VoxTalks Economics

Should competition authorities intervene more often in tech mergers? Be careful, Luis Cabral tells Tim Phillips: they risk stifling innovation if they do.

In every crisis, economists will tell us that it is time for helicopter money, and Covid-19 is no different. But the helicopters never seem to take off. Donato Maschiandaro tells Tim Phillips why not.Read about helicopter money in Issue 7 of Covid Economics.

Do we close our public spaces to protect our communities from Covid-19, or keep them open, as in Sweden? Dirk Krueger tells Tim Phillips that informing the public and then trusting individuals to make good choices might deliver a decline in infections, while minimising the Covid recession.Download Covid Economics 5, including Dirk's paper.Picture: Creative Commons/Vogler

On the 75 anniversary of the VE Day, David Edgerton tells Tim Phillips that Britain's belief in its go-it-alone scientific and inventive genius is “deluded”, and has stunted the nation's postwar growth.Download The Economics of the Second World War Seventy-Five Years On, featuring David's chapter.

Last month the media accused New York's wealthy residents of jumping the queue for Covid-19 testing. Stephanie Schmitt-Grohé, a New York resident herself, ran the numbers. She tells Tim Phillips what she discovered.

In a new paper called Born out of necessity, a group of economists and lawyers propose a way for developing and emerging countries to temporarily redirect debt repayments to fund Covid-19 relief. Ugo Panizza and Mitu Gulati tell Tim Phillips how it would work. Read about this controversial idea at VoxEU.

Keynes amassed an extensive collection of fine art during his lifetime. David Chambers tells Tim Phillips what the financial returns on his investment have been, and the insight this gives us into how to value an art portfolio as an asset.

The 2014 Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone affected an area which included a pioneering experiment in community healthcare. Oeindrila Dube tells Tim Phillips about the lifesaving impact of this experiment - and two important lessons we can learn that may help to contain the spread of Covid-19 in Africa.

When Covid-19 wasn't even on the radar of most policymakers, Warwick McKibbin of ANU used his experience from previous pandemics to create seven scenarios for its impact. All implied a major shock to the global economy. Tim Phillips asks him how his model was able to capture the nature of Covid-19, and which policymakers listened to the warning.Read about McKibbin's scenarios in Chapter 3 of Economics in the Time of Covid-19.

In international crises, disasters and wars, private lenders disappear. But governments have stepped in and lent far more to each other than we previously thought. Christoph Trebesch tells Tim Phillips that new data on 200 years of official lending may contain unexpected good news for countries crippled by Covid-19.Read 'Coping with disasters: Lessons from two centuries of international response' at VoxEU

Enrico Perotti tells Tim Phillips that while regulatory reform means that banks are unlikely to be at risk, the same is not true for the shadow banking sector. Does this threaten financial stability, and what should policymakers do about it?

How can euro area countries work together to protect their economies? A diverse group of economists has suggested the creation of an emergency Covid credit line. Beatrice Weder di Mauro tells Tim Phillips how it would work.Read about the Covid credit line on VoxEU

In a VoxTalks special, Danny Quah tells Tim Phillips how Singapore defended itself against the health and economic impact of Covid-19, and what other countries can learn from its actions.Download the VoxEU book Mitigating the Covid Economic Crisis.

We think about political polarization as a disagreement about policies. But what if the voters can't even agree on the facts? Stefanie Stantcheva tells Tim Phillips about new research that has profound implications for democracy.

How big are Covid-19's economic consequences? That's the theme of a new VoxEU book with contributions from many of the world's most experienced policymakers with expertise in this area. Beatrice Weder di Mauro and Richard Baldwin, the book's editors, give Tim Phillips the (mostly) bad news.Download the book: it's free.

Women are under-represented in economics, and the situation is not improving. Economists Shelly Lundberg, Donna Ginther, Jenna Stearns and Erin Hengel talk to Tim Phillips about VoxEU's new book on the subject that examines the barriers that women face in the profession, and also suggests ways to support the next generation of female economists.Download the book here, it's free.

In the last decade, global digital giants have snapped up hundreds of smaller, innovative companies. Should competition authorities have intervened more often? Tomaso Duso tells Tim Phillips about new research that suggests they should.

A century ago, American nativists succeeded in establishing immigration quotas to drive up the wages of US workers. What happened next? Not what you might think, Leah Boustan tells Tim Phillips.

New research shows how a school-building programme in Indonesia successfully reduced conflict. Dominic Rohner tells Tim Phillips about this unanticipated peace dividend, and how the CEPR's research and policy network on conflict reduction will help policymakers.

Is regional inequality a problem that central banks should worry about? Andy Haldane of the Bank of England tells Tim Phillips why he thanks the answer is yes: but why we also need to think about what, and how, we measure.

Why are cities so keen to create their own technology clusters, and why is it so difficult? Bill Kerr of Harvard Business School tells Tim Phillips what economists know (and don't know) about where tech clusters come from.

An experiment in Haiti shows that people take more risks in the presence of religious images, even if there is less chance they will win. Emmanuelle Auriol tells Tim Phillips about the challenges that belief in a higher power presents for economic development.

When the industries that have sustained our cities decline, how can we regenerate urban areas? At the SUERF conference in Amsterdam, Tony Venables and Charles Goodhart tell Tim Phillips that redevelopment policies may have made regional inequality and social conflict worse.

In 2020, the UK and the EU will try to strike a post-Brexit deal in financial services. At the SUERF conference in Amsterdam, David Miles and Iain Begg explain to Tim Phillips what's at stake in the negotiations, and who would suffer most if there's no deal.

This year's Nobel prize celebrated the work of the economists who popularised randomised controlled trials, “for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty”. But is it possible to have too much of a good thing? Tim Phillips investigates.Picture © Nobel Media 2019. Illustration: Niklas Elmehed.

