Iain Mansfield, a member of the British diplomatic service in Manila, was the winner of the IEA's Brexit prize. His prize-winning essay, which can be accessed here, argues that Britain's exit from the EU should be used as an opportunity to embrace free-trade agreements with other major trading nations. Guardian coverage is here and a Daily Telegraph story on how Mansfield was silenced by the Foreign Office can be found here. Of course, the great irony was that the prize money was paid in euros!
My colleague and former PhD student Gareth Campbell has created a website about the British Railway Mania - click here . This episode has been described by the Economist as probably the greatest bubble in human history. Gareth's website provides background on the Mania and posits some explanations for the 'bubble'. In his explanation of why the bubble happened, Gareth places a lot of emphasis on investor myopia regarding future dividends and uncalled capital. His study of investors during the episode does not support the view that this episode was fuelled by naive and irrational investors.
