Policy & the Economy
March 5, 2024
When New Technology Arrives, Who Wins and Who Loses?
For tools that assist but don’t replace workers, novices benefit, while experienced employees take a hit.
Leonid Kogan, Dimitris Papanikolaou, Lawrence Schmidt and Bryan Seegmiller
March 1, 2024
How to Award Contracts When You’re Concerned about Quality
You want a good price, but you don’t want lousy workmanship. What’s a buyer to do?
Giuseppe Lopomo, Nicola Persico and Alessandro T. Villa
February 1, 2024
How the Railroad Laid the Tracks for Modern Government
Technologies that allowed federal officials to monitor workers from afar played a key role in the emergence of the bureaucratic state.
Nicola Mastrorocco and Edoardo Teso
January 4, 2024
Why Are So Many Young Chinese Depressed?
It’s not just the economic slowdown. The country’s education system and social policies have created a disillusioned generation.
Nancy Qian
December 11, 2023
Investing Over-the-Counter—and Under the Radar
In most markets, buyers and sellers benefit from soliciting many offers. New research shows why the opposite is true for OTC traders.
Markus Baldauf and Joshua Mollner
November 28, 2023
The Long Tail of China’s Zero-COVID Policy
As the costs of China’s pandemic experience are tallied, younger generations are confronting a disconcerting new reality.
Nancy Qian
October 18, 2023
Why Younger Workers Just Can’t Get Ahead
In wealthy countries, the wage gap between older and younger workers is growing. A crowded promotion pathway could be to blame.
Nicola Bianchi and Matteo Paradisi
October 2, 2023
Is Chinese Youth Unemployment as Bad as It Looks?
China’s exceptional growth in recent decades has influenced the education and career choices of young people and their families. But now that high-skilled jobs are drying up and recent graduates are struggling to find work, there is a growing mismatch between expectations and new realities.
Nancy Qian
September 1, 2023
Why Do Long Wars Happen?
War is a highly inefficient way of dividing contested resources—yet conflicts endure when there are powerful incentives to feign strength.
Sandeep Baliga and Tomas Sjöström
July 27, 2023
Youth Unemployment and China’s Economic Future
For decades, China’s growth has followed the pattern of advanced economies, with rising incomes and educational attainment, shrinking family size, and growing female labor-force participation. But across these and other dimensions, the economy now appears to be going backward.
Nancy Qian
June 2, 2023
China’s Youth Unemployment Problem
If the record-breaking joblessness persists, as seems likely, China will have an even harder time supporting its rapidly aging population.
Nancy Qian
May 16, 2023
Take 5: Yikes! When Unintended Consequences Strike
Good intentions don’t always mean good results. Here’s why humility, and a lot of monitoring, are so important when making big changes.
Sunil Chopra, Jacopo Ponticelli, Anna Tuchman, Erika Deserranno and Jörg L. Spenkuch
May 1, 2023
2 Factors Will Determine How Much AI Transforms Our Economy
They’ll also dictate how workers stand to fare.
Benjamin F. Jones
April 1, 2023
How Marriages Are Exacerbating Income Inequality
Marriage patterns can account for 40 percent of rising inequality, according to a new study.
Almar Frederik, Benjamin Friedrich, Ana Reynoso, Bastian Schulz and Rune Vejlin
January 25, 2023
6 Takeaways on Inflation and the Economy Right Now
Are we headed into a recession? Kellogg’s Sergio Rebelo breaks down the latest trends.
Sergio Rebelo
December 23, 2022
Podcast: China’s Economy Is in Flux. Here’s What American Businesses Need to Know.
On this episode of The Insightful Leader: the end of “Zero Covid,” escalating geopolitical tensions, and China’s potentially irreplaceable role in the global supply chain.
Nancy Qian, Benjamin F. Jones and David Dollar
December 22, 2022
What Do American Businesses Need to Understand about China Right Now?
As China’s zero-Covid policy ends, it’s time to take stock of where the world’s second largest economy may be headed.
Nancy Qian, Benjamin F. Jones and David Dollar
December 6, 2022
Which Workers Suffer Most When New Technology Arrives?
It’s not necessarily who you think.
Leonid Kogan, Dimitris Papanikolaou, Lawrence Schmidt and Bryan Seegmiller
December 1, 2022
What Happens to Worker Productivity after a Minimum Wage Increase?
A pay raise boosts productivity for some—but the impact on the bottom line is more complicated.
Decio Coviello, Erika Deserranno and Nicola Persico
December 1, 2022
How COVID Changed the Way Americans Think about Economic Inequality
For some, the pandemic laid bare the social factors that can keep people down. But not everyone adopted a new perspective.
Hannah J. Birnbaum, Andrea G. Dittmann, Nicole Stephens, Ellen C. Reinhart, Rebecca M. Carey and Hazel Rose Markus
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