Microfinance’s promise was oversold, not broken
The Wall Street Journal recently published a sobering account of microfinance’s shortcomings, documenting troubling cases of over-indebtedness, land loss, and borrower distress in countries such
China’s accession to the WTO increased pollution via coal powerplants, not exporters or their suppliers and consumers
As countries consider trade deals to foster development, the question of how trade impacts pollution keeps resurfacing. This column examines how China’s rapid entry into
Bahrain raises $1bln in 10-year USD bond; demand exceeds $3bln
Strong demand enabled Bahrain to tighten pricing by 37.5 basis points from IPTs. Bahrain has raised $1 billion through a 10-year USD bond, attracting strong
The transatlantic divide in labour’s share of income
Across advanced economies, workers have been receiving a smaller share of national incomes. This column compares the evolution of labour’s share of income in Europe
Frontier market economies: Seven insights on global financial integration and rising debt
Over the next quarter-century, today’s frontier markets are projected to add more individuals to the global population than the rest of the world combined—making them
Reconfiguring Europe in a fractured global economy: The Florence Report
The dramatic developments unfolding globally, spanning wars, geopolitical shifts, and trade disruptions, have caught Europe off balance. The 2026 Florence Report urges the EU to
Why liquidity evaporates when it is most needed
A common feature of flash crash episodes in financial markets is that liquidity vanishes precisely when it is most needed. This column argues that this
Using global shocks as a laboratory to study executive pay
It is often claimed that executives reap rewards from favourable market tailwinds they did nothing to create. This column uses two decades of Danish data
The case for a European Union digital enforcement authority
The European Union’s digital rulebook could be better enforced by delegating some of the European Commission’s powers to an independent agency. The European Commission plays
The non-fungible token bubble: What investors actually earned
The non-fungible token market exploded in 2021, but by late 2022 prices had collapsed. This column uses blockchain records for two major non-fungible token platforms
