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After core inflation, time to look at core GDP? | Mostly Economics
Jason Furman, former Chief of Council of Economic Advisers at the White House, wrote an interesting piece in Financial Times. He says instead of looking at the Headline GDP growth we should look at the Core GDP growth. Headline GDP comprises Consumption, Investment, Government Spending and Net Exports. Core GDP we only inlude Consumption and…
Decoding China’s Industrial Policies | Mostly Economics
Hanming Fang, Ming Li & Guangli Lu in this NBER article use large language models to decode millions of Chinese documents: We decode China’s industrial policies from 2000 to 2022 by employing large language models (LLMs) to extract and analyze rich information from a comprehensive dataset of 3 million documents issued by central, provincial, and…
The Nordic model of wage coordination at a crossroads | Mostly Economics
Lars Calmfors on wage coordination model of Nordic countries: Strong coordination of wage setting has been maintained in Nordic countries through pattern bargaining. The tradables sector sets the first agreement, which then serves as the nationwide norm for subsequent wage increases. This column outlines that a key motivation for this model is to maintain international…
Companies listed in London Stock Exchange and operating in Latin America: 1869-1929 | Mostly Economics
Interesting work on global financial history by Gareth Campbell, Áine Gallagher and Richard Grossman. Foreign stock exchange listings have become increasingly popular during the last 80 years (Blass and Yafeh 2001, Fernandes and Giannetti 2013, Sarkissian and Schill 2016, Noto 2023). For companies in the developing world, often without access to liquid domestic financial markets,…
A Teacher Writes to Students Series (45): Another India, Another World | Mostly Economics
A Teacher Writes to Students Series (45): Another India, Another World Annavajhula J C Bose, PhD Department of Economics (Retd.), SRCC, DU These days, in India, you can do Development Economics without hearing about Paul Streeten or the annual Boston University Paul Streeten Distinguished Lectures in Global Development Policy, leave alone using his numerous interdisciplinary…
What does the record price of gold tell us about risk perceptions in financial markets? | Mostly Economics
ECB researchers (Maurizio Michael Habib, Oscar Schwartz Blicke, Emilio Siciliano and Jonas Wendelborn) in this article: Gold prices have seen an unprecedented surge since 2023, reaching a series of all-time highs. Gold has a long history as a store of value. Given its limited industrial use, demand for gold comes traditionally from retail customers (e.g. for…
The Italian Banking System During the 1907 Financial Crisis and the Role of the Bank of Italy | Mostly Economics
A new paper by Francesco Vercelli of Bank of Italy on the impact of 1907 financial crisis on the Italian Banking System. This paper examines the Italian banking system during the 1907 financial crisis, from start to finish. Using bank balance sheet data from the Historical Archive of Credit in Italy, we analyse the developments…
On Nationalism by Tagore | Mostly Economics
As world politics and geopolitics is getting extremely hyper around nationalism at the cost of humnaity, it is high time we all read Rabindranath Tagore on Nationalism. Nationalism – comprising three essays or lectures, and a poem in English by Rabindranath Tagore – was first published in 1917. The book was a product of Tagore’s…
The Myth of U.S. Dollar Dominance in Japanese Exports: New Evidence from Japanese Customs Level Data | Mostly Economics
Uraku Yoshimoto, Kiyotaka Sato, Takatoshi Ito, Junko Shimizu, Yushi Yoshida & Taiyo Yoshimi in this NBER article: While Japanese exports are generally considered invoiced mainly in U.S. dollars (USD), this study presents contrary evidence that most Japanese firms choose yen-invoiced exports. Surprisingly, only the top one percent of firms in size tend to choose USD-invoiced exports, based on the Japan Customs…
What a history of underground parking reveals about postwar policy | Mostly Economics
Alfie Robinson a historian and writer based in the United Kingdom. writes on history of underground parking!: The motorcar is one of the defining features of modernity. Society was transformed by the internal combustion engine and its utopian promises for society. Cars made distant places accessible for the first time, creating fast, long-distance personal transport that…
The Quantity Theory of Money: A New Restatement | Mostly Economics
Tim Congdon wrote a book on Quantity Theory of Money in 2024. This book argues that the high inflation numbers of 2022 and early 2023 were caused by excessive growth of the quantity of money. The Covid-related inflation episode was yet another illustration of Milton Friedman’s adage that ‘inflation is always and everywhere a monetary…
Indian unemployment data starts to be published monthly | Mostly Economics
Periodic Labour Force Survey data was published on a quarterly and annual basis. The data is now going to be published on a monthly basis. As a part of this continuous endeavour aimed at enhancing the surveys of NSS, the sampling design of PLFS has been revamped from January 2025 to address the requirement of…
Refining the Definition of the Unbanked | Mostly Economics
