Sam Bowman's comments on a basic income feature on the BBC

Executive Director of the Adam Smith Institute, Sam Bowman, has been cited on the BBC for his support of a basic income.

This general approach has been supported by the Green Party in the UK. It is also advocated by Sam Bowman of the Adam Smith Institute, a think tank that is not party political but is vigorously pro-free market in its outlook.

Read the full article here.

Kate Andrews discusses the gender pay gap on ITV News

Head of Communications at the Adam Smith Institute, Kate Andrews, discusses some of the misconceptions surrounding the gender wage gap on ITV News. She argues that the real wage gap is not between men and women, but between mothers and non-mothers.  

Trumpmania has gone global | Kate Andrews writes for City AM

Kate Andrews, Head of Communications at the ASI, has written for City AM on why Trumpmania is threatening liberalism all over the world.

I fear Trumpmania. It is a sickness, and it is spreading far beyond the world of political punditry. It has turned rational political discourse in the United States into a frenzy, while his comments seem to have a negative effect on everything they touch.

Indeed, the UK has not been immune from Trump’s illiberal thinking. A petition calling for him to be banned from entering Britain has gained over 300,000 signatures in just a few days, backed by people who, I believe, have been swept away by the force of Trump too. Those signatures implicitly endorse Trump’s original statement: that it is quite legitimate to ban people from travelling to or entering a country because of the beliefs they hold.

Read the full article here. 

The dark side of the anti-Heathrow campaign | Kate Andrews writes for the Telegraph

Head of Communications at the ASI, Kate Andrews, has written for the Telegraph on her experience when taking part in a debate with anti-Heathrow expansion campaigners.

After being asked by presenter and producer Fatima Manji for the "economic perspective", It seemed obvious to start by mentioning that the expansion of Heathrow is estimated to generate £100-200 billion in economic benefits (specifically £147bn in the latest report).

Who knew a sentence could be so powerful – or provocative. Sure, some people have a knack for creating outrage succinctly. Donald Trump comes to mind, but even he usually takes more than one sentence to do his thing.

No, apparently my sentence was bad enough to drive some "campaigners" and pub-goers to intimidation and shouting thing like "people like you killed my husband" once the filming stopped. One of the men got in my face, but didn’t put his hands on me. Fortunately, it was only an old woman who actually grabbed me.

Sometimes we call people like this Bananas – Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone – but these guys? They were just bananas.

Read the full article here. 

ASI paper 'Free Market Welfare' features in a letter to the Guardian

An ASI paper 'Free Market Welfare: The Case for a Negative Income Tax' has featured in a letter written to the Guardian by the Citizen's Income Trust on the feasibility of guaranteeing a universal basic income.

The Adam Smith Institute has recently published a paper on a variant, negative income tax; and Compass, the Fabian Society, and Royal Society of Arts are researching the feasibility. The debate on citizen’s income has shifted from being a debate about its desirability to being one about its feasibility. The next stage might be a debate about how to implement it in the UK before everyone else beats us to it.

Read the full letter here.

Executive Director Sam Bowman's comments on a Negative Income Tax feature on the Mail Online

Executive Director of the ASI, Sam Bowman, has had his comments on a negative income tax featured on the Mail Online.

Sam Bowman at the Adam Smith Institute explains that NIT is ‘a form of welfare that replaces most existing welfare schemes with a single payment that supplements the income of the unemployed and low-paid’.

‘The payment is withdrawn as your earnings increase, ideally at a gradual enough rate that increasing your earnings (and hence reducing leisure time) is always worthwhile,' he adds.

Read the full article here.

ASI Paper 'The Minimal Evidence For Minimum Pricing' features in the Irish Sunday Independent

The Adam Smith Institute paper 'The Minimal Evidence For Minimum Pricing' has featured in an article in the Sunday Independent which argues against imposing a minimum price on alcohol.

The methodologies underlying the most famous of these computer models have been demolished repeatedly, not least by a paper titled The Minimum Evidence For Minimum Pricing published in 2012 by the Adam Smith Institute, which concluded it was based on "unreasonable assumptions which render its figures meaningless".

Read the full article here. 

Sam Bowman argues for welfare reform and the adoption of a basic income on BBC World Tonight

Executive Director of the Adam Smith Institute Sam Bowman argued in favour of the UK adopting a basic income on BBC World Tonight. Listen here. (Starts 36:21)

ASI comments on welfare reform feature in City AM

The Adam Smith Institute's call for a negative income tax has featured in City AM:

This proposal is similar to a system endorsed by the free-market Adam Smith Institute called a “negative income tax”. Some argue that it is too blunt a response to a complex world, but for those of us with a cynical view of how governments cope with complexity, this seemingly crazy idea may be worth serious consideration.

Read the full article here.

Press Release: Taking students out of net migration cap is the right move

For further comments or to arrange an interview, contact Head of Communications Kate Andrews: kate@adamsmith.org | 07584 778207. Commenting on the Chancellor's suggestion that foreign students may be taken out of net migration figures, Executive Director of the Adam Smith Institute Sam Bowman said:

Taking students out of the net migration cap would be a good move, and would mitigate some the harm caused by the cap to British business.

The Adam Smith Institute has called for this for many years: it makes no sense to treat students who will only be here for three or four years in the same way as immigrants who plan to stay here for their whole lives. Of the students who arrived in 2006, only 17% remained in the UK in 2011. Britain’s education sector is world class and, here in particular, the migration cap is a cap on success.

The Chancellor is correct that the public does not object to foreign students – only 32% want student numbers reduced, compared to 64% who want low-skilled immigrant numbers reduced. But the public is even less concerned about high-skilled immigration – only 31% want less of that.

The government would be right to take students out of the net migration cap, but it should take its logic further and stop trying to restrict high-skilled immigrants as well.

Notes to Editors:

The Adam Smith Institute is a free market, libertarian think tank based in London. It advocates classically liberal public policies to create a richer, freer world.