IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v55y2023i6p1438-1470.html

The rentierization of the United Kingdom economy

Author

Listed:
  • Brett Christophers

Abstract

There is a growing groundswell of opinion in commentary on the political economy of the Global North that the neoliberal era has seen the forceful (re)emergence of rentier capitalism. This article analyses the case of the UK. Identifying and delineating the predominant forms of contemporary rentierism operating in the UK, and using a range of datasets pertaining to the shape of the national economy, it shows that rentierism in its various guises is today a significant, even dominant, dynamic, in contrast to during the period preceding the neoliberal turn. The article further seeks to account for the ascendancy of the rentier in the UK under neoliberalism, highlighting key developments in the realms of monetary and fiscal policy and policies relating to asset ownership and property rights.

Suggested Citation

  • Brett Christophers, 2023. "The rentierization of the United Kingdom economy," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(6), pages 1438-1470, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:55:y:2023:i:6:p:1438-1470
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X19873007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0308518X19873007
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0308518X19873007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Palma, J.G., 2009. "The Revenge of the Market on the Rentiers: Why neo-liberal Reports of the end of history turned out to be premature (Updated 19 December 2011)," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0927, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    2. Ken Binmore & Paul Klemperer, 2002. "The Biggest Auction Ever: the Sale of the British 3G Telecom Licences," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(478), pages 74-96, March.
    3. Thomas W. Hazlett & David Porter & Vernon Smith, 2011. "Radio Spectrum and the Disruptive Clarity of Ronald Coase," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(S4), pages 125-165.
    4. Hanns Ullrich, 2004. "Expansionist Intellectual Property Protection and Reductionist Competition Rules: A Trips Perspective," EUI-LAW Working Papers 3, European University Institute (EUI), Department of Law.
    5. Gaessler, Fabian & Hall, Bronwyn H. & Harhoff, Dietmar, 2021. "Should there be lower taxes on patent income?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(1).
    6. Hanns Ullrich, 2004. "Expansionist Intellectual Property Protection And Reductionist Competition Rules: A Trips Perspective," Journal of International Economic Law, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(2), pages 401-430, June.
    7. Lukasz Rachel & Thomas D. Smith, 2017. "Are Low Real Interest Rates Here to Stay?," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 13(3), pages 1-42, September.
    8. S. Broadberry & N. Crafts, 2001. "Competition and Innovation in 1950s Britain," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(1), pages 97-118.
    9. Brett Christophers, 2012. "Anaemic Geographies of Financialisation," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 271-291.
    10. Keith Cowling & Philip R. Tomlinson, 2005. "Globalisation And Corporate Power," Contributions to Political Economy, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 24(1), pages 33-54, August.
    11. Philip Bunn & Alice Pugh & Chris Yeates, 2018. "The distributional impact of monetary policy easing in the UK between 2008 and 2014," Bank of England working papers 720, Bank of England.
    12. Michael Hudson & Dirk Bezemer, 2012. "Incorporating the Rentier Sectors into a Financial Model," World Economic Review, World Economics Association, vol. 2012(1), pages 1-1, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. repec:osf:socarx:f6suj_v2 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. repec:osf:socarx:f6suj_v3 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Fernando Almeida-García & Apollònia Monserrat-Febrer & Rafael Cortés-Macías & Miquel Àngel Coll-Ramis, 2025. "Touristification and Expansion of Short-Term Rentals in Mediterranean Destinations: The Case of Rural Areas," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-27, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fergus Cumming & Lisa Dettling, 2024. "Monetary Policy and Birth Rates: The Effect of Mortgage Rate Pass-Through on Fertility," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 91(1), pages 229-258.
    2. Gupta Anurag & Mazumdar Satyajeet, 2011. "Competition Law and Intellectual Property Rights: Whether Conflicting or Complementing Each Other to Serve a Common Purpose?," Asian Journal of Law and Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 2(2), pages 1-21, July.
    3. Zora Kovacic & Marcello Spanò & Samuele Lo Piano & Alevgul H. Sorman, 2018. "Finance, energy and the decoupling: an empirical study," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 565-590, August.
    4. Yuya Wakabayashi & Ryosuke Sakai & Shigehiro Serizawa, 2022. "A Characterization of the Minimum Price Walrasian Rule with Reserve Prices for an Arbitrary Number of Agents and Objects," ISER Discussion Paper 1161, Institute of Social and Economic Research, The University of Osaka.
    5. repec:rim:rimwps:18-29 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Paul Beaudry & Katsiaryna Kartashova & Césaire A Meh, 2022. "Gazing at r*: A Hysteresis Perspective," RBA Annual Conference Papers acp2022-08, Reserve Bank of Australia, revised Dec 2022.
    7. Ingebretsen Carlson, Jim, 2015. "An Approximate Auction," Working Papers 2015:19, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    8. Ilias Alami & Adam D Dixon, 2023. "Uneven and combined state capitalism," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(1), pages 72-99, February.
    9. Klemperer, Paul, 2002. "Some Observations on the British and German 3G Telecom Auctions," CEPR Discussion Papers 3605, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    10. Nicholas Bloom & John Van Reenen & Heidi Williams, 2019. "A Toolkit of Policies to Promote Innovation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 33(3), pages 163-184, Summer.
    11. Weinrich, Arndt, 2026. "Innovation under nexus requirements," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 312, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    12. Janssen, Maarten C.W. & Karamychev, Vladimir A. & Maasland, Emiel, 2011. "Auctions with flexible entry fees: A note," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 594-601, June.
    13. Josh Ryan-Collins, 2021. "Breaking the housing–finance cycle: Macroeconomic policy reforms for more affordable homes," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(3), pages 480-502, May.
    14. Hernando-Veciana, Angel & Michelucci, Fabio, 2018. "Inefficient rushes in auctions," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 13(1), January.
    15. Koessler, Frédéric & Lambert-Mogiliansky, Ariane, 2013. "Committing to transparency to resist corruption," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(1), pages 117-126.
    16. Last Name, First Name, 2009. "Distributional Impacts of Carbon Pricing Policies in the Electricity Sector," RFF Working Paper Series dp-09-43, Resources for the Future.
    17. Zhang, Haiping, 2022. "Upstream financial flows, intangible investment, and allocative efficiency," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    18. Hein, Eckhard, 2011. "Distribution, ‘Financialisation’ and the Financial and Economic Crisis – Implications for Post-crisis Economic Policies," MPRA Paper 31180, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Ganuza, Juan José & Viecens, María Fernanda, 2011. "Deployment of high-speed broadband infrastructures during the economic crisis. The case of Xarxa Oberta," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(9), pages 857-870.
    20. Haoran He & Yefeng Chen, 2021. "Auction mechanisms for allocating subsidies for carbon emissions reduction: an experimental investigation," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 57(2), pages 387-430, August.
    21. Patrik Kupkovic, 2020. "R-star in Transition Economies: Evidence from Slovakia," Working and Discussion Papers WP 3/2020, Research Department, National Bank of Slovakia.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:55:y:2023:i:6:p:1438-1470. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.