Studies of the impact of robots on labour markets often conceptualise jobs as bundles of distinct tasks. In such frameworks, technologies substitute or complement workers. But this view may overestimate the potential adverse effects of automation, particularly in developing countries. This column distinguishes between technical feasibility and economic viability of adopting industrial robots and artificial […]
There is a growing push from certain quarters for the European Commission to weaken merger control in order to spur greater investment and innovation, higher productivity and growth, or the creation of European champions. This column argues that there are empirical and theoretical grounds to strengthen, rather than weaken, merger control, and offers suggestions to […]
The world is moving into a period of entrenched manufacturing overcapacity, threatening deflation and stagnant growth. Over the past two decades, China has emerged as the world’s manufacturing powerhouse. By offering goods at significantly lower prices than its competitors, China has captured a huge share of the global market. However, this flood of inexpensive goods […]
Productivity growth has been lacklustre over the past 20 years in most advanced economies. But standard productivity measures ignore the progress that some economies have made in terms of lowering carbon dioxide emissions. This column proposes a method to embed those efficiency gains into existing productivity measures. For traditional (small) estimates of the cost of […]
We live in a world overflowing with data, yet turning this abundance into economic growth and job creation remains a significant challenge. Cloud computing has emerged as a powerful tool for this transformation, especially in developing economies. Traditionally, firms in these countries have faced barriers to accessing computing power, largely due to the high upfront […]
How does generative AI affect real workplace productivity? This column reports results from an experiment at the National Bank of Slovakia, where staff were randomly assigned GPT-4o access while completing routine and non-routine tasks. The model improved output quality by up to 44% and cut completion time by 21%, with the largest gains on non-routine, […]
Adult skills play a crucial role in shaping productivity. This column uses data from the 2023 OECD Survey of Adult Skills to analyse the relationship between productivity and the level and allocation of skills across industries. Differences in skill levels account for one-quarter of productivity gaps between the OECD average and the top three performers. […]
The growth of the private equity in recent years has raised concerns about its consequences. This column matches 2.5 million workers who were employed by 3,600 firms in the US that underwent leveraged buyouts with workers at firms that were not acquired to explore the effects of private equity on labour market outcomes. The authors […]
Governments are increasingly employing industrial subsidies, raising questions about their market implications. This column undertakes a thorough econometric testing of the causal impacts of subsidies on several firm performance indicators for large manufacturing companies. The authors find that subsidies increase firms’ market shares but have either no impact, or a negative impact on investment and […]
Policy debates around climate change frequently focus on the trade-off between the near-term costs of reducing carbon emissions and the long-term benefits of mitigating climate change. William Nordhaus highlighted the importance of aggregate productivity losses from climate change in shaping this intertemporal trade-off, but estimating these losses is challenging. This column examines both the direct […]
