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
Japan’s productivity transformation: From within-firm stagnation to market-driven reallocation
Discussions on Japan’s ‘lost decades’ have long focused on sluggish demand and the survival of ‘zombie’ firms. However, new evidence from microdata suggests a fundamental
The scramble for critical minerals: An old curse in a new world
Lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, and rare earth elements are reshaping global trade and great-power politics in ways reminiscent of the earlier scramble for natural resources.
AI feedback loops and the conditions for explosive growth
If frontier AI models can be used to develop their next models, this may lead to an ‘intelligence explosion’ and give a large boost to
The scramble for critical minerals: An old curse in a new world
Lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, and rare earth elements are reshaping global trade and great-power politics in ways reminiscent of the earlier scramble for natural resources.
Japan’s productivity transformation: From within-firm stagnation to market-driven reallocation
Discussions on Japan’s ‘lost decades’ have long focused on sluggish demand and the survival of ‘zombie’ firms. However, new evidence from microdata suggests a fundamental
The origins of the multinational premium: Managerial talent, firm risk, and corporate taxation
Multinational firms tend to earn higher stock returns than purely domestic firms, raising questions about what drives their differential exposure to aggregate risk. This column
When the news you watch shapes the inflation you expect
Central banks lean on communication to anchor inflation expectations. But most households learn about the economy from the news rather than from policy statements, and
Digital banks, social media, and the competition for deposits
The rapid digitalisation of banking and the widespread use of social media are transforming competition for retail deposits. Using US branch-level data, this column shows
