24 Britain The EconomistJune 29th 2019
2 vices, by far the biggest category, employ
more than a third of them. Yet roughly 15%
of Britain’s super-high earners do not ap-
pear to work at all. In 2015 40% of the in-
come of the top 0.01% was “unearned”,
meaning that it came from the returns to fi-
nancial investments and the like.
The very rich have been getting a lot
richer. Since 1995 the share of overall in-
come accruing to the top 0.01% has roughly
tripled (see chart). They had a turbulent
time during the financial crisis of 2008-09,
when many bankers were sacked and the
value of financial investments plummet-
ed. Yet they quickly bounced back. By
2015-16 the share of income accruing to the
top 0.01% was at its second-highest level in
decades. It is likely to have risen still fur-
ther since then.
The paper is part of a recent trend
among economists to improve estimates of
the incomes of the rich. That work is much
needed, since Britain’s two official mea-
sures of overall inequality—one from the
Office for National Statistics (ons) and the
other from the Department for Work and
Pensions (dwp)—have limited success in
guessing the incomes of the well-off. Both
suffer from the problem that very rich peo-
ple are particularly likely to under-report
their income. Some evidence finds that the
very well-off are less likely to answer sur-
veys, since they believe they are too busy to
do so. They may also have earnings from a
variety of sources, which can make it hard
to keep track of everything that is gushing
in. An ons study published in February
suggests that survey data capture only
about half the income of someone who has
just made it into the richest 0.5%.
Since the rich command a dispropor-
tionately large share of overall income, get-
ting them wrong is a disproportionately
big problem. Both the onsand dwpsuggest
that, somewhat surprisingly, since the ear-ly 1990s overall income inequality (as mea-
sured by the Gini coefficient) has not
changed much. Could these conclusions be
skewed by a poor understanding of just
how rich the richest are?
In an effort to get to the bottom of this,
academic researchers have sought to com-
bine tax data with survey data. (Wonks at
the dwp already do this, though their
methodology is widely agreed to be
flawed.) Calculations in a paper publishedearlier this year by Stephen Jenkins of the
London School of Economics and the late
Tony Atkinson, formerly of Oxford Univer-
sity, show a marked increase in overall in-
equality since the mid-1990s, in contrast to
the stability shown by official statistics.
Such work is at an early stage. But it sug-
gests that a better understanding of the
0.01% may reveal that the gap between rich
and poor has been widening more than
many people thought. 7A rich man’s worldSource:MikeBrewerandClaudiaSamano-Robles,
UniversityofEssexBritain, pre-tax income
As % of national total036912151962 70 80 90 2000 10 15Top 1%Top 0.1%Top 0.01%% increase
1995-2015271.790.838.4T
he 13th and17thfloorsoftheShard,
towering over south London, make
an improbable home for the University
of Warwick. Stranger still, a mile or so
away, next to the Ministry of Sound
nightclub, lies the University of the West
of Scotland. In the east of the city Lough-
borough University, known for its sport-
ing expertise, has established itself in the
former press centre at the Olympic Park.
Since the early 2000s British universi-
ty outposts have sprung up across the
globe, from Lagos to Johor Bahru. But the
most popular place is closer to home. At
least 15 regional universities have cam-
puses in the capital, compared with none
a decade or so ago. University adminis-
trators expect more to arrive soon.
The reason for the rush is simple. For
institutions in remote or unfashionable
bits of the country, setting up shop in the
capital “is a good way to get students who
wouldn’t normally consider you”, ex-
plains Paul Woodgates of paConsulting,
whose clients include universities. That
is especially true of foreign students
who, if they are from outside the Euro-
pean Union, pay fees two or three times
higher than their British peers. Many
universities’ London campuses offer
English-language teaching alongside
academic study. At Loughborough’s
outpost in the capital, 85% of students
come from beyond the eu,with China
the main source.
Opening an embassy in London also
helps to raise the profile of the institu-
tion more broadly, says Tony Edwards,
the Loughborough campus’s incoming
head. His university sometimes makes
the top ten in British rankings, but suf-
fers in international ones, which put
more weight on the views of academics
in other countries who may not have
made it to the East Midlands.
London outposts typically offer
courses in vocational subjects, like busi-
ness or management, which are cheap toteach.Insomecasestheyforgelinkswith
businesses that would be hard to repli-
cate back at base. But not always. “It is
quite striking how often the proximity to
big, prestigious employers is flagged up,
as if geographical proximity would be
enough to improve employment out-
comes,” says Rachel Brooks, a sociologist
at the University of Surrey (which does
not yet have a London branch). She and
Johanna Waters of uclfound that aca-
demics at London offshoots had fewer
qualifications than those at their parent
campuses, and often had professional
rather than academic experience.
And though the bright lights of the
city may appeal, an administrator at one
university thinking of setting up a cam-
pus confesses he worries about the stu-
dent experience. Facilities in the capital
can be cramped and, with few students
on campus, opportunities for sports
teams and student unions are limited.
Universities hope that the central loca-
tion makes up for a somewhat stripped-
back education. As more outposts open,
that idea will be put to the test.Degrees south
Higher educationSeeking students and status, regional universities set up shop in LondonWarwick-upon-ThamesCorrection:Last week’s story on drug-buying clubs
attributed a survey on the use of PrEP to the
Terrence Higgins Trust. In fact it was carried out by
Public Health England. Sorry.