Popular Science and Book Reviews 2020–

A new empirical study examines whether advancements in automation and robotics have affected intergenerational income mobility. The authors find that parents’ exposure to new technologies is associate…

The choice of language affects how and what we learn. Domestic conditions are easier to describe in one’s native language, and therefore have more room to breathe when discussed in the native language…

In the late 1990s, Sweden had a uniquely well-functioning electricity system. It was virtually 100 per cent fossil-free, reliable, and cost-efficient. What went wrong?

How does people’s ability influence their taxpaying behavior? This column links administrative tax and military enlistment registers in Sweden to measure how cognitive ability matters for income tax r…

On the question of economic justice, political debate tends to swing between two poles. The Left wants to reduce economic differences based on the notion of distributive justice, while the Right empha…

Recent research has highlighted the contribution that managerial decisions make to firms’ productivity. This column uses a novel measure of job-worker allocation quality to document how firms that mat…

Economic growth requires factor reallocation across firms and continuous replacement of technologies. Labor market institutions influence economic dynamism by their impact on the supply of a key facto…

Wealth inequality has attracted considerable attention in recent years. This column presents new historical evidence that revises earlier results and reveals long-term patterns. A key finding is that…

I read books in recurring cycles, by subject. The first subject is Economics, then History, followed by Music and Art. Each cycle is concluded with Other, which is anything else, including fiction. I…

Throughout the Western world, power has come to be seen as something that should be restricted at all costs, because increasingly power is associated with coercion, fraud, ruthlessness, and violence.…

Strict travel restrictions are preventing business partners from different countries from meeting in person. This column explores the effect of business travelling time on trade using data from the li…

Timor-Leste is going through turbulent times. On the political front, the old conflict between former prime ministers Mari Alkatiri and Xanana Gusmao continues to generate parliamentary reshufflings,…

This briefing discusses the possible reactions of the European Union’s larger trading partners to carbon border measures. Section 1 discusses experiences of carbon border adjustment-like regimes prior…

The response to the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted global trade, investment and value chains. There is a risk that newly imposed barriers to international trade and mobility will become permanent. Re…

This November will mark 30 years since former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher left office. After she had narrowly failed to secure an outright win in a 1990 leadership contest triggered by a…

For almost 200 years, old coins were frequently declared invalid in large part of medieval Europe and had to be exchanged for new ones for an exchange fee. This column shows that frequent recoinage ge…

Den avgörande faktorn för ekonomins återhämtning är att sätta fart på den privata konsumtionen, inte att understödja krisande företag eller chanstagare. Med en tidsbegränsad alternativ valuta, vars vä…

Edmund Burke died 223 years prior to this year 2020. Today, Burke is certainly not esteemed by “every Body,” but many still read him. Some in 2020 even find his work timely. Two hundred twenty-three y…

Entrepreneurship makes a vital contribution to economic prosperity. However, this activity is difficult to measure and compare between countries. One reason is that current metrics fail to distinguish…

La inclinación emprendedora es algo que forma parte del carácter humano. Por supuesto, algunas personas son más emprendedores naturales que otras, pero el espíritu emprendedor está en todos nosotros.…

Without question, technological developments during the 2000s have changed society fundamentally. Much as earlier industrial revolutions redrew economic and political arrangements, the ongoing IT and…