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
Rising debt, shrinking buffers: The fiscal challenge facing commodity exporters
For commodity-exporting emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs), recent years have delivered something more unsettling than the usual commodity cycle of boom and bust. Overlapping
Heat, air pollution, and global temperature shocks
Developing countries face a host of environmental challenges, but two of the most significant are air pollution and climate change. Wealthy countries face both as
Opening the black box: What we now know about credit and poverty
For decades, one question has dominated debates about finance and poverty reduction: does access to credit reduce poverty? The idea that loans can help households
How climate policies can speed up manufacturing decarbonisation in the Western Balkans
Western Balkan firms are adopting measures to reduce environmental impacts, but smaller local firms need support to comply with EU regulations. The European Union’s carbon
The cost of not innovating: Frontier AI models, cyber defence, and EU strategic autonomy
The cyber threat landscape changed dramatically in April 2026 with the emergence of frontier AI models from OpenAI and Anthropic. Access to these models was
Why we spend so much time in meetings
Few features of modern work are as widely criticised as meetings. Using data from over 9,000 workers in Norway, this column examines how meetings are
Financing the startup J-curve
High-growth startups often lose money before they make it. This column examines whether differences in financing capacity are reflected in the cash flow and growth
How early academic rank shapes high school choices and admissions
Students with the same test score can have considerably different academic ranks depending on their school peers. Using data from the Mexico City metropolitan area,
Firms slice up global production to protect their knowhow
Imitation is a first-order concern for enterprises operating global production processes. Firms routinely source knowledge-intensive inputs from many countries, including those with weak intellectual property
