The scramble for critical minerals: An old curse in a new world
Lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, and rare earth elements are reshaping global trade and great-power politics in ways reminiscent of the earlier scramble for natural resources.
Japan’s productivity transformation: From within-firm stagnation to market-driven reallocation
Discussions on Japan’s ‘lost decades’ have long focused on sluggish demand and the survival of ‘zombie’ firms. However, new evidence from microdata suggests a fundamental
How the rise of AI matters for fiscal policy
Predictions of the effects of AI on the economy and society tend to focus on productivity growth, job losses, and shifts in the distribution of
The anatomy of job polarisation: Evidence from four decades of French worker flows
Employment polarisation – the decline of middle-skill routine occupations relative to both ends of the skill distribution – is usually documented from repeated cross-sections. However,
Expanding opportunities: Economics PhD placement in the 21st century
Since 2010, a growing proportion of doctoral graduates have been taking jobs outside academia. This column explores where elite early-career economists work, using a dataset
Safe debt financing: International spillovers and the benefits of fiscal policy coordination
Safe government bonds enjoy a discount known as the convenience yield. When a government issues more debt, it erodes this discount for itself and for
The world is urbanizing fast — the window to get it right is narrowing
The most important urban decisions of this century are being made right now, mostly in cities you’ve never heard of. Today, 4.7 billion people, about
When aging meets digital & AI: Closing the silver digital divide for an aging world
We are living through two megatrends humanity has never seen before. The first is aging. Populations over 65 are growing not just in developed countries,
Tracking the changing role of foreign direct investment and remittances—check the latest WDI data
For decades, foreign direct investment (FDI) was seen as the primary engine of development finance. But that’s changing, as FDI flows fall off and remittances
Automation does not lower the labour share
The rapid diffusion of generative AI has revived fears that a new wave of automation will inevitably shift income away from workers. This column uses
