VoxTalks Economics

How does the rate of tax that firms pay relate to their carbon emissions? If firms that pay less emit more, then taxation may be delivering a subsidy on pollution. If those that pay less emit less, then taxation may also be helping to protect the environment. Luigi Iovino and Julien Sauvagnat of Bocconi University tell Tim Phillips whether browner firms pay more or less tax – and why.

Stress testing can potentially capture the impact of climate change on the health of the financial system. But Dirk Schoenmaker tells Tim Phillips that, in their current form, these exercises underestimate the impact of changes in our climate.

When Thomas Hobbes published Leviathan in the 17th century, he argued that the state has absolute authority over its citizens. The principal that the state’s monopoly of institutionalised violence keeps the peace is now widely accepted – but is this true, or is it the checks and balances on that power prevent conflict? Gerard Roland talks to Tim Phillips.

Bonus episode: At the American Economic Association’s annual meeting 2023 in New Orleans, CEPR got the chance to ask Larry Summers three big questions about the global economy in 2023 and beyond. 

What have we learned about how to create, manufacture, and distribute a new vaccine? Can countries cooperate to create a responsive and resilient supply chain if history repeats itself, and should the WTO have a role? Chad Bown talks to Tim Phillips.

Every CEO, investor, and NGO needs an ESG strategy, and they need it now.  But is that urgency making smart people ignore established insights from decades of economic research? Alex Edmans has identified 10 ways in which conventional ESG wisdom might be misguided, and he tells Tim Phillips what they are.

We’ve reached a moment at which large language models like ChatGPT have clearly become useful, but for what exactly? Anton Korinek has discovered at least 25 ways in which economics researchers can use them today. He explains to Tim Phillips about how they are already making our research more efficient.

Firms have discovered that global value chains are not as resilient as we assumed. They are reorganising these value chains and re-evaluating their approach to globalisation – but are the solutions they are considering worse than the problems themselves? Tim Phillips talks to Beata Javorcik, EBRD chief economist.

What motivates CEOs? Do they want to be fabulously rich or are they looking for a fair reward for their achievements? And, if fairness really does matter to them, how do you structure their contracts? Pierre Chaigneau talks to Tim Phillips about how to keep your CEO without rewarding failure.

We know that national stereotypes influence all sorts of personal decisions, but could they determine whether one country’s banks hold another country’s sovereign debt? Amazingly, Orkun Saka tells Tim Phillips, the answer might actually be yes.