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
New jobs in 140 years of data: Why the AI displacement fear is overstated — and what to worry about instead
Forecasts of AI-driven job destruction rest on counting automatable tasks. But labour markets hire, pay, and fire whole occupations, not tasks – and occupations have
How exchange rate policy reshapes global supply chains and productivity growth
Global current account imbalances are widening again. This column argues that currency undervaluation, supported by reserve accumulation under capital controls, can permanently reshape industrial structure
Workers’ age and AI adoption
Numerous studies have analysed the effects of AI on productivity, growth and employment. Few of these focus on the factors that promote or hinder the
A view to a kill…ing of productivity: The allocative cost of war in Ukraine
Estimates of the cost of Russia’s war on Ukraine are dominated by what the war destroys. This column measures a second cost: the labour and
Small and stuck: Why European firms can’t scale
In 2008, the US stock market was worth $3 trillion more than the combined European stock market; in 2023, the gap was $34 trillion. This
Europe’s productivity is more dynamic than aggregate statistics suggest
Aggregate productivity growth in Europe has disappointed over the last two decades, fuelling concerns about competitiveness. This column argues that firm-level evidence points to a
Nine centuries of cultural change and the productivity of ideas
Economic historians have long placed culture at the centre of the rise of the West, but have lacked a measure of culture spanning the emergence
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
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
