The global battle to reshape the lithium industry is sucking in oil producers, tech startups and entrenched mining giants, each jockeying to be the first to reinvent how a metal key to the green energy transition is produced. A fleet of direct lithium extraction (DLE) technologies are on the verge of tapping salty brine deposits […]
The relationship between rising inflation and economic growth is a topic of ongoing debate in macroeconomics. According to the classical “neutrality of money” view, increases in inflation have little effect on real gross domestic product (GDP), as inflation increases both prices and wages similarly and merely alters the units of measurement. A related viewpoint is […]
The question of why talented individuals move across borders has attracted much interest due to the significant impacts on the receiving and the source countries. This column studies what induces academics to move to an institution in a different country, using public publications records for nearly one million academics. The results show that more eminent […]
Governments in many low- and middle-income countries are developing health insurance products as a complement to tax-funded, subsidised provision of healthcare through publicly operated facilities. This column discusses the rationales for this transition and reviews the performance of health insurance schemes over the last two decades. Despite evidence that health insurance has provided financial protection, […]
Weekly extra-EU27 imports of natural gas for 2021 and 2022, compared with weekly minimum and maximum import values for the period 2015-2020. By selecting from the dropdown, the figure shows total imports but also imports exclusively from Russia, Norway, Algeria pipelines, liquefied natural gas (LNG, gas transported by ship from around the world), and the […]
1 Introduction Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), a digital equivalent of cash, are increasingly gaining traction. At least 114 jurisdictions, representing 95 percent of global GDP, are at some stage of developing a CBDC 1 . In 11 countries, CBDCs are now a reality and operate in parallel to their physical equivalent. But it is not necessarily […]
The transformational Vision 2036 Achieving Prosperity for All defines Botswana’s aspirations to chart its way from a middle-income to a high-income economy. Promoting gender equality and granting men and women equal opportunities to participate in the economy are key components of the Government reset agenda for inclusive development. But how can we best support Botswana as it strives to make gender […]
Years of ongoing exposure to conflict have exacted a toll on the mental health of Palestinians. This includes decades of exposure to conflict, restrictions on movements and poor living conditions, particularly for the inhabitants of Gaza who are subject to a partial air and land blockade. In this context we resolved to investigate the mental […]
Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming economies and societies, but research on how it is being adopted across firms is still in its early stages, especially at the international level. This column explores the patterns of AI use across 11 countries, focusing on firm characteristics, the role of complementary assets, and the links between AI use […]
In the spirit of unity, let me start with a statement we can all agree on: the EU needs to grow its capital markets. That statement begs at least two big questions. On these, there is less agreement. Firstly, how should we grow them? And secondly, why haven’t they grown more already? A lot of […]
