Background
King, Mervyn Allister was born on March 30, 1948 in Chesham Bois, England. Son of Eric Frank and Kathleen Alice (Passingham) King.
King, Mervyn Allister was born on March 30, 1948 in Chesham Bois, England. Son of Eric Frank and Kathleen Alice (Passingham) King.
Bachelor with first class honors, King's College, Cambridge University, England, 1969. Postgraduate, Harvard University, 1972. Degree (honorary), Birmingham University, 2002.
Degree (honorary), London Guildhall University, 2001. Degree (honorary), City University London, 2002. Degree (honorary), University Wolverhampton, 2003.
Degree (honorary), London School of Economics, 2003. Doctorate (honorary), University Helsinki, 2006. Doctor of Laws (honorary), Cambridge University, 2006.
Junior research officer, department allied economics Cambridge University, 1969-1973, research officer, 1972—1976, lecturer faculty economics, 1976-1977. Esmee Fairbairn professor investment University Birmingham, England, 1977-1984. Professor economics London School of Economics, 1984-1995.
Executive director, chief economist Bank of England, 1991—1998, deputy governor, 1998—2003, governor, since 2003. Visiting professor economics Harvard University, 1982—1983, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1983—1984, London School of Economics, since 1996. Visiting fellow Nuffield College, Oxford University, since 2002.
Research associate National Bureau Economic Research, since 1978. Research fellow Centre for Economic Policy Research, since 1984. Member Economic Policy Panel, 1985—1986, CLARE Group of Economists, 1976—1985.
Consultant to New Zealand Treasury, 1979, Organization of European Cooperation and Development, 1982. President Institute for Fiscal Studies, 1999—2003. Founding member Monetary Policy Committee, 1997, chairman.
(In addition to discussing taxation within Britain, the bo...)
Study of the economics of capital markets has been divided between economics departments and finance groups in business schools. Interaction between the two has been less than one might have hoped (as a glance at the references to each other’s literature demonstrates). I see my own work as an attempt to bridge the gap between the two traditions of public and private finance.
This was not my goal when I started research. After I took the Cambridge Tripos, Richard Stone invited me to join his Growth Project, a group concerned with the empirical analysis of the United Kingdom economy. My initial interest was in investment but this later broadened into a general concern with public policy and the capital market.
Early papers related to dividends, investment, taxation, unanimity of shareholders and corporate financial policy, and culminated in my book Public Policy and the Corporation. The systematic analysis of the effects of taxa
tion on corporate financial policy and investment decisions developed by Joseph Stiglitz and myself showed that the traditional view of the incidence of corporate taxation was inadequate. Financial policy was crucial in determining effective tax rates.
This led to the so-called ‘new view’ of corporate taxation (associated with the names of Auerbach, Bradford and myself), according to which the differential taxation of dividends and capital gains was capitalised in lower stock market values with no consequence for the incentive to invest out of retained earnings. Empirical studies showed that effective tax rates on investment were much lower than previously thought, and that in the United Kingdom the tax was virtually non-existent. It is clear that many policies have effects rather different from those believed to result by the government that instituted them, a lesson reinforced by my experience as a member of the Meade Committee and coauthor (with John Kay) of a book on The British Tax System, and that economic analysis can help to determine the climate of opinion within which policies are formed.
Trustee Kennedy Memorial Trust, 1999—2000, National Gallery, since 2005. Member advisory council London Symphony Orchestra, since 2001. Fellow: Econometric Society (member Congrss program committee 1974, 1979, 1985).
Member: European Economics Association (president 1993), The Securities Association (board directors 1987-1989), National Institute Economic and Social Research (governor since 1985), Royal Economic Society (member council and executive committee 1981-1986), Society Economic Analysis (chairman 1984-1986), Brit Academy, Groupe of Thirty, Worchestershire Country Cricket Club, Patron, All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, American Academy Arts and Sciences (foreign honorary 2000).