New research demonstrates what we all suspected: for decades, politicians have routinely used busy news days to bury unpopular announcements. Ruben Durante educates Tim Phillips in the politics of distraction.

Language skills for preschoolers help them achieve more when they get to school, but some parents are better than others at helping their kids to develop these skills. Denis Fougère and Carlo Barone tell Tim Phillips about a successful experiment in Paris to help less-educated parents spend time reading with their children.

Few countries tax their citizens' wealth annually, but Switzerland is one of them. Marius Brülhart tells Tim Phillips about a natural experiment in Switzerland's cantons that teaches us about how people would respond if more countries decided to tax wealth instead of income.

The mobile internet, promises to give us access to information anywhere, 24 hours a day. So how has it influenced trust in governments, politics, and politicians? Sergei Guriev tells Tim Phillips about how, all over the world, 3G has reduced trust in government and aided the rise of populism.

We think about climate policies as moderating or interceding in markets. But a new paper implies that when stock markets play a bigger part in the economy, polluting industries become cleaner. Tim Phillips asks Ralph De Haas of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development whether we already have a green finance initiative under our noses.

When there's a financial crisis, policymakers and politicians increasingly kowtow to the demands of an influential group: the global middle class. Jeffrey Chwieroth and Andrew Walter tell Tim Phillips how their Great Expectations are destabilising the world economy.Read about Great Expectations at VoxEU.

Doing a good job of deciding who can borrow is fundamental for the global economy. Stefania Albanesi tells Tim Phillips that current consumer credit ratings do a poor job at predicting which of us will default, and explains how she has used machine learning to improve them.

When the law changed to allow same-sex partners to get married, did the symbolism of marriage have any effect on the stability of relationships? Shuai Chen tells Tim Phillips about a surprising result from The Netherlands.

How much is spent on end-of-life care, and who foots the bill? Eric French of UCL tells Tim Phillips about the total cost of the last year of our lives, and how different countries have very different ideas of who should pay it.Read about the research at VoxEU.org, and download the VoxEU book about the economics of ageing.

The Royal Economic Society has launched Discover Economics, an ambitious three-year campaign to attract more women, minority students and students from state schools to study the subject. Sarah Smith and Arun Advani, co-chairs of the campaign, plus Rachel Griffith, RES president, tell Tim Phillips about how they plan to make this happen.Read about Discover Economics at VoxEU.

We are living longer, and that affects every part of our economic future. David Bloom is the editor of a new VoxEU book on what he calls "the what, the so what, and the now what" of ageing. He tells Tim Phillips about some of the policy choices our societies will have to make in the near future.

Economists date the growth of London's financial system, and its impact on the British economy, from the end of the 17th century. Nathan Sussman tells Tim Phillips how how he discovered contemporary records that tell a different story.

Patrick Honohan took over as governor of the Central Bank of Ireland in 2009 with the economy in meltdown, and steered it through its deepest crisis. His new book re-examines what happened, and lessons for future crises. Tim Phillips talks to Patrick and the FT's Martin Sandbu about what policymakers and central bankers can learn from Ireland's ordeal.Read about Patrick's book at VoxEU.org.Picture: William Murphy/CC

On 24 September the CEPR launches the latest Geneva Report on the world economy, called Banking disrupted? Financial intermediation in an era of transformational technology. Tim Phillips asks Tara Rice and Kathryn Petralia, two of the authors, whether fintechs and cryptocurrencies signal the beginning of the end for banks.Download the report, or read about it at VoxEU.

Economists argue whether foreign direct investment in developing economies exports pollution or generates green growth. Beata Javorcik talks to Tim Phillips about a surprising conclusion from factory-level research.Read about the research at VoxEU.

Starting on the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the second world war, VoxEU is publishing a series of articles about the economics of the war. Tim Phillips talks to some of the authors about their research.Read more about the project at VoxEU.

On average, if you are born in Africa today you have much better chances to succeed than your parents or grandparents. But which countries have the best, and worst, intergenerational mobility? Elias Papaioannou tells Tim Phillips about the four-year hunt for Africa's lands of opportunity.

The US has an epidemic of "deaths of despair". Michael Reich tells Tim Phillips that new research implies that a $15 minimum wage doesn't just cut poverty, it also saves lives. But is Congress listening?

As Brexit nears (again), are British firms choosing to invest in the UK or in other European markets? Are European firms investing in the UK to preserve access to its markets? And has "global Britain" got off the drawing board yet? Holger Breinlich and Dennis Novy lead Tim Phillips through the numbers.

When does social media polarize opinion, and when does it bring us closer together? Yves Zenou tells Tim Phillips about a new economic model that shows us how affinity can become division, and why the trolls often win.

Despite all the evidence to the contrary we continue to overestimate how much work we will do tomorrow, or how often we will go to the gym. Why? Peter Schwardmann tells Tim Phillips that we do learn from experience about ourselves - in the right circumstances.

France has surprisingly low social mobility. OECD chief economist Laurence Boone tells Tim Phillips why this is the case, how the problem fuels the gilets jaunes protests, and what can be done about it.

Supposedly 'green' diesel engines with devices to cheat emissions tests have been polluting as much as 150 ordinary cars. Hannes Schwandt tell Tim Phillips about the staggering human cost of VW's fraud.

Children in different countries start school at very different ages. Thomas Cornelissen tells Tim Phillips about new research that suggests an early start may help their development.Check out the research on VoxEU.org

Are Italy's populist policies of miniBOTs and flat taxes the right medicine for its economic sickness? Fabio Ghironi tells Tim Phillips that, if Italy doesn't attempt fundamental structural reforms, it may be on the path to Eurexit.