Policy & the Economy
November 1, 2023
In a Warming U.S., Smaller Manufacturers Are Feeling the Heat
Smaller firms struggle in the face of temperature shocks, while larger ones are less affected—a trend that is driving industry consolidation.
Jacopo Ponticelli, Qiping Xu and Stefan Zeume
November 1, 2023
When Your Savings Account Is Also a Lottery Ticket
Prize-linked savings accounts can be more enticing to customers than interest rates—and banks like them, too.
Paul Gertler, Sean Higgins, Aisling Scott and Enrique Seira
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 6, 2023
Can We Build a Better Prescription Drug Market?
Medicare will soon be able to negotiate directly with drug makers. But one economist explains why “the goal should be to increase value, not just lower prices.”
Amanda Starc
October 5, 2023
Big Tech Takes the Stand
Google may look like a monopoly, but is its power actually hurting consumers? A legal expert weighs in.
R. Mark McCareins
October 2, 2023
How the Electoral College May Curb Election Fraud
This distinctive aspect of American democracy has come under increased scrutiny. But the very quality that most vexes its critics comes with an underrecognized upside.
Georgy Egorov and Konstantin Sonin
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 28, 2023
It’s Election Season. Here Comes the Morally Charged Language.
In the U.S., presidential candidates across the political spectrum lean on value-laden rhetoric—but emphasize different values.
Kobi Hackenburg, William Brady and Manos Tsakiris
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
August 16, 2023
Social-Media Algorithms Have Hijacked “Social Learning”
We make sense of the world by observing and mimicking others, but digital platforms throw that process into turmoil. Can anything be done?
William Brady, Joshua Conrad Jackson, Björn Lindström and M.J. Crockett
August 10, 2023
How Autocracies Unravel
Over time, leaders grow more repressive and cling to yes-men—a cycle that’s playing out today in Putin’s Russia.
Georgy Egorov and Konstantin Sonin
August 1, 2023
How Data Tracking Is Changing—and What That Means for You
Tech companies are phasing out cookies. Will consumers finally see meaningful privacy protections?
Guy Aridor
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
July 1, 2023
Will the PGA–LIV Golf Merger Pass the Antitrust Test?
“Statements that LIV has made about breaking up the monopoly of the PGA may come back to haunt them.”
R. Mark McCareins
July 1, 2023
How to Prepare for AI-Generated Misinformation
“We have to be careful not to get distracted by sci-fi issues and focus on concrete risks that are the most pressing.”
William Brady
June 30, 2023
The Supreme Court Ended Race-Conscious Admissions. A Sociologist Who Studies Bias in Elite Spaces Is Worried about the Ramifications.
“The decision represents a fundamental misunderstanding or misrecognition of what we know from science about how discrimination works.”
Lauren Rivera
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 22, 2023
What’s at Stake in the Debt-Ceiling Standoff?
Defaulting would be an unmitigated disaster, quickly felt by ordinary Americans.
David A. Besanko
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
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