VoxTalks Economics

The records of London's Foundling Hospital provide centuries of information on children's health. Eric Schneider tells Tim Phillips how he used this data to discover surprising information about the link between nutrition and common childhood illnesses.

In 1932, Hitler and his followers believed that marching through the streets of Hamburg in uniform would convince its citizens to vote him into power. But did the flags, songs and stomping boots actually persuade people? Hans-Joachim Voth tells Tim Phillips how polling data (and the spread of a pandemic) reveal whether this type of propaganda actually worked.

In the scramble for PPE in early 2020, prices spiked, supplies dried up, and doctors were forced to use garbage bags for protection. A year on, Chad Bown has examined what happened, and he tells Tim Phillips how we can avoid a repeat.

Remember when your local newspaper was filled with classified advertising? Once, three-line ads for lonely hearts and used cars for sale were a guaranteed source of revenue. Then Craigslist replaced classifieds in the US, and the result, Ruben Durante tells Tim Phillips, has been less political reporting and more partisan polarisation.

Jonathan Ostry of the IMF has investigated a century of pandemics and discovered that not only do they make our societies less equal, but they lead to a K-shaped recovery. He tells Tim Phillips that, unlike other crises, pandemics open a permanent gap between winners and losers.Ungated paper at https://cepr.online/DP16122

Imran Rasul tells Tim Phillips about new research that shows the fraction of published economics research devoted to the causes and consequences of racial inequality is much smaller than in political science or sociology - and that this inequality has been getting worse.

People everywhere sometimes pretend to be sick on a Friday because a day off work means a three-day weekend. In Italy, sick workers may now get a surprise home visit from the doctor. Tito Boeri tells Tim Phillips how effective this has been as a cure for "Friday morning fever".

If some kids lie a little, and some lie a lot, is that just the way they are, or can we increase a child’s honesty in day-to-day life? Johannes Abeler tells Tim Phillips about how mentors can create lasting behaviour change.The paper discussed is:Abeler, J, Falk, A and Kosse, F. 2021. 'Malleability of preferences for honesty'. London, Centre for Economic Policy Research. https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=16164

Do cultural norms determine whether women go back to work after having a child? And if culture changes, does their behaviour change too? Anna Raute and Uta Schӧnberg tell Tim Phillips how the reunification of Germany provided unique data.The paper discussed is:Boelmann, B, Raute, A and Schӧnberg, U. 2021. 'Wind of Change? Cultural Determinants of Maternal Labor Supply'. London, Centre for Economic Policy Research. https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=16149

John Maynard Keynes famously predicted that no one would need to work for more than three hours a day by 2030. How did he get it so wrong? Nick Crafts tells Tim Phillips that, in one way, Keynes has underestimated the change in our work-life balance.

What's the future of capitalism? Luis Garicano asked this question to 21 of his fellow economists, and this week the interviews are published as a CEPR ebook. He tells Tim Phillips that Covid-19 may inspire us "to rethink everything we are doing".You can download the new CEPR Press eBook 'Capitalism after Covid: Conversations with 21 economists' here

Latin America has a long history of populist government. New research by Antonio Spilimbergo quantifies the consequences of populism for the region's institutions and economies.

The CEPR's Research Policy Network on competition policy (cepr.online/competition) launches this week. In the first of two special podcasts on the topic, Greg Crawford and Cristina Caffarra tell Tim Phillips why it is so important to have this debate now, and how academics can use the RPN to connect their research to real-world policy.You can find out more about and register for the event on June 17th 2021 here: Privacy & Antitrust: "Integration", not just "Intersection"

How well has monetary policy coped with the challenge of Covid-19?Central banks get good grades in a new VoxEU ebook. But Bill English and Angel Ubide warn Tim Phillips that success today may lead to problems in future.

Every day we can see harrowing mobile phone footage from conflict zones, shot by civilians, on the TV news. Ekaterina Zhuravskaya tells Tim Phillips that data from the Israel-Palestine conflict suggests social media has changed the tone of what traditional media reports.

