This paper analyzes the variation in expected monthly stock returns for a large cross-section of U.K. companies. Using company attributes as a sorting key, the authors we form portfolios and study their returns relative to the return on the market index. They find that book to market value, and...

This paper considers some of the economic impacts that demographic change may have in developed economies over the next fifty years. I focus on the role that financial markets might play in economies where the pressure on government-run unfunded pension systems is likely to rise. The role of...

This book provides a comprehensive appraisal of social security in Japan, where traditionally the burden of welfare provision has been the main responsibility of the family and employers, rather than the state. However, an ageing population, changes in family structure and continued recession...

In the wake of the financial crisis banks are likely to wish to hold far more highly liquid assets than before. Some of those liquid assets are likely to be held in the form of reserves at the central bank. We ask whether the central bank should provide these reserves by purchasing nominal,...

This paper explores how sensitive is monetary policy to the precise preferences of the central bank over inflation and economic activity. It does so in order to address a puzzle—which is that the U.S. Fed and the Bank of England appear to have quite different objectives and yet have adopted...

This paper assesses the case for the use of more explicit forward guidance on monetary policy in the UK. Such a policy was introduced in the middle of 2013. The economic conditions at that time meant that the rule adopted by the Monetary Policy of the Bank of England helped avert some risks to...

This article analyses the implications of switching from unfunded to funded pension systems. It is plausible that in the long run and on average people would be better off if pensions were funded. But in the transition from an unfunded to a funded scheme funds need to be accumulated and that...

This paper develops a model of the housing market that takes account of population density to assess the impact of population changes on the value and size of the housing stock. The model implies that if population density is on an upward trajectory, rises in population and in incomes...