Adam Brown
@adamlbrown.bsky.social
Economist, formerly a physicist. Head of UK Economic Policy & Modelling at Cambridge Econometrics. Visiting Researcher in Innovation Systems at Oxford Brookes. Also interested in cricket, baseball and metal. Displaced Salopian. Vmo
Pinned
Adam Brown
@adamlbrown.bsky.social
· Jul 2
The British Academy and @sciencecampaign.bsky.social commissioned Cambridge Econometrics to conduct a systems-based analysis of the strengths and weaknesses within the UK’s innovation system.
Read the full report: www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/publications...
Read the full report: www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/publications...
The UK needs many industrial strategies.
Smarter growth begins with understanding value chains in innovation, say Daniel Rathbone and Eleanor Hopkins.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v...
Smarter growth begins with understanding value chains in innovation, say Daniel Rathbone and Eleanor Hopkins.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v...
A major new report published for anyone interested in #innovation, #productivity, #industrialstrategy, #econsky. I'll now do a short thread that pulls out the main findings and recommendations...
Reposted by Adam Brown
This is the US but the UK figures are not far off. Unless you honestly believe the top 10% create 50% of all economic value then †by definition† this group is massively undertaxed. Tax them!
November 2, 2025 at 1:09 PM
This is the US but the UK figures are not far off. Unless you honestly believe the top 10% create 50% of all economic value then †by definition† this group is massively undertaxed. Tax them!
This is the US but the UK figures are not far off. Unless you honestly believe the top 10% create 50% of all economic value then †by definition† this group is massively undertaxed. Tax them!
November 2, 2025 at 1:09 PM
This is the US but the UK figures are not far off. Unless you honestly believe the top 10% create 50% of all economic value then †by definition† this group is massively undertaxed. Tax them!
Anyone else find this bizarrely confused and incoherent? Amongst other things confuses supply with demand a number of times, and even conflates 'competitive sectors' with 'high wage sectors', a pretty alarming error
To boost UK productivity, ordinary workers must bear more of the tax burden on.ft.com/4hGEZqD | opinion
To boost UK productivity, ordinary workers must bear more of the tax burden
The key to restoring both fiscal sustainability and productivity growth is to expand Britain’s most competitive businesses
on.ft.com
November 1, 2025 at 6:26 AM
Anyone else find this bizarrely confused and incoherent? Amongst other things confuses supply with demand a number of times, and even conflates 'competitive sectors' with 'high wage sectors', a pretty alarming error
My other contrarian thought about LLMs is that yes they're clearly useful for some stuff but they're perhaps not going to get much more useful than this. They're also already widely used for the things they're useful for, so perhaps their productivity impact has... already happened?
October 31, 2025 at 4:46 PM
My other contrarian thought about LLMs is that yes they're clearly useful for some stuff but they're perhaps not going to get much more useful than this. They're also already widely used for the things they're useful for, so perhaps their productivity impact has... already happened?
Seems to be as clear a case of false attribution as you're likely to see. Wealth is not the causal factor, green space and vegetation is. Lower income areas don't *have* to lack green space, it's a choice
The luxury effect: why you’ll find more wildlife in wealthy areas – and what it means for your health
The luxury effect: why you’ll find more wildlife in wealthy areas – and what it means for your health
The discovery that affluent neighbourhoods have more diversity of nature has implications for human wellbeing – and sheds light on the structural injustices in cities
www.theguardian.com
October 30, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Seems to be as clear a case of false attribution as you're likely to see. Wealth is not the causal factor, green space and vegetation is. Lower income areas don't *have* to lack green space, it's a choice
Reposted by Adam Brown
According to Berlin, "a fox knows many things, but a hedgehog knows one big thing". I've always thought this was BS, but people seem to like it & make the case for the importance of foxes, essentially as generalists who can see the big picture. But in a world with chatgpt, what do we need foxes for?
October 21, 2025 at 1:33 PM
According to Berlin, "a fox knows many things, but a hedgehog knows one big thing". I've always thought this was BS, but people seem to like it & make the case for the importance of foxes, essentially as generalists who can see the big picture. But in a world with chatgpt, what do we need foxes for?
Reposted by Adam Brown
Can anyone explain why we can't tax share awards to employees/partners as income at the point of award?
October 21, 2025 at 7:42 AM
Can anyone explain why we can't tax share awards to employees/partners as income at the point of award?
Can anyone explain why we can't tax share awards to employees/partners as income at the point of award?
October 21, 2025 at 7:42 AM
Can anyone explain why we can't tax share awards to employees/partners as income at the point of award?
@sachahilhorst.bsky.social thought you might find this interesting
October 17, 2025 at 5:21 PM
@sachahilhorst.bsky.social thought you might find this interesting
I hadn't seen this before - I don't entirely agree with all the numbers but its a welcome approach to an underacknowledged problem neweconomics.org/2009/12/a-bi...
A bit rich
Calculating the real value to society of different professions
neweconomics.org
October 17, 2025 at 1:39 PM
I hadn't seen this before - I don't entirely agree with all the numbers but its a welcome approach to an underacknowledged problem neweconomics.org/2009/12/a-bi...
Excellent - hope this is all over facebook/tiktok etc
October 17, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Excellent - hope this is all over facebook/tiktok etc
I do think we need a moratorium on mainstream commentators describing literally any policy other than managed decline as "populist"
October 16, 2025 at 1:40 PM
I do think we need a moratorium on mainstream commentators describing literally any policy other than managed decline as "populist"
A reminder to economic journalists that the purpose of the entire exercise is to restructure our economy away from consumer services and towards construction and investment; so if the former falls and the latter rises, this is *a good thing*. It is the intended outcome of government economic policy.
