During the pandemic, around 26 million young adults in the US returned to live with their parents (Fry et al. 2020). A recent survey suggests that two-thirds of ‘Millennials’ and ‘Generation Z’ who moved back with their parents at the peak of the pandemic still live there, more than two years later (Ceizyk 2022). However, […]
Common ownership links may reduce costs and spur innovation (e.g. Vives and Azar 2022), but they may also make firms in the same industry less competitive. In general, common ownership may lead to a failure of the competitiveness condition (Hart 1979), according to which shareholders unanimously agree on own-profit maximisation. The managers of firms with […]
According to recent estimates, between 50% and 85% of the population in developed countries experiences a potentially traumatic event (PTE) during their lifetime. These events can include being involved in a severe accident, losing a partner, being the victim of a crime, or witnessing acts of extreme violence or terror (Benjet et al. 2016, de […]
The battle for decarbonisation is being lost. We are way off track in limiting global warming to 1.5°C, or even to 2°C. According to the IMF (2022), US$1 trillion is needed in energy infrastructure investment before 2030 to enable greenhouse gas mitigation in emerging economies. Recently, Chile has managed to more than double the proportion […]
Isabel Schnabel (2022), Executive Board member of the European Central Bank (ECB), recently argued that: “Our currencies are stable because people trust that we will preserve their purchasing power. For politically independent central banks, establishing and maintaining that trust is an important policy objective in and of itself. Failing to honour this trust may carry […]
The COVID-19 pandemic led to the partial or full closure of schools in almost all countries around the world. On average, across OECD countries, school buildings were fully closed for 13 weeks and partially closed for a further 24 weeks between March 2020 and October 2021, which combined is equivalent to around one full school […]
Wage inequality is on the rise as much as wealth inequality. There is consensus that part of this rise is due to technological progress. The exact mechanism by which modern technology adoption affects inequality, however, is still open to debate. Katz and Murphy (1982) have popularised the view that, by assigning large premia to education, […]
Despite an extensive literature on the productivity gains associated with large cities in developed economies, little is known about this issue in the context of developing countries. Investigating agglomeration economies in the rest of the world is crucial for several reasons. First, the growth rate of the world’s urban population is being driven by urbanisation […]
On a global scale, the extent of COVID-related lockdowns is massive, and their socio-economic impact is expected to be far-reaching (Barba Navaretti et al. 2020, McKibbin and Fernando 2020). When it comes to the estimated effects of containment measures, timing seems to matter (Deb et al. 2020). In Germany, significant actions to reduce the spread […]
Companies face a huge gap between the skills they need to prosper in the changing economy and the skills available in the labour market. Nearly three-quarters of executives say that changing the skill composition of the workforce is their top priority for dealing with future disruptions, but only 17% believe that their employees are ready for such […]
