Europe’s reliance on US arms raises autonomy concerns, as security worsens and leaders aim to cut strategic and technological dependence. Worries about Europe’s dependence on the United States military industrial base have increased with the worsening security situation in Europe and the deterioration of the transatlantic relationship. With a new dataset covering all US foreign […]
While trade debates focus on tariffs and goods, services have quietly defied deglobalisation and become an increasingly important driver of growth. Services trade not only generates productivity spillovers and labour-market gains, but it is also where future policy tensions could emerge. Yet services trade remains under-measured and under-studied. This column introduces the new Bilateral Trade […]
Manufacturing is a locus of innovation, yet standard industry data show manufacturing productivity stagnating in the US. This column argues that standard measurements understate true productivity growth in the sector, especially in industries where it is difficult to track changes in quality growth. Comparing producer and consumer price indexes, the authors show that ‘missing’ quality […]
Since the Middle Ages and throughout the early modern period, European universities and academies established dense webs of interpersonal connections among scholars. Using historical data on European scholars and their academic affiliations, this column argues that such networks were a key channel for the spread of knowledge across time and space. Especially without the dense […]
French political quagmire leaves euro at two-month lows. The yen stabilised on Friday but was still headed for its steepest weekly drop in a year on Friday, as the chances of a near-term rate hike faded, while the euro was rooted near two-month lows by political crisis in France. The yen edged up 0.2% to […]
Trade and other tensions between the European Union and China should not be allowed to derail joint work to cut emissions. The COP30 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Belém, Brazil, in November 2025 , will convene at a moment when the Paris Agreement’s architecture is firmly in place but the politics to deliver it are […]
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has a rich cultural heritage, and a wealth of natural assets like the colorful Red Sea and stunning desert landscapes. Visitors can scuba dive with sea turtles today and traverse 2,000 year-old Nabatean tombs tomorrow. Until recently, tourism in the Kingdom mainly concentrated on Islam’s iconic religious sites. That […]
Corporate climate risk disclosures are costly and often a mere box-ticking exercise. In November 2024, the Omnibus Environmental, Social and Governance Regulation was announced in Europe to consolidate and simplify the phasing-in of corporate sustainability reporting requirements while maintaining strong ESG commitments. This column discusses how leveraging pollution registers can provide an actionable picture of […]
As global trade has expanded, many studies have documented the level of impact of import competition on employment, but we know less about how firms adapt. This column uses data on Japanese firms from 1997 to 2015 to show that rising imports have led many firms to reduce their workforce, but firms that engaged in […]
The U.S. stock market’s bull run is almost three years old, but if history is a guide, that would make it only middle-aged. The S&P 500 has set a series of record highs in the lead-up to Sunday’s anniversary of the start of the bull market on October 12, 2022. On that date three years ago, […]
