Most large criminal organisations engage in international drug trafficking. Organisations such as the mafia and Mexican drug cartels have a comparative advantage in the drug market because they are willing and able to engage in violent activity. Contracts concerning the trade of illegal drugs cannot be enforced in a court of law. Therefore, violence is the only means to […]
Technological change facilitates long run growth, but labour-replacing technologies are often perceived as a threat to the livelihood of workers. The recent wave of technologies is no longer confined to replacing routine workers such as machine operative and clerical workers: it could well reduce the employment of, among others, drivers, lawyers, and even fashion designers. Since more occupations are […]
The opinion on the benefits of free trade, and of multilateral agreements, which are free trade’s preferred policy companion, has changed through history. After having enjoyed some decades of favour, the support to multilateralism (and free trade) seems to be declining. The theoretical premise that the free market equilibrium is efficient is the basis for multilateralism. Economists learn in […]
An immense rise in automation by means of industrial robots has taken place. Figures from the International Federation of Robotics reveal that while automation was almost an unkown phenomenon in the 1970s, with fewer than 3000 industrial robots installed worldwide, the operational stock of robots is nowadays already approaching 2.5 million.
At the same time, nations tend to apply more […]
It is well known that on average women tend to earn less than their husbands. A less known fact is that there are particularly few couples in which women earn just a bit more than their husbands relatively to what one would expect — given the number of couples in which women earn just a bit less than their […]
Two developments are seen as evidence of the rise of populist opposition to the established liberal order: Brexit and Donald Trump. While similar in many respects, they have very different views on the World Trade Organisation. Brexiteers see the WTO as an acceptable – if not preferable – alternative to an agreement with the EU, and presumably a suitable […]
Looking at recent growth successes and failures, some of the positive stories of economies were characterised by relatively high female autonomy: Botswana had the highest GDP growth rates of the last decades and had not only favourable institutions, but also high gender equality (Robinson 2009; data on gender equality: Carmichael, Dilli and Rijpma, 2014). Similarly, China and South Korea […]
People regularly interact with their family, friends, and colleagues, but the effects of such social interactions on economic and financial decision-making are not well understood. Do such interactions influence people’s assessment of the attractiveness of investments such as houses or stocks, and if so, is the actual investment behaviour of those people affected? Are individuals more likely to purchase […]
German banks have long grumbled about the squeeze to their net interest margins as a result of the European Central Bank’s (ECB’s) policy of paying a negative interest rates on reserves held at the ECB (banks that deposit at the ECB now pay 0.4 per cent on those deposits, rather than earn a positive interest rate as they would typically […]
The European Union’s Capital Markets Union (CMU) was created with the goal to increase the depth of investor participation and the breadth of instruments deployed in capital markets across Europe. One key direction of these reforms, from the start of the CMU development and deployment, has been the need to reduce heavy reliance of European companies on the banking […]
In recent times, there has been a policy drive to increase the number of people undertaking apprenticeships in England and there are plans to dramatically change the post-16 system, which would include making apprenticeships a more important part of it. This raises the question as to how beneficial apprenticeships are to young people currently.
In our paper, we use administrative […]
The conventional image of an entrepreneur in Victorian Britain is a captain of industry, heading an engineering or steel factory employing hundreds of workers, and generally pictured with an impressive moustache. But men like that were only the tip of a very large, and much more diverse entrepreneurial iceberg. My research shows that close to 30 per cent of […]
The role of rail transport in shaping the geography of economic development by integrating markets and fostering trade is widely recognised. But such infrastructure also enables the movement of individuals and the ideas they carry. What is the effect of increased individual mobility on the spatial diffusion of socially and politically salient ideas?
Recent events have sparked great interest in […]
Comparing the standard of living today with that of the past is crucial to understanding the UK’s economic and social health. In fact, both in our everyday lives and in studies of social sciences, we often assess economic progress by comparing our standard of living to that of our parents. A recent poll by Ipsos Mori shows that only […]
In January, Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, made a bold announcement, to immediate opposition from established operators. He proposed Manchester have a system of bus operation that has existed in London all century. In fact, London’s buses are organised differently from those everywhere else in Britain. Transport for London specifies the routes and frequency and issues tenders on […]
The globalisation of research and development (R&D) has long lagged far behind the globalisation of production, but since the late 1990s, the distribution of US multinational R&D investment across countries and industries has undergone a dramatic shift towards unlikely R&D destinations like China, India, and Israel. Today’s leading US multinationals have developed a global innovation system that increasingly relies […]
On 18 April 2019, Amazon announced that, “We are notifying sellers we will no longer operate a marketplace on Amazon.cn [Amazon’s Chinese Site] and we will no longer be providing seller service on Amazon.cn effective July 18”. By closing its online store in China that allows the country’s consumers to buy from Chinese merchants, after being comprehensively defeated by domestic […]
The Brexit negotiations have been a prolonged and hopeless effort to achieve a privileged status for the UK as a non-member state – outside the EU, but half-inside. That has been a fantasy from the very beginning. It is politically and legally impossible.
As a member state, we are not part of the Schengen Agreement which allows border-free movement of […]
Acne has been the scourge of teenage boys and girls for as long as there have been teenagers. Indeed, acne is the eighth most common disease among humans, affecting nearly 650 million people worldwide. But might acne have a silver lining?
Economists are increasingly interested in the economic returns to physical attractiveness, an interest largely ignited by Hamermesh and Biddle […]
Talented individuals are often excluded from leadership positions if they belong to a group that faces discrimination. Such discrimination is, of course, extremely hurtful and unfair to the individuals. But is it also costly in a more general sense?
In particular, do corporations become less profitable when they adopt discriminatory attitudes and exclude highly qualified individuals from leadership roles? How […]
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