The latest Barcelona Report from the CEPR discusses how central banks and asset managers should manage climate and natural disaster risks. Xavier Vives tells Tim Phillips what the report has to say about mandates, hedging and resilience.

ESG – Environmental, Social and Governance – measures of bank performance are getting a lot of attention from shareholders and policymakers. But might more investment in ESG make banks less resilient? Thomas Gehrig tells Tim Phillips what the first research on this topic reveals.

As more of us wait to have children, more of us also worry if that's best for the health of our babies. Empirical evidence has been inconclusive so far but, based on new evidence, Hans Hvide tells Tim Phillips that this might be a problem with the way the research has been done.

If you had trouble in the last four years keeping up with what was happening in the trade war, you're not alone. Chad Bown tell Tim Phillips about his new paper that explains what happened, when, what it meant - and what happens next.

An increasing amount of trade is digital, but trade negotiations are bogged down by arguments over how to regulate it. A new VoxEU ebook investigates what gets in the way of digital trade, and editors Ingo Borchert and Alan Winters tell Tim Phillips what we can do to make it work better.

Europe has struggled through two crises in the last decade, but this time its response has been much more decisive and ambitious. George Papaconstantinou tells Tim Phillips why Covid-19 may be the catalyst for deeper EU integration.You can download CEPR Policy Insight 109: Reshaping economic policy in the EU in the post-Covid world, by Marco Buti and George Papaconstantinou, here

Can we create a database of everyone in history? What would it tell us about who we consider to be important? Etienne Wasmer, Morgane Laouenan, and Arash Nekoei tell Tim Phillips about what their projects tell us.

We measure inequality using income as a proxy for welfare. But are we mixing up "doing well" with "being well"? Leandro Prados de la Escosura thinks so, and his research contradicts much of what we think we know about the long-run trends in inequality.

What would our economies be like if Bitcoin completely displaced fiat currency? Jon Danielsson tells Tim Phillips that it wouldn't be a world that he wants to live in.

Good-looking economists get better academic posts. Galina Hale tells Tim Phillips about surprising new research that challenges our assumptions about how departments rate and recruit candidates.

It has been two years since Wirecard suddenly collapsed. Giorgio Barba Navaretti and Alberto Pozzolo explain to Tim Phillips why it is so hard to supervise global fintechs, and how regulators can do a better job next time.

Anti-pollution laws penalise firms whose activities emit CO2. Itzhak Ben-David tells Tim Phillips that well-intentioned regulation may be causing multinationals to shunt polluting activities to poorer countries where regulation isn’t so strict.

Africa’s citizens have so far mostly been spared the direct health consequences of the pandemic, but many of its economies are on life support. Ugo Panizza and Simeon Djankov, two of the editors of a new CEPR ebook about Africa's recovery, talk to Tim Phillips about post-Covid debt, FDI, food security, and how it's in all our interests to step up and help.Download Shaping Africa’s Post-Covid Recovery at VoxEU.

Diffusion of new drugs is painfully slow in low-income countries. Mark Schankerman tells Tim Phillips about how patent pools accelerate the process, and how we could still do a better job of licensing life-saving medicines.

Today the CEPR launches a new ebook on Europe's trade strategy. Author Christian Bluth tells Tim Phillips that nations are increasingly using global trade as a means of political arm-twisting. Should the EU do the same?Download Europe’s trade strategy for the age of geoeconomic globalisation from VoxEU.

Serious illness can be life-changing. Does it inspire us to be more charitable? Sarah Smith tells Tim Phillips whether we give more to charity after we suffer, to which charities - and what this means for their funding after Covid-19.

In classical capitalism, the rich earn their money from capital while the poor sell the value of their labour. In which countries is that still true, and how does it affect the gap between rich and poor? Branko Milanovic tells Tim Phillips about a new way in which we can think about inequality.Read about the research at VoxEU.

