The U.S. economy maintained a fairly solid pace of growth in the second quarter and activity appears to have gathered speed this quarter, but a looming government shutdown and an ongoing strike by auto workers are dimming the outlook for the rest of 2023. Tight labor market conditions continue to prevail, with the number of […]
ChatGPT users will now be able to surf the web, Microsoft-backed OpenAI said on Wednesday, expanding the data the viral chatbot can access beyond its earlier September 2021 cutoff. The artificial intelligence startup said its latest browsing feature would allow websites to control how ChatGPT can interact with them. “Browsing is available to Plus and Enterprise […]
Previous optimism that cross-border supply chains would improve efficiency for firms and open up growth opportunities for countries has been tempered by concerns that global value chains now expose firms and countries to the risk of disruptions. This column analyses the evolution of global supply chain patterns centred around the US over the last four […]
Our understanding of the relationship between intellectual property protection, R&D investment, and innovation outcomes at the firm level has long been hampered by measurement problems and a lack of data. This column uses US Census data from 2008 to 2015 to examine how firms appropriate the benefits of innovation. The findings suggest that many previously […]
Integration in global value chains has been high on the policy agenda since the start of the COVID-19 crisis. But indicators of trade in value added are often published with a long delay, limiting their relevance for policymaking. This column seeks to nowcast those indicators for 41 economies and 24 sectors for 2021 and 2022, […]
Meta Platforms Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday rolled out new AI products for consumers, including bots that create photo-realistic images and smart glasses that answer questions, as well as an updated virtual-reality headset. Zuckerberg described the products as bringing together virtual and real worlds, and underscored that part of what Meta offered was low cost […]
Imagine embarking on a journey to an unknown destination only to find halfway through that two-thirds of your map is missing – this is the reality for gender statistics on the heels of the SDG Summit at the United Nations which marks the midpoint of the 2030 Agenda. In a recent working paper, “Missing SDG Gender Indicators”, we […]
Inefficient loan resolution regimes can lead to the creation of zombie firms, with negative spillover effects for the rest of the economy. This column, however, argues that weak resolution regimes have the benefit of insulating weak firms from financial and macroeconomic shocks. Using firm-level and bank-level data from Europe, it shows that zombie firm sales […]
International trade is a major driver of economic growth, with exporting firms earning greater profits, paying higher wages, and growing faster than non-exporting firms. But women entrepreneurs are less likely to engage in international trade, leaving them unable to capitalise on such benefits. This column analyses the factors inhibiting women-led firms from trading internationally and […]
Urban transportation is a major policy concern in every large city worldwide, but we know little about what determines urban traffic speed. This column provides new evidence on why travelling speed varies across cities using a novel global transportation database. Results show a strong relationship between a country’s income level and the travel speed of […]
