth to Beveridge's reinvented universal welfare state which helped transform the UK's productivity. They drew out the key lessons from this history to suggest how they might inform contemporary policy.
H&P is based at the Institute of Historical Research, Senate House, University of London.
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