Investment screening reshapes rather than shrinks foreign investment

Driven by national security concerns, a growing number of countries screen foreign investment in an expanding range of sectors, yet evidence on the economic effects
Detecting institutional change as it unfolds: Evidence from 120 years of reporting

Explaining comparative economic development requires identifying the causes of institutional change. This column uses AI to analyse 120 years of newspaper coverage and produce a
Ahead of a presidential election, France first needs to help itself on debt

When could market stress justify European Central Bank intervention over French debt and what must France do first for such support to be defensible? After
The Danes, the Dutch, the Swedes and the feasibility of walking away from pay-as-you-go pensions

Prefunded pensions in Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden pair income security with fiscal sustainability, but other EU countries need a faster route. This paper examines
Cultural norms matter for macroeconomic development

Interest in the role of cultural norms, institutions, and development has resurfaced in recent years especially post the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics. This column
Navigating geoeconomic risk in the US stock market

Geoeconomic risk has become a first-order concern for investors. This column shows that domestic US stocks expose investors to substantial geoeconomic risk through firms’ global
Global imbalances and the China challenge

China’s trade surplus is widening, its manufactured exports are surging, and the political backlash is intensifying. This column argues that the widening trade surplus reflects
Remunerating means of payment

Non-remuneration of digital money acts as a distortionary tax, making EU bans on interest for e-money and stablecoins hard to defend. Though banknotes cannot technically
Geopolitical risk is reshaping global finance, one bank loan at a time

Geopolitical tensions are increasingly reshaping the flow of trade, investment and capital flows. This column documents that the same process is also reshaping bank lending.
Capital inflows boost output, even after accounting for expectations

Emerging market economies that are expected to perform well may attract more foreign capital, making it difficult to establish the causal effects of capital inflows