As the climate heats up, what does it mean for the number, and the scale, of conflicts in Africa? Dominic Rohner warns Tim Phillips about the impact that climate change has had in the continent already and the danger signs for the future.

What is behind the pinballing price movements of Bitcoin? Neil Gandal tells Tim Phillips how supply and demand works for cryptocurrencies.

A new study uses detailed data on the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany to investigate why individuals become refugees. Mathias Thoenig tells Tim Phillips about a simple policy that would have saved hundreds of thousands of lives in the 1930s, but is still ignored today.

Among other things, it has not been a great year for global democracy. So in the final VoxTalk of 2020, Konstantin Sonin tells Tim Phillips how authoritarian leaders grab and hold on to power.

Will the pandemic create more or fewer babies? Joshua Wilde tells Tim Phillips how Google search data can provide the answer.

When the galleon San José sank in a typhoon in 1694, it was carrying a cargo worth 2% of the GDP of the entire Spanish empire. Fernando Arteaga, Desiree Desierto and Mark Koyama tell Tim Phillips about how bribes sank Spanish treasure ships.Read the Vox column about Spanish shipwrecks.

Africa's roads were originally built so that colonial powers could extract its natural wealth. What has happened since then? Steven Poelhekke of the University of Auckland examines the maps with Tim Phillips.

Laotians are still suffering collateral damage from a covert war that the US waged in the country half a century ago. Felipe Valencia Caicedo tells Tim Phillips about the devastating impact of the bombing of Laos, and how we can help victims of conflict in future.

When we compare ratios of debt to GDP, do we look closely enough at the political and financial context in which the debts were calculated? Eric Monnet of the Paris School of Economics tells Tim Phillips about how our statistical methods and assumptions have evolved.

The EU's increasingly complex system of fiscal rules should be replaced by a system of fiscal standards instead, Olivier Blanchard tells Tim Phillips.You can watch the recording of Olivier presenting his paper on Fiscal Standards for Europe at the 72nd Economic Policy Journal Panel Meeting hereThe full paper, Redesigning the EU Fiscal Rules: From Rules to Standards by Olivier Blanchard, Alvaro Leandro and Jeromin Zettelmeyer, can be downloaded here

In 2003 Brazil enacted strict gun control legislation. Rodrigo Schneider tells Tim Phillips about the effects on crime and homicide, and whether we can assume there would be a similar impact in other countries.Find more about Rodrigo's paper Crime and political effects of a right-to-carry ban in Brazil , presented at the 72nd Economic Policy Panel Meeting

How well does campaign finance work, and which political parties benefit most? Julia Cagé tells Tim Phillips how the price of a vote has varied in recent British and French elections.

How much did nepotism in Europe's ancient universities hold back progress? David De La Croix tells Tim Phillips about his fascinating research into the emergence of modern science.

Seven hundred years ago the worst pandemic in history killed almost half the population of Europe and the Middle East. Mark Koyama tells Tim Phillips about the centuries-long economic impact of the Black Death.

Some ethnic groups are active in African politics, and some are not. Valeria Rueda tells Tim Phillips the fascinating story of how two socioeconomic revolutions more than a century ago shaped post-colonial political power.

Another week, another tech merger, but this time with huge potential implications for who owns our health data and how it is used. Cristina Caffarra and Greg Crawford tell Tim Phillips why 17 economists have written a paper describing harm that Google's acquisition of Fitbit would cause to consumers.Download Policy Insight 107, or read about it at VoxEU.

Academic economists need to be published, but is the journal system fair and efficient? Sebastian Galiani and Ugo Panizza tell Tim Phillips about a new free VoxEU ebook that tackles racism in publishing, whether you should be judged by your citations, and the tyranny of the top five. Download Publishing and measuring success in economics.

In a crisis, do we get nostalgic about music? Timothy Yeung tells Tim Phillips about Spotify data that suggests we look for comfort by seeking out songs we know. Read the research in Covid Economics.