Share Alliance will build the academic rigour necessary to progress its vision by sponsoring or undertaking research projects. A key focus area of this research will be into how best to support people in need in handling their financial situation in order to encourage self-sufficiency and an improved ability to handle their own economic circumstances.
As its first research project and through Gavin Oldham, Cambridge University (the Economics Department and Kings College) has been commissioned to carry out research to further its objectives (the SHARE project). This work began in September 2022.
Propositions
Inter-generational rebalancing is one of the first areas to be researched, and initially this involves analysing the outcomes assessment for the Stepladder Plus incentivised learning programme being run by The Share Foundation within the United Kingdom. This programme is a course which provides financial education to young people in care through a series of online modules. These young people are incentivised through the programme with small financial rewards at the completion of each step.
It is anticipated that the results of the research will enable social investment funding to be made available for wider application throughout the United Kingdom, alongside The Share Foundation’s operation of starter capital accounts for young people in care on behalf of the Department for Education; and this and future research could have further beneficial consequences for Government policy design.
This research is being led by Professor Eric French in the Cambridge University Faculty of Economics, with detailed work being undertaken by PhD student Tina Zhang.
The massive wealth generated by the technological revolution is built on data storage and harvesting, and 'Stock for Data' seeks to recognise this in our proposal to democratise the ownership of the tech giants. On 29 July 2020, the world’s most powerful tech chief executives - Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Tim Cook (Apple) and Sundar Pichai (Google) - were summoned to Washington to testify at the US House of Representatives antitrust committee.
The central purpose of the hearings was to determine whether the companies had too much market power, and the current response of government is to pursue anti-trust legislation. 'Stock for Data' offers the radical alternative of providing distributed governance and a direct share in their wealth creation.
This research is being co-ordinated by Dr. David Good of Kig's College, Cambridge who have established a research contract with the Greeff Investment Consultancy run by Dr Heloïse Greeff, a junior research fellow at Oxford University.
Supported Choice tackles the installation of state-funded monopoly supply of universal services, such health and social care through the use of insurance rather than universal welfare. This is not, of course an original proposition, but it seeks to ensure that individuals are able to choose their preferred outcomes whatever their economic circumstances.
After seventy years' experience of universal healthcare in the United Kingdom, a journey towards Supported Choice could provide a way forward for public finances brought to their knees by democratic socialism.
Most of our propositions for change require a much longer-term, and preferably initernational, perspective for consistent implementation. We have therefore set out proposals for challenging the process of discounting the future, which Nicholas Stern addressed in his 2006 review on tackling climate change.
Looking ahead
Share Alliance plans to carry out further significant research in these areas and other propositions designed to enable a more egalitarian form of capitalism, and will work with other charities and non-profit organisations to determine worthwhile research projects and to identify areas of research that have the greatest impact potential. This is evidenced by the broad terms used to describe the research project at Cambridge University.