VoxTalks Economics

China's Covid lockdown in early 2020 shocked the business world. How did this surprise disruption affect the firms that rely on imported Chinese products? Isabelle Mejean tells Tim Phillips about the economic impact in France, and which firms were most resilient. 

Inflation reduces economic welfare by distorting demand. But what is the inflation rate that minimises these distortions? Maybe it's a lot higher than our models assume, Klaus Adam tells Tim Phillips.

A recent experiment in Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine attempted to overcome deep-seated prejudice against the LGBT community using information. Ralph De Haas and Cevat Aksoy of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development tell Tim Phillips about which messages cut through, and what impact can they have in the face of religious and state hostility.

One of the most remarkable achievements of the French Revolution for ordinary people was the reorganisation of local government. Cédric Chambru, Emeric Henry and Benjamin Marx tell Tim Phillips how local state capitals emerged as a result, and what this tells us about how state capacity develops.

Since the GFC the UK has used innovative macroprudential and monetary policy tools to maintain stability. But the UK is an international financial centre, and so does this policy framework create spillovers in other places, and do influences from elsewhere affect stability in the UK? Yes and yes, says Thorsten Beck.

Covid-19 demonstrated that modern global supply chains do not guarantee food in supermarkets or PPE in hospitals. Richard Baldwin tells Tim Phillips how risky these supply chains really are, and what we could do to shore them up.

In the 20th century at least 6 million African Americans migrated from poor southern states to northern cities to escape discrimination and poverty, changing the course of American history. At least as many whites also migrated, taking their ideas with them. Samuel Bazzi tells Tim Phillips that they have also influenced social structures and politics in the US.

The Chinese government isn't just a world leader in the use of AI for facial recognition, its orders are funding innovation in its domestic industry too. But what's good news for entrepreneurs may be bad news for political protest, Noam Yuchtman tells Tim Phillips.

Are the differences between what men and women like decided at birth, or do we learn to prefer different things? Klaus Desmet tells Tim Phillips about new research that investigates global patterns in 45,397 Facebook interests.

Refugees from conflicts in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and many other countries travel thousands of miles seeking a new life in Europe. But how likely are these refugees to be recognised as asylum seekers, and does it matter in which country they apply? Tim Hatton tells Tim Phillips that, despite efforts to standardise the process of granting asylum, there are still big differences in recognition rates across Europe.