Publications

Does Unconventional Monetary Policy Affect Inequality? Evidence from Japan

 and | 17 October 2014
Monetary, Research Papers | Tags: Inequality, QE
Inequality has been largely ignored in the literature and practice of monetary policy, but is gaining more attention recently. Here, we exclusively focus on the impact of unconventional monetary policy (UMP) on inequality. We look at how the recent UMP in Japan affected inequality, using ... continue reading

Asia’s Poor Increase by One-Billion Overnight

 | 16 September 2014
Trade, Blog | Tags: G20, IMF, Poverty, Trade, WTO
The news has been exceptionally bad recently: carnage in the Middle East, race riots in the US, ongoing recession in the Eurozone and Japan, tension in the South China Sea, high youth unemployment virtually everywhere, the Ebola epidemic and so on and so depressingly forth. ... continue reading

Growth Escalators and Growth Convergence

 | 5 September 2014
Trade, Blog | Tags: Development, Services Trade
This article was first published on VoxEU.org and is republished with permission. The literature on global growth convergence and divergence is vast and deep. And it is still evolving. Some have argued that global growth is actually diverging across countries. Pritchett (1977) called this “divergence, ... continue reading

TTIP and Jobs: Does the Emperor Have Clothes?

 | 21 August 2014
Trade, Blog | Tags: Employment, Services Trade, TTIP
With negotiations of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) in full swing, policymakers across the Atlantic are reiterating calls for more support of an agreement.  In the wake of increasing public criticism of the plans for a deal, notably in Europe, policymakers are under ... continue reading

Does Inflation Really Hurt the Poor More than the Rich?

 | 26 May 2014
Monetary, Blog | Tags: Inequality, Inflation
After being neglected for decades, income and wealth inequality are back at the center of economic discussions. Recent work by the IMF, renowned economists like Joseph Stiglitz (e.g. in his book “The Price of Inequality”), as well as the lively debate generated by Thomas Piketty’s ... continue reading

Inflation and Income Inequality in Developed Economies

 | 15 May 2014
Monetary, Research Papers | Tags: Inequality, Inflation
This paper explores the empirical link between income inequality and inflation in ten OECD countries over the period 1971 to 2010. In addition to inflation, we include six control variables ... continue reading

Bali Boost: WTO Lives, Snatched for Now From Jaws of Defeat

 | 23 December 2013
Trade, Blog | Tags: WTO
It would be churlish not to congratulate the WTO and especially Roberto Azevêdo, its dynamic director-general, for successfully passing a “Bali package” at the Indonesian resort well past the 11th hour on 7 December. The WTO Doha Round, launched in the Qatari capital in 2001, ... continue reading

Africa Could Become the World’s Next Powerhouse

 | 26 September 2013
Fiscal, Trade, Blog | Tags: Africa, Commodities, Taxes
“A winning Africa!” “Thousands of Portuguese workers emigrate to the former colony of Angola in search of work.” Headlines such as these are a perfect illustration of the Afro-optimism that has gripped the media these last few years. In an Africa courted by foreign investors, ... continue reading

Property Taxes and Sustainability

 and | 26 August 2013
Fiscal, Blog | Tags: Housing, Inequality
Many economists advocate that a higher share of government revenue should derive from taxes on immovable property. Proponents of a sustainability agenda may want to follow their advice. Read an OECD economic survey for a particular country and chances are high it recommends increasing the ... continue reading

China-EU solar panel trade dispute: Rhetoric versus reality

 | 7 June 2013
Trade, Blog | Tags: Antidumping, Energy, Renewables, Subsidies
This article was first published on VoxEU.org and is republished with permission. Following a complaint lodged on 25 July 2012 by EU Pro Sun, an association representing around 20 EU-based producers of solar panels and components, the European Commission initiated an investigation into potential Chinese ... continue reading

Green Economy – Beware of Merchants of Doubt

 | 17 April 2013
Fiscal, Blog | Tags: Green Growth, Subsidies
Those who oppose change involving powerful economic sectors have long ago found an effective tactic: instilling doubt in the guise of reasonable arguments. A recent manifestation of this tactic is the claim that so-called ‘green jobs’ are too expensive and in fact destroy “real” jobs. ... continue reading

Resource Scarcity, Export Restrictions and the Multilateral Trading System

 | 10 April 2013
Trade, Blog | Tags: Commodities, Protectionism, WTO
The turn of the millennium marked a shift towards higher commodity prices and greater price volatility, as a result of high demand for natural resources from emerging economies combined with export restrictions and financial speculation. A recent Chatham House report highlights that, over the past ... continue reading

The Case for an International Tax Organisation

 and | 19 March 2013
Fiscal, Blog | Tags: Tax Competition, Taxes
Capital mobility entails fiscal interdependence. Since the abolition of capital controls in the 1960s and 1970s, and following the widespread abolition of withholding taxes in the wake of the first move in this direction by the Reagan administration in 1984, fiscal interdependence has turned from ... continue reading

Sense & nonsense in end of year reviews

 | 21 January 2013
Fiscal, Trade, Blog | Tags: Forecasting
The turn of every calendar year witnesses a spate of reviews by pundits in the media. For a columnist, these reviews are an attractive vehicle, ideally drawing upon events from the previous 12 months and combining them with insights into developments relating to the next ... continue reading

“What’s it for?” – Moral responsibility in an age of globalization

 | 2 December 2012
Trade, Blog | Tags: Financial Markets, G20, WTO
Several years ago, I was approached by an Indian student following a lecture I had given on globalization and the interdependence of markets through cross-border flows of goods, services, ideas, knowledge, science and people. His question was: “But what’s it for?” In the late 20th/early ... continue reading
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