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World Featured trade

The value of WTO commitments along the global supply chain

The WTO has noted that trade scepticism among policymakers and trade policy tensions over supply chains are manifesting themselves in even more fragmented and concentrated supply chains. This column develops a model to show how trade policy uncertainty deters the investment needed to facilitate integration into global value chains, and demonstrates how WTO agreements, by […]

Covid-19 Featured World

The impact of the global COVID-19 vaccination campaign on all-cause mortality

The global COVID-19 vaccination campaign was the largest public health campaign in history, with over 2 billion people fully vaccinated within the first eight months. Despite one of the most widespread pharmaceutical interventions, the benefit of this campaign on all-cause mortality is not well understood and still debatable. This column documents the enormous health and […]

Environment Economy Featured

Chinese capital closes highways after heavy snowfall

 Authorities in Beijing shut some highways on Wednesday after heavier-than-expected snowfall hit the Chinese capital, part of a cold spell sweeping many parts of the country this week. With freezing rain and snow expected to last until Monday, officials boosted public transport arrangements in the sprawling city of nearly 22 million and shut eight highways, […]

Finance Banking Featured

HSBC’s $3 billion China writedown mars record annual profit

 HSBC Holdings reported a record annual profit, that nonetheless came in below analysts’ forecasts as the income boost from higher interest rates was offset by a hefty $3 billion charge from its stake in a Chinese bank. HSBC, which has a market value of $160 billion, reported on Wednesday a pretax profit of $30.3 billion for […]

Banking Featured Finance

The digital euro after the investigation phase: Demystifying fears about bank disintermediation

On 18 October 2023, following the conclusion of its “investigation phase”, the ECB’s Governing Council announced a specification of the functional scope and key features of a digital euro and also decided to proceed with the “preparation phase” of the project. This column focuses on the debate around the impact of a digital euro on […]

Finance Featured World

Determinants and impact of cross-border patents: Evidence from a new dataset

Cross-border patenting is a key channel for the international transfer of technologies. Using a new dataset that tracks patents within and between countries and industries, this column examines the influence of technology transfers on development and income inequality. Policy and globalisation have a positive impact on cross-border patent flows, especially from rich to poor countries: […]

Featured Economy

Exploring a New Semi-Automatic Approach to Map Digitalization

The use of historical data for economic analysis has been on the rise in recent decades. Persistence studies in particular have been essential in developing our understanding of how historical factors can contribute to present-day economic and social outcomes. In this literature, maps are often a key source of historical data. For example, many papers in the […]