Recent successes of populist movements in Europe might seem to reflect eroded trust in the EU’s institutions. This column asks what global lessons can be drawn from recent research on Euroscepticism at the ECB and elsewhere. It argues that taking citizens’ concerns seriously and addressing salient issues, building on a sense of togetherness, and caring about public trust should inspire a course of action at the global level. Insufficient progress along these dimensions has played a key role not only in Brexit, but also in the backlash against the multilateral world order underpinning globalisation.
The decade since the Global Crisis has seen notable changes in the architecture of supervision, with separation of responsibility for monetary and financial stability having been reversed in many countries on the one hand, and a move towards more cross-border cooperation between supervisors on the other. This column discusses these two trends in Europe, where responsibility for supervision of the largest banks is housed in the same authority with responsibility for monetary policy, the ECB. It argues that the Single Supervisory Mechanism is a good reflection of the subtle economics of supervisory architecture and the many trade-offs that have to be taken into account.
Cross-border, digital labour platforms permit real-time hiring for a range of jobs, from IT programming to graphic design, copywriting and routine clerical tasks. But little is known about working conditions on these platforms or about their employees. This column begins to fill that gap in the scholarship using an ILO survey of 3,500 workers from 75 countries and five major microtask platforms. It finds that even workers who perform valuable labour for successful companies often do so for low wages and without the protections of a regulated employment relationship.
The pace of gentrification in US cities has accelerated, but little evidence exists on its impact on low-income children. This column uses Medicaid claims data to examine how gentrification affects children’s health and wellbeing in New York City. It finds that low-income children born in areas that gentrify are no more likely to move than those born in areas that don't gentrify, and those that do move tend to end up living in areas of lower poverty. Moreover, gentrification does not appear to dramatically alter the health status or health-system utilisation of children by age 9–11, although children growing up in gentrifying areas show somewhat elevated levels of anxiety and depression.
Many Japanese companies complain about a shortage of qualified workers. This column argues that the difficulty is partly driven by flawed recruitment practices and suggests improvements to the hiring process. For example, customised aptitude tests and team-based structured interviews could help remedy the situation.
Other Recent Columns:
- Restarting asset purchases in the euro area
- Macroprudential policy could have reduced imbalances in the euro area
- Peer effects in product adoption
- Why are economists letting down the world on climate change?
- The extraordinary rise in trade policy uncertainty
- Global trade protection and the role of non‑tariff barriers
- Patronage and performance in the Age of Sail
- Italians in Argentina and the US during the Age of Mass Migration
- How the 1906 San Francisco earthquake shaped economic activity
- How money can turn electoral results upside down
- How pension plans changed kinship traditions
- Financial constraints and productivity growth
- The financial origin of the euro area fiscal wound
- Symbolism matters: The effect of same-sex marriage legalisation on partnership stability
- Libra paves the way for central bank digital currency
- Automation and jobs: When technology boosts employment
- Replacing LIBOR
- The rise of buyer power in online advertising
- The two sides of government guarantees for banks
- Economic incentives, home production, and gender identity norms
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