The GP fundholding scheme was introduced as part of the Conservative government’s 1991NHS reforms and abolished by the Labour government in 1998. This paper presents theargument that very little was learnt about the effectiveness of the scheme before its abolition.This was because there was no...

The regulation of drug prices is an excellent example of the type of tensions that are emerging inthe UK's new system of multi-level governance. Both the benefits and regulatory burden of thePharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS) are regionally concentrated. However, thoseregional...

The realisation that fast growing SMEs are major contributors to economic prosperity has seen these firms being increasingly attributed with a more central role in the development of wealth, innovation, employment and national competitiveness. Spatial proximity often positively affects knowledge...

Current research suggests that the process of knowledge creation is both networked and iterative. Synthesising the literature highlights a range of factors for analysis in knowledge-based industries. These factors are then used to examine the biotechnology sector in Queensland Australia,...

This paper sets up two competing frameworks to assess the evidence of the CAP reforms of the 1980s and 1990s. The two frameworks differ in the degree of prominence given to interest groups in affecting CAP decisions. The paper concludes that the most important mechanism behind CAP reforms is the...

The place of agriculture in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) prior to 1986 is usually described in terms of either exclusion or exemption from general trading rules. This paper reevaluates the ‘exemption’ argument and its corollary that the Uruguay Round Agreement on...

In December 2005, the European Council agreed a Financial Perspective for 2007-2013. This reduced significantly planned EU spending compared with the Commission proposal. Morover, if effectively redistributed net funds from new poorer member states to old richer members. This paper charts the...

The scale of the ambition to decouple emissions growth from energy consumption in the economy runs counter to several decades of debates and literatures on the limits of government. Transport biofuels are an early and influential case of the policy capacity challenge in the transition to...

Biofuels are increasingly being produced and consumed as a partial substitute to fossil-fuel based transport fuels in the fight against climate change. One policy introduced recently by some countries to help ensure biofuels perform better than fossil fuels environmentally is sustainability...

This paper sets up two competing frameworks to assess the evidence of the CAP reforms of the 1980s and 1990s. The two frameworks differ in the degree of prominence given to interest groups in affecting CAP decisions. The paper concludes that the most important mechanism behind CAP reforms is the...