VoxTalks Economics

Women are under-represented in politics. If women aren’t chosen to stand for election, and voters are biased against them when they do, what can break this vicious circle? S Anukriti tells Tim Phillips about how local decision-making as part of a school-building programme in India has allowed women to show they are effective leaders, to change the political agenda, and even to convince sceptics that women have a place in politics.

More new research from the CEPR-PSE Symposium 2024. It’s infuriating when you’re expecting a digital payment to arrive, it is lost in the system somewhere, and no one seems to be able to do anything about it. Now imagine how devastating it is if that payment is all that’s keeping you and your family out of poverty. Yusuf Neggers is one of a team that have created an app to improve the administration of payments for the Indian government’s MGNREGA programme.Photo: MGNREGA/UN Women Asia & Pacific

In our latest podcast from the PSE-CEPR Policy Forum 2024, we feature three of the young economists who made their mark at the conference. Tim Phillips talks toAlice Chiocchetti about the extent and impact of profit shifting by French firms, Yuan Hu about green technological change after natural disasters, and Christoph Semken about how we all underestimate the impact of our emissions-reducing life changes.

More new research from the CEPR-PSE Symposium 2024. More than 100 countries have some form of quota regulation that requires firms to hire people with disabilities. Does this example of affirmative action help people who have a disability to find a job, and what is the impact on the firm, and on fellow workers? Christiane Szerman tells Tim Phillips about the surprising labour market effects of a hiring quota in Brazil. 

Economist Lasse Heje Pedersen discusses the importance of carbon pricing and climate finance in achieving net zero emissions. He explores the relationship between carbon taxation and the cost of capital, proposing a $190 per ton carbon tax and the need for trillions in financing for climate action. The conversation also touches on the challenges of implementing green finance and carbon pricing globally.

The first in a series of VoxTalks Economics based on some of the most interesting presentations from the PSE-CEPR Policy Forum 2024.Imagine that one day, you are offered the chance to move to a new, better, bigger house in the same city as you live, with the government paying for 90% of your mortgage. This is what happens in Brazil, where millions of people have been given access to better housing. But how big is this prize really? Gabriel Ulyssea tells Tim Phillips how many of the beneficiaries discovered that location matters most in real estate.

If we want to help millions of working people who have high-polluting jobs to find news work during the green transition, first we need to know more about what they do and where they are. Orsetta Causa tells Tim Phillips about the location of dirty jobs, and whether policy to reskill workers can finally succeed. 

If the climate crosses any of a number of tipping points, what are the implications for climate finance? Tipping points are large, probably irreversible, changes in nature that may occur as a result of the increase in global temperature. Worse, crossing one tipping point may cause a cascade of others. Alissa and Tim talk to Tim Lenton, one of the authors of the Global Tipping Points Report, and Patrick Bolton to discuss how Climate Finance struggles to price the risk of tipping points.

The #MeToo movement inspired many professions, and the men who work in those professions, to reflect on whether female colleagues were treated fairly. Economics had its own highly visible, and sometimes controversial, #MeToo moment. What has been the impact of #MeToo on patterns of co-authorship? Noriko Amano-Patino, Elisa Faraglia and Chryssi Giannitsarou deliver good and bad news to Tim Phillips. 

Which firms are infiltrated by organised crime, and why? We know that organised crime has links to some firms in the legal economy. But how big is this infiltration, and what do they gain from it? Rocco Macchiavello tells Tim Phillips about which firms are infiltrated, how this occurs – and what the crime families have to gain.