More in Global Economy


6 years

The Modern Shape-Up Labor Market

It’s not unusual to hear predictions that in the future, we will all have opportunities to run our own companies, or that jobs will become a series of freelance contracts. Here’s a representative comment from business school professor Arun Sundararajan (“The Future of Work,” Finance & Development, June 2017, p. 7-11):

6 years

What if Country Bonds Were Linked to GDP Growth?

What if countries could have some built-in flexibility in repaying their debts: specifically, what if the repayment of the debt was linked to whether the domestic economy was growing? Thus, the burden of debt payments would fall in a recession, which is when government sees tax revenues fall and social expenditures rise. Imagine, for example, how the the situation of Greece with government debt would have been different if the country's lousy economic performance had automatically restructured its debt burden in away that reduced current payments. Of course, the tradeoff is that when the economy is going well, debt payments are higher -- but presumably also easier to bear.

6 years

Opioids: Brought to You by the Medical Care Industry

There's a lot of talk about the opioid crisis, but I'm not confident that most people have internalized just how awful it is. To set the stage, here are a couple of figures from the 2018 Economic Report of the President.

6 years

Early Childhood Education Fails Another Randomized Trial

Public programs for pre-K education have a worthy goal: reducing the gaps in educational achievement that manifest themselves in early grades. I find myself rooting for such programs to succeed. But there are now two major randomized control trial studies looking at the the results of publicly provided pre-K programs, and neither one finds lasting success. Mark W. Lipsey, Dale C. Farran, and Kelley Durkin report the results of the most recent study in "Effects of the Tennessee Prekindergarten Program on children’s achievement and behavior through third grade" (Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 2018, online version April 21, 2018). 

6 years

Copper And Gold Say A Lot About Chinese And Global Growth

Weakness in Copper persists, and it shows the risks to optimistic global growth and inflation expectations. But something else is happening in gold and copper apart from global slowdown and US dollar strength.

6 years

Conflict Minerals and Unexpected Tradeoffs

The cause seemed worthy, and the policy mild. Militia groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) were taxing and extorting revenue from those who mined like tin, tungsten, and tantalum. Thus, Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 required companies to disclose the source of their purchases of such minerals. The hope was to reduce funding for the militias, and thus to benefit people in the area. Human rights advocacy groups supported the idea. The Good Intentions Paving Company was up and running.

6 years

The Eurozone’s Coming Debt Crisis

The European Central bank has signalled the end of its asset purchase program and a possible rate hike before 2019. After more than 2 trillion euro of purchases and zero interest rate policy, it is overdue.

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