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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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 illusion of choice: multibrand price dispersion in modern retail
Modern consumers are used to a flood of options whenever they are shopping for something. Whether it’s car insurance or fizzy drinks, there are endless brands from which to choose. But many brands are owned by the same firms – and this affects how suppliers set their prices.
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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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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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Theorising about competing policy narratives
Public opinion is constantly shaped by competing stories about what drives social and economic outcomes. Economic theory provides a systematic way to think about how false narratives – about, say, the impact of tariffs on jobs – can come to dominate true narratives before returning to rationality.
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Beyond markets and states: civil society comes of age in economic research
Half a century ago, economic research in the top journals took a turn towards issues of community, place, family, religion and identity. This was associated with novel empirical methods including experiments, large data sets and an increasing focus on social norms and strategic interactions.
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Rethinking economics assessments for a GenAI world
A co-ordinated effort across the UK higher education sector will make it possible to integrate artificial intelligence into economics education in a way that enriches students’ learning experience while maintaining the rigour and value that makes degrees in the subject so much in demand.
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