Measuring the impact of change when everyone is included
Many big policy decisions – including environmental regulations, major tax shifts and universal health interventions – are national in scope. This makes it difficult to evaluate their effectiveness since everyone is affected by the new measure. An innovative econometric tool provides a solution.
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Rethinking inflation: why we need to focus on the job ladder
The Phillips curve underpinning monetary policy doesn’t capture the full complexity of the links between labour markets and inflation. The concept of the job ladder and the dynamics of job-to-job switching offer a richer understanding of how economic shocks translate into wage and price pressures.
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Immigration, jobs and wages: why places and people tell different stories
Immigration affects places and people in different ways. Evidence from a natural experiment in Germany in the early 1990s shows that regional employment may fall while most workers keep their jobs. Adjustment costs often fall on those entering the labour market rather than those already employed.
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Understanding the landscape of race-related research in economics
The discipline of economics lags behind other social sciences in its engagement with issues of racial and ethnic inequality. Strengthening the scientific foundation of race-related research is essential if economists are to contribute meaningfully to public debate about racial justice.
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Ensuring research reliability: a new tool for detecting weak evidence
Policy-makers need to know that the research evidence on which their decisions are based is reliable. A powerful new testing method can assess the strengths and weaknesses of instruments used to analyse complex webs of cause-and-effect relationships – and thereby deliver better-informed advice.
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The lemons penalty: evidence from Denmark’s market for second-hand cars
Even good used cars sell at a discount because buyers can’t tell them apart from bad ones – so-called lemons. Nevertheless, many people still sell good cars – but the lemons penalty reduces car turnover, slows down upgrades and limits low-wealth households’ ability to use cars as financial buffers.
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When promises change: why job security depends on who is in charge
The job security implicit in employment contracts is not just about goodwill: it depends both on whether strong performance or misconduct is easier to observe and on how incentives are structured to sustain effort – both very variable across sectors. When leadership changes, contracts may change.
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How financial institutions collaborate to exploit regulatory loopholes
Banks and other financial institutions are not simply battling for market share. Rather, they collaborate to exploit loopholes in regulation on key issues like capital requirements, which compel banks to back lending with their own equity. Ultimately, this can lead to higher bills for taxpayers.
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