VoxTalks Economics

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.

Russia’s war on Ukraine hasn’t just destroyed buildings and lives, it has put thousands of people out of work and denied thousands more an education. After the war, how can Ukraine rebuild its labour market? Tito Boeri tells Tim Phillips about how other countries and Ukrainian refugees can help to build back better.

Did slaveholding accelerate the industrial revolution in Britain? This controversial theory was first argued by Eric Williams almost 80 years ago but has lacked strong supporting evidence – until now. Stephan Heblich and Joachim Voth talk to Tim Phillips.

Credit cards that offer cashback or rewards are increasingly popular. Are you doing better or worse as a result? And how big is the financial difference between all the winners and losers? Andrea Presbitero knows and the amount, he tells Tim Phillips, is bigger than you think.

Can we explain what happened to inflation in the US in 2022, and what will happen next? Larry Ball and Daniel Leigh tell Tim Phillips why it stayed high and when it may fall.

Germany’s NetzDG Law has given social media companies the responsibility for removing toxic content from their platforms. Can a law to mandate content moderation curb hate speech and, if it does, does that have an impact in the offline world? Carlo Schwarz talks to Tim Phillips.