Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises play a crucial role across the water and sanitation value chain. They need innovative financing solutions to help millions of people obtain clean water and decent sanitation. An estimated 500 million people in Asia and the Pacific do not have access to a basic water supply, and 1.14 billion people […]
As World Cancer Day puts the spotlight on one of the world’s most devastating ailments, the situation in Asia needs greater attention. The pandemic has put a spotlight on health system resilience around the world. Demands on health care provision have skyrocketed in record time and brought some health care systems to the brink of […]
Asia’s vast global diaspora – which includes many skilled, highly educated and prosperous people – is a strong potential source of financing for the region’s infrastructure and other development needs. Developing countries in Asia need massive infrastructure investment of $1.2 trillion annually, and the need jumps to $2.1 trillion if we also consider other factors […]
The decline in the employment share of routine jobs is typically attributed to technological and organisational change. This column uses firm-level data to understand the nature of these changes in Germany. The authors find that workers in routine jobs in fact move to more skilled jobs after technological and organisational change. This suggests that technological […]
The European Union has so far weathered the energy crisis brought on by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and will manage winter 2022/23 even if Russia abruptly halts all pipeline gas flows. However, preparations must be made for winter 2023-24. In particular, gas storage facilities should be 90 percent full by 1 October […]
Large digital firms pose similar competition issues worldwide, such as promoting their own services over those of rivals, or imposing unfair terms and conditions. Competition authorities have opened several antitrust investigations and policymakers have proposed digital competition regulations to tackle these issues. G7 competition authorities have called for several years for international cooperation on digital […]
Public disability insurance programmes in many countries face pressure to reduce their generosity due to sustainability concerns. This column examines the idea of expanding the role of private disability insurance in the face of cuts to public programmes. An analysis of a German reform shows that private coverage increased after partial removal of public disability […]
Widespread misperceptions shape attitudes on key societal topics, such as climate change and the recent pandemic. These belief distortions are puzzling in contexts where accurate statistical information is broadly available and attended to. This column argues that the nature of human memory may be key for understanding the persistence of misperceptions in practice. It documents […]
When it comes to encouraging fiscal discipline, euro-area policymakers want the market to be part of the solution. This will not succeed until they make peace with the idea that, while it is their job to set conditions and incentives, it is not their job to dictate prices and spreads. Within the environment that policy […]
ASML is Europe’s most valuable tech company, but lately it finds itself caught in a conflict between its commercial profits and its commitment to human rights. ASML makes the complex machines required to construct advanced microchips, and it sells many of these machines to China, where they are used to make microchips for among other things […]
