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Productivity Featured Global Innovation

Sustained growth through creative destruction: Nobel laureates Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt

Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt have been jointly awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences with Joel Mokyr ‘for having explained innovation-driven economic growth’. Aghion and Howitt were cited by the Nobel committee ‘for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction’. As this column explains, their work transformed creative destruction from an evocative […]

Featured Finance Global World

US weekly jobless claims decline, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs estimate

Economists estimate weekly jobless claims fell to 217,000 from 235,000. The number of Americans filing new applications for jobless benefits fell last week, economists at JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs estimated on Thursday, but lackluster hiring has left many on unemployment rolls. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped to a seasonally adjusted 217,000 for the […]

Productivity Featured Innovation News World

Hidden growth in US manufacturing productivity

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 […]

World Featured Finance News trade

How firms respond to import competition: Labour force reduction, product/industry switching, and off-shoring

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 […]

Finance Business Economy Featured tax

Many paths to jobs: New World Bank Group Scorecard insights

Two years ago, the World Bank Group launched a revamped Scorecard not as another report but as a promise: that measuring impact would become part of how we think and work. Today, that promise is starting to take hold. The Scorecard is showing that accountability and transparency are not about compliance—they are tools that help us make better […]

Development Featured News World

How trade shapes women’s jobs in the services sector: New insights

Today’s global economy is more interconnected than ever, and trade — along with global value chains (GVCs) — plays a major role in shaping job opportunities. Previous research has shown that manufacturing firms in developing countries engaged in international trade tend to hire more women, boosting female participation in the workforce. But as the services sector grows […]

Featured Business Economy News World

US workers experience large month-to-month fluctuations in pay

Over the past decade, cities and states in the US have enacted ‘fair workweek’ laws to stabilise worker schedules. This column uses administrative data on US workers’ paycheques and firms’ payrolls to document considerable monthly fluctuations in earnings. Pay instability is widespread, disproportionately hits lower‑paid hourly workers, and is largely driven by firms’ labour demand […]

Economy Business Featured News World

Soviet communism was not more successful at reducing inequality than other regimes

Inequality is a major concern for many economies, prompting the question of whether some regimes are more effective at reducing inequality than others. This column uses measures of welfare including health status and living space to show that, despite Soviet communism’s aim of radical egalitarianism, it failed to eliminate inequality as effectively as promised. While […]

News Featured media World

How to manage migration in an ageing country

With working-age populations projected to decline rapidly, all European countries face an unprecedented demographic challenge. Inflows of regular foreign workers are thus key to support employment and growth. This column argues that Italy, where the demographic decline is particularly sharp, has a lot to learn from its neighbours to make its migration policies more effective […]