Artificial intelligence will both be of considerable help to the financial authorities and bring new challenges. This column argues the authorities risk irrelevance if they are reluctant and slow in engaging with AI, and discusses how the authorities might want to approach AI, where it can help, and what to watch out for. Artificial intelligence […]
Developing countries are facing mounting pressures to incorporate environmental concerns into their policy reform agendas, leading to concerns that traditional development assistance may be crowded out. This column argues that under weak institutions, which can allow a relatively large share of tax receipts to leak out of the economy, common policy actions like levying taxes […]
Evidence-based policymaking involves making policy decisions grounded on, or influenced by, the best available objective evidence. This column takes stock of recent developments in this field in the US and the UK, and discusses the tension between evidence-based policymaking and democracy. In the US, evidence-based policymaking has been emphasised by the Biden administration, in part […]
Governments around the world provide fiscal incentives to firms to adopt profit-sharing arrangements between firms and workers. This column discusses lessons that can be drawn from the French experience of implementing mandatory profit-sharing rules. The authors find that mandatory profit-sharing does not increase firm productivity; while it represents a significant tax for shareholders, it does […]
Women continue to be underrepresented in STEM-related fields, making their university degree selection process highly relevant to discussions of gender inequality. This column uses data on students in Italy to show that proximity of a university to a prospective student’s home matters, particularly for women choosing between a STEM education and not attending university. Policies […]
Oil prices rose about 3% to a four-month high on Wednesday on a surprise withdrawal in U.S. crude inventories, a bigger-than-expected drop in U.S. gasoline stocks and potential supply disruptions after Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries. Brent futures rose $2.11, or 2.6%, to settle at $84.03 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude […]
Samsung Electronics plans to use a chip making technology championed by rival SK Hynix, five people said, as the world’s top memory chipmaker seeks to catch up in the race to produce high-end chips used to power artificial intelligence. The demand for high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips has boomed with the growing popularity of generative AI. […]
Shares of Arm Holdings , the British chip designer backed by Softbank Group gained 2.1% to $129.50 on Tuesday as markets braced for increased trading activity following the expiration of the lockup period tied to its blockbuster initial public offering (IPO). Most market debuts include a lockup period of up to six months in which company insiders and […]
Global sales of fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) rose at a tepid rate of 3% in February versus the same period last year mainly due to the impact of the Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations, market research firm Rho Motion said on Wednesday. The company said global sales hit 800,000 units. Sales in […]
Intel has survived an effort to halt hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of chip sales to Huawei, two people familiar with the matter said, giving one of the world’s largest chipmakers more time to sell to the heavily sanctioned Chinese telecoms company. U.S. President Joe Biden has long been under pressure to revoke a […]
