The verbal transmission of information – through conversations with friends or strangers, via television or podcasts – is an imperfect process, one that often introduces distortions. This column studies the nature and consequences of the verbal transmission of economic information. The authors’ key finding – that as a result of transmission, reliable and unreliable messages […]
The slow decline in average hours worked and low productivity growth in recent decades contrast sharply with the large changes observed in the 20th century. Using two original databases, this column finds a strong circular relationship between productivity (or wages) and hours worked. Based on these estimates, a productivity revival brought about by the digital […]
Modern waterworks and sewerage systems emerged around the world over the period 1850–1950. Today, there are gaping differences in available sanitary infrastructure. This column tracks the origins and diffusion patterns of the sanitary revolution in Colombia, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, and the US. Piped water and sewers induced important declines in mortality but to […]
The countries of the Global South are becoming increasingly important actors in the global financial economy. This column uses a comprehensive new bilateral dataset on cross-border bank loans and deposits, portfolio investment, foreign direct investment, and international reserves, covering the period from 2001 to 2018, to show that investments involving the South, and especially those […]
Shares in Deutsche Bank climbed to their highest in more than six years on Wednesday, outperforming a weaker banking sector following a Morgan Stanley upgrade to “overweight”. “Despite 10% outperformance vs the sector over the last 12 months, we think there is more room to go for DBK, as improving IB revenue momentum and better […]
Chinese e-commerce vendors that want to sell products on TikTok Shop in the U.S. as an alternative to Amazon are upset by moves they say the short video app has made to tighten enforcement of its rules for overseas sellers opening shops on the platform. Chinese-owned TikTok, which faces the threat of having to divest its U.S. […]
Claims from macroprudential authorities about house price overvaluation, for example for Sweden, based on the house price-to-income ratio are often exaggerated. This column argues that the sustainable level of interest rates needs to be part of any calculation of house price fundamentals, but no single metric of over- or undervaluation is satisfactory. This includes the […]
Electronic payment technologies have long been hailed as a way to formalise transactions, increase tax compliance, and strengthen state capacity. This column examines the effect of financial incentives on the take-up of such technologies among firms and consumers in Uruguay, and on the tax compliance of firms. In response to a VAT rebate for paying […]
Analysis of business dynamism outside the US has been limited by the availability of comparable cross-country data. This column presents new insights on the trends and drivers of business dynamism using a novel dataset for 19 European countries. Across all 19 countries, the authors document structural declines in job reallocation rates and employment shares in […]
Supply chain disruptions cause large macroeconomic adjustments and challenge the effectiveness of stabilisation policies. This column provides a new index of global supply chain disruption, presents a new model to identify the causal effect of global supply chain shocks on aggregate variables, and analyses the implications for the effectiveness of monetary policy. The authors document […]