October 16, 2025 at 10:35 AM
A reminder to economic journalists that the purpose of the entire exercise is to restructure our economy away from consumer services and towards construction and investment; so if the former falls and the latter rises, this is *a good thing*. It is the intended outcome of government economic policy.
bsky.app/profile/czed...
Sorry but this is wrong. High tea is not and has never been a synonym for supper. Tea is a late afternoon meal, high tea is just a big tea. Supper is a late evening meal. totally different.
Sorry but this is wrong. High tea is not and has never been a synonym for supper. Tea is a late afternoon meal, high tea is just a big tea. Supper is a late evening meal. totally different.
October 13, 2025 at 8:17 PM
bsky.app/profile/czed...
Sorry but this is wrong. High tea is not and has never been a synonym for supper. Tea is a late afternoon meal, high tea is just a big tea. Supper is a late evening meal. totally different.
Sorry but this is wrong. High tea is not and has never been a synonym for supper. Tea is a late afternoon meal, high tea is just a big tea. Supper is a late evening meal. totally different.
If we ever want productivity growth ever again, we need to rebuild UK national capital stocks which requires a massive increase in both public and private investment. The only way to do this whilst maintaining macroeconomic stability is to simultaneously reduce consumption. So we take measures to...
October 12, 2025 at 12:11 PM
If we ever want productivity growth ever again, we need to rebuild UK national capital stocks which requires a massive increase in both public and private investment. The only way to do this whilst maintaining macroeconomic stability is to simultaneously reduce consumption. So we take measures to...
Amazing quote. Art is fundamentally something humans make for the sake of making something; the only reason to experience someone else's art is to see what another human made. There is - definitionally - no such thing as AI produced art.
David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)
October 10, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Amazing quote. Art is fundamentally something humans make for the sake of making something; the only reason to experience someone else's art is to see what another human made. There is - definitionally - no such thing as AI produced art.
Ah yes, the result of 15 years of Tory education policy is a massive upsurge in parents feeling that the system is now so horrendously dysfunctional they have no other option other than to actually quit work and educate their kids at home themselves
October 9, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Ah yes, the result of 15 years of Tory education policy is a massive upsurge in parents feeling that the system is now so horrendously dysfunctional they have no other option other than to actually quit work and educate their kids at home themselves
Any analysis that treats Trump, Musk and the rise of Corporatist Fascism as some weird historical aberration is fundamentally missing the point. This is the inevitable, unavoidable and entirely predictable endpoint of the sociopathic winner-takes-all economic system we've been building since the 80s
We’re not dealing with brilliant strategists cleverly laying traps, we’re dealing with impulsive whiners whose advantage is contempt for laws, norms, and morality.
They’re not pulling some elaborate trick, they’re just willing—even eager—to do things regular, principled people consider off limits.
They’re not pulling some elaborate trick, they’re just willing—even eager—to do things regular, principled people consider off limits.
October 9, 2025 at 8:43 AM
Any analysis that treats Trump, Musk and the rise of Corporatist Fascism as some weird historical aberration is fundamentally missing the point. This is the inevitable, unavoidable and entirely predictable endpoint of the sociopathic winner-takes-all economic system we've been building since the 80s
Reposted by Adam Brown
in which, I continue to plead for systems thinking in planning, reprising last night's bluesky rant, so people who read that can be excused. backofmind.substack.com/p/canaries-a...
canaries and islands
the indicator species in the system
backofmind.substack.com
October 8, 2025 at 2:06 PM
in which, I continue to plead for systems thinking in planning, reprising last night's bluesky rant, so people who read that can be excused. backofmind.substack.com/p/canaries-a...
Down in that London today at @britishacademy.bsky.social
October 8, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Down in that London today at @britishacademy.bsky.social
I think the takeaway message here is that reform voters, particularly the working class ones, are far, far more economically left wing than actual reform party position and there's a very obvious strategy for progressive parties to make them aware of this
And now we do the interesting thing - break out parties by occupation in 2024. Notice here that there is a huge range by occupation in each one and that on the whole working-class voters in each group are more socially conservative and economically left-wing than the PMC. 14/n
September 30, 2025 at 11:00 AM
I think the takeaway message here is that reform voters, particularly the working class ones, are far, far more economically left wing than actual reform party position and there's a very obvious strategy for progressive parties to make them aware of this
Reposted by Adam Brown
Interesting to compare the choice of locations, with a map showing current momentum in housing pressures post pandemic.
September 28, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Interesting to compare the choice of locations, with a map showing current momentum in housing pressures post pandemic.
Interesting to compare the choice of locations, with a map showing current momentum in housing pressures post pandemic.
September 28, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Interesting to compare the choice of locations, with a map showing current momentum in housing pressures post pandemic.
I've changed my mind on AI somewhat. The main current risk of over-enthusiastic UK AI adoption is not that it doesn't work, its that it *does* work at the enterprise level, but as a means of extracting rents more efficiently, locking us in to a increasingly uneven and extractive economic system.
September 25, 2025 at 10:57 AM
I've changed my mind on AI somewhat. The main current risk of over-enthusiastic UK AI adoption is not that it doesn't work, its that it *does* work at the enterprise level, but as a means of extracting rents more efficiently, locking us in to a increasingly uneven and extractive economic system.