Crypto capture of foreign aid
Official development assistance fell by 23% in 2025, the largest drop on record. Aid disbursements have tended to coincide with deposits in offshore banks. This
Letting AI agents write econometric code
Large language models increasingly write the code behind empirical research. This column reports a benchmark of 40 econometric tasks in Stata, R, and Python. For
Never let a good crisis go to waste: Term limits and banking reforms
Financial crises routinely trigger sweeping overhauls of financial regulation, but whose interests do these reforms serve? Using data on financial policies in 88 democracies between
Making markets work: The role of effective public institutions in enabling private sector growth and development
Of the roughly 3.74 billion people in the global workforce, about 400 million, or 11 percent, work in the public sector. These are the people who deliver essential services,
Some questions that a Bank of England review should ask
The Bank of England is approaching the 30th anniversary of operational independence and a wide-ranging review is likely. With growing political interest in the issue,
Anatomy of a supervisory failure
For its entire 15-year life as a regional bank until its collapse in 2023, Silicon Valley Bank held the same risky bet. This column argues
Who is most at risk? A global vision indicator to measure climate vulnerability
Nearly 1 in 5 people globally are at high risk from climate hazards, living in areas exposed to extreme weather with limited capacity to recover
Reciprocal sovereignty: A third constitutional tradition for Europe
The central constitutional question for Europe is how sovereign democracies can govern common goods together without creating a sovereign European state. This column proposes reciprocal
Why reforms for state-owned enterprises (SOEs) remain critically important for growth, jobs, and development
State-owned enterprises (SOEs) are involved in almost every facet of life across developing countries – from electricity, water, transport to ports, airlines, and banking. Some
Faced with global shocks, protect investments that drive growth and jobs
The global economy is entering another period of heightened stress. Geopolitical tensions, policy uncertainty, climate risks, and rapid technological change are making policy decisions more
