Alex O’Byrne promoted to Associate

We’re delighted to announce a promotion within the Volterra team. Alex O’Byrne has been promoted to Associate. Alex has contributed to and led many complex projects whilst at Volterra. These include the socio-economic assessment of Battersea Power Station, a pre-opening evaluation of Crossrail, the wider economic benefits of specific rails schemes in England, Ireland, Toronto […]

Meet the engineers of economic theory: Market design has become a full-time job

What does someone with the job title of “chief economist” actually do? The most well-known in the UK is probably Andy Haldane at the Bank of England, but his role is not typical. So what do the others do? Nobel Laureate Alvin Roth’s paper in the latest issue of the American Economic Review describes the […]

Brussels elites who fiddled while Rome burned may soon get their comeuppance

The new Italian government looks set to cause shock waves across Europe. The two parties promise mass deportations of immigrants and huge increases in public spending. Both the social and the economic policies of the Italian coalition clash directly with those of the European Commission, and Germany and France. They represent a decisive break with […]

Cyber society needs monopoly-busting competition, not misguided regulation

The hostility towards the virtual monopolies enjoyed by tech giants such as Google and Facebook reveals some strange bedfellows. The European Commission is well known for its enthusiasm for regulation. No surprise, then, that last year the Commission fined Google €2.4bn – billion! – for giving its own services preferential treatment in search results. No surprise […]

Our automated future is brighter than Karl Marx or Mark Carney would ever suggest

Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, hit the headlines at the weekend, claiming that Marxism could once again become a prominent political force in the west. Automation, it seems, may not just destroy millions of jobs. For all except a privileged minority of high-tech workers, the collapse in the demand for labour […]

Should AVs be held to higher standards?

In the three weeks since the first fatal crash involving an AV and a pedestrian, plenty of questions have been raised about the safety of self-driving cars. A question to think about soon will be: ‘how safe should AVs be expected to be before they will be accepted on our roads?’. AVs have massive potential […]

Economic analysis for Camden Town Unlimited and Euston Town Business Improvement Districts

Camden Town

At Volterra, we are well known for our work with local government and Business Improvement Districts (BIDSs), undertaking projects to help them develop their vision and strategic plans. Camden Town Unlimited and Euston Town recently commissioned Volterra Partner Ellie Evans and her team to undertake an economic analysis of the combined area’s existing performance, highlight its […]

Companies that bow to the social media mob are operating in the wrong century

Pizza Hut is the latest addition to the list of companies grovelling to criticism on social media. The restaurant chain tweeted an apology for running a promotion in the Sun newspaper. A few weeks ago, Paperchase said that it would not place any more marketing campaigns with the Daily Mail after receiving “hundreds” of complaints. […]