Macroprudential policy may curb innovation – but instrument choice matters
Macroprudential policy is designed to make the financial system safer, but it can also reshape the finance available to innovative firms. Using patent data matched
Revisiting immigration’s effect on US wages and employment
Anti-immigration policies often rest on the premise that immigrants worsen native-born employment and wages. This column uses data from 2000 to 2023 to estimate the
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
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.
AI feedback loops and the conditions for explosive growth
If frontier AI models can be used to develop their next models, this may lead to an ‘intelligence explosion’ and give a large boost to
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
