The recent shift in trade policy by the new US administration is impacting global trade and creating volatility in financial markets. This column quantifies the economic impact of the 2nd April tariffs on Europe, discusses the financial market response to the announcement, and looks at the role of the exchange rate response for the transmission […]
Recent tariff measures by the US and countermeasures by its trading partners have dominated global policy debates. Using three economic models, this column shows how the tariffs impact trade flows, output, and welfare, especially in North America and China. In the short term, tariffs act as negative supply shocks for tariffing countries (depressing output while […]
The performance of stock markets often appears worse in the daily news than it actually is. This column argues that this negative news bias arises from two factors: (1) journalists tend to focus on major events, and (2) the daily performance of stock market indices is negatively skewed. It shows that about half of the […]
Individuals with a disability have remarkably low employment rates compared to the rest of the population. This column examines whether the rapid rise in the ability to work from home post-pandemic has improved disability employment. The authors estimate that in the US working from home has already increased full-time disability employment levels by over a […]
Goldman Sachs on Friday said it expects OPEC+ to announce a second consecutive increase in supply for June on Saturday, due to modest compliance from Kazakhstan, lower-than-expected OECD inventories, and Saudi Arabia’s ability to handle lower oil prices. The Wall Street bank expects the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) to announce a […]
Oil prices were up slightly on Friday, after rising about 3% in the previous session, as trade tensions between top oil consumers U.S. and China showed signs of easing and Britain announced a “breakthrough” trade deal with the United States. Brent crude rose 23 cents, or 0.37%, to $63.07 a barrel while U.S. West Texas […]
Economic sanctions have become an increasingly common instrument of foreign policy, promoted as a non-violent alternative to military intervention. However, their effects on labour markets remain underexplored. This column examines the case of Iran following the unprecedented international sanctions imposed in 2012 to investigate how sudden and extreme shocks to market access affect the allocation […]
The Institute of International Finance (IIF) said China, France, and Germany were the largest contributors to the global debt increase, while debt levels declined in Canada, the UAE, and Turkey Global debt rose by around $7.5 trillion in the first three months of the year to hit a record high of over $324 trillion, data […]
Amazon’s cloud computing division will invest $4 billion to build its first data centers and other cloud infrastructure in Chile, the company’s head of South Latin America told Reuters. Amazon Web Services (AWS) expects the cloud region, its third in Latin America after Brazil and Mexico, to be operational by the second half of 2026. […]
The market capitalisation of Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) has surged by 463% over the last ten years to reach $2.7 trillion at the end of 2024, making it the largest equity market in the Middle East, according to S&P. The significant growth has been driven by the kingdom’s drive to boost market liquidity by getting […]
