The unprecedented wave of state aid to firms across the EU during the COVID-19 pandemic raised questions about who benefited and how effective these interventions were. This column uses firm-level data from Spain and Italy – two of the countries worst affected by the pandemic – to evaluate the economic impact of aid. Targeted support […]
Cities in low- and middle-income countries are growing fast—but their ability to finance the infrastructure and services needed to support people and jobs is lagging behind. The consequences are real: without better roads, transit, water, energy, and housing, cities struggle to deliver basic services or attract investment, limiting job creation and economic opportunity. That’s because urban infrastructure […]
Electric vehicles (EVs) have grown from a niche technology to a mainstream industry in the space of a little over a decade. EV deployment is crucial to meet climate targets and is transforming the automotive industry – a cornerstone of manufacturing in both the United States and Europe. Unlike China, the EU and US are […]
The new targets, to be formally included in the government’s upcoming fiscal and economic policy guidelines in June, represent a sharp escalation from the previous goal of 100 trillion yen by 2030 Japan is set to raise its 2030 foreign direct investment target by 20% and push the figure as high as 150 trillion yen […]
In recent years, concerns over global financial fragmentation have grown amid rising geopolitical tensions. This column integrates a network structure in a multi-country model with imperfect financial markets to study how currency risk premia are connected to financiers’ risk bearing capacity. Guided by the theory, it constructs a centrality-based characteristic that gives a direct role […]
Although Chinese banks have remained the top lenders to emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs), their growth has slowed and their lending patterns have changed since the pandemic. This column shows that while cross-border lending by Chinese banks to their EMDE borrowers was highly correlated with bilateral trade flows between both countries prior to the […]
The conventional wisdom is that uncertainty leads to economic contractions, but recent evidence challenges this assumption. This column introduces two novel concepts of uncertainty – agreed and disagreed uncertainty. It shows that when uncertainty is accompanied by widespread consumer disagreement about economic conditions (disagreed uncertainty), the economy remains stable despite the elevated uncertainty. In contrast, […]
Taiwan’s foreign minister will visit the U.S. state of Texas to speak at a forum on artificial intelligence (AI) and promote business and trade ties, his office said on Tuesday, as Taipei seeks to bolster investment and see off the threat of tariffs. Goods from tech powerhouse Taiwan had been due to face U.S. import […]
Kimberly Hilliard, co-founder of a five-year-old travel agency in Maryland, says at this time of year she usually fields up to 10 inquiries a week from clients eager to book vacations, but for much of the past month her phones have gone quiet. The unusual lull in Hilliard’s business followed a plunge in U.S. share […]
In recent years, banks’ credit line exposure to non-bank financial institutions has grown significantly. This column analyses the implications by focusing on a specific type of such institutions – real estate investment trusts. These trusts are significant investors in commercial real estate and therefore exposed to rising interest rates and economic slowdowns. They have higher […]
