The threats that misinformation poses to politics and public health are well documented, but the macroeconomic effects of fake news remain largely unexplored. This column surveys the impact of fake news on economic stability. Leveraging a novel dataset, the authors unveil the detrimental effects of technology-related fake news on key economic indicators. Fake news profoundly […]
Housing affordability is a crucial yet subtle concept, especially when it comes to cross-country comparison. This column introduces a new cross-country dataset on a mortgage-based indicator of housing affordability, and argues that compared to the 1990s, affordability has improved, largely driven by lower mortgage rates and favourable economic conditions. Housing is more affordable in advanced […]
2024 marks the 80th anniversary of the Bretton Woods conference, which led to a major shift from the operation of the gold standard in the interwar years. This column explores how Britain’s 1931 departure from the gold standard impacted the interwar British economy through its effects on unemployment. The findings suggest that leaving the gold […]
Support for large-scale climate adaptation investments is insufficient in many countries. This column studies the drivers of voter support for public adaptation, focusing on voters who vary by age, income, and beliefs about the efficacy of such policies. It shows that the winning coalition shifts in response to the growth in climate damages and rising […]
Historically, inherited land in some German areas had to be shared or divided equally among children, while in others land was ruled to be indivisible. This column leverages this variation in land inheritance rules that traversed political, linguistic, geological, and religious borders and shows that today, equal division areas feature higher average incomes and more […]
Industrial policy is undergoing a major resurgence. Spurred by multiple overlapping crises, economists have been seeking to draw lessons from the past, while policymakers have had to take urgent action. This column describes how the paradigm shift in ‘industrial strategy’ in the US has been occurring alongside a fundamental shift in antitrust thinking – and […]
Research and development has traditionally been concentrated in Western countries, particularly the US, potentially leading to the development of technologies particularly suited to these economies and hindering productivity growth elsewhere. This column examines the impact of the increase in venture capitalism funnelled towards Chinese firms. The authors find that the rise of a new hub […]
Green innovation is a key ingredient in the fight against climate change. But while there has been significant progress over the last few decades, momentum has slowed down in recent years. This column shows that green innovation not only helps the environment but also increases economic activity in the short-to-medium term, thereby mitigating the costs […]
The spread of misinformation online poses grave challenges to public health. This column quantifies the impact that vaccine scepticism circulating through social media had on paediatric health outcomes in Italy from 2013–2018. The dissemination of long-discredited links between autism and the combined measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine had significant consequences. A ten percentage point increase […]
The ambition of the Paris Agreement is to limit global warming to “well below 2°C”. This column argues that while some progress towards this aim has been made, substantially more policy action is required. Since 2015, new challenges have emerged for climate policy, including rising populism, shrinking fiscal space, a surge in inflation, higher interest […]