An interesting and important paper by Elena Falcettoni and Vegard Mokleiv Nygaard on relooking at what we mean by unbanked. So far we say unbanked are those that do not have a bank account. Thea authors say this unbanked metric hides things. The new metric of unbanked should be those that do not have a bank…
Framework for Formulation of Regulations | Mostly Economics
Last week, RBI released an interesting and important framework: The Reserve Bank has today issued Framework for Formulation of Regulations which outlines the broad principles for formulation of Regulations issued in exercise of the powers conferred on the Reserve Bank of India by or under the provisions of various Acts and Rules. It covers aspects regarding stakeholder…
The arc of ascent of China’s financial system | Mostly Economics
Udaibir Das Visiting Professor at the National Council of Applied Economic Research was part of the team that contributed to China’s inaugural Financial Sector Assessment Program by IMF in 2010. IMF recently released China's Financial Sector Assessment 2025. Das on progress and lessons learnt since 2010. Amid developing tensions, the International Monetary Fund’s 2025 Financial…
History of Economics Research at the Federal Reserve | Mostly Economics
Christopher Waller of Federal Reserve in this speech traces history of economic research at the central bank: Economic research has shaped monetary policy at the Federal Reserve from its very beginnings, but the form and use of that research has varied considerably over time. I do not have the time today to give this topic…
Local Energy Access and Industry Specialization: Evidence from World War II Emergency Pipelines | Mostly Economics
Jacob Greenspon & Gordon H. Hanson in this NBER paper research the impact of energy pipelines on economic development: How does improving access to the supply of energy affect regional specialization in manufacturing? We evaluate the long-run employment impacts of pipelines constructed by the U.S. government during World War II to transport oil and gas from the…
Public Finance Implications of Economic Inequality | Mostly Economics
Alan Auerbach in Journal of Economic Perspectives :This paper considers questions about the implications of rising inequality for the theory and practice of public finance. It begins by addressing fundamental reasons why the distribution of income or wealth on an annual basis before taxes and transfers offers insufficient information: (1) it does not tell us…
Why different measures of Income Inequality lead to different conclusions? | Mostly Economics
Conor Clarke and Wojciech Kopczuk in this paper discuss why measuring income inequality leads to different conclusions: Income inequality is important, but attempts to measure it arrive at strikingly different conclusions. Why? We use recent disputes over measuring United States income inequality to return to first principles about both the income concept and inequality measurement.…
Theodore Roosevelt, the Election of 1912, and the Founding of the Federal Reserve | Mostly Economics
Very interesting paper by Matthew Jaremski and David C. Wheelock. They point how the Election of 1912 laid the foundations for Federal Reserve: The Federal Reserve Act was the outcome of compromises among competing economic and political interests. Numerous studies examine how the act came together but largely take the makeup of Congress and the…
What happened to electoral bonds? Just smoke? | Mostly Economics
Electoral bonds was this big news of 2024.. It was seen as heights of corruption in Indian politics where all kinds of investgations were expected. An year later, it has all but disappeared from the news cycle completely. But then what else to expect from Indian media which has created records for being lapdog media.…
Debt Market at IFSC Gift City: Landscape & Trends (2024-2025) | Mostly Economics
A new report by IFSCA on debt markets in GIFT City: Key highlights of the IFSC debt market for 2024-2025: ▪ USD-denominated issuances dominated the market, with 100% of bonds issued in USD ▪ Issuers mainly from Indian financial institutions, particularly NBFCs. ▪ Growing focus on sustainable finance with listing of GSS+ Bonds. ▪ Maximum…
Virat Kohli retires from Test cricket | Mostly Economics
Sun eventually sets. Virat Kohli retires from test cricket bringing an end to the Kohlieseque era. Virat Kohli has announced his retirement from Test cricket, bringing the curtain down on a career that spanned 14 years and included 123 Tests - 68 of them as captain - in which he scored 9230 runs at an average…
A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Federal Reserve Participation in Fixed Income Markets | Mostly Economics
Nina Boyarchenko and Or Shachar in this new JEP aricle discuss evolution of fixed income markets:We review US dealer-intermediated fixed income markets, including Treasuries, agency mortgage-backed securities, corporate bonds, and municipal bonds. Through the lenses of primary dealers' positions, we show these markets' evolution over the past decade and the effects of recent episodes of…
Being Virat Kohli: How stardom extracted a heavy price of friendships | Mostly Economics
Ahead of Virat Kohli's retirement, Sandeep Dwivedi of Indian Express wrote a highly poignant article on how Virat Kohli's stardom robbed him of friens and friendships: A discomfiting peek into the glitzy world of stars that often gets lonely, and where old friends and extended family address you as aap and feel intimidated. As they…
Making America Great Again? The Economic Impacts of Liberation Day Tariffs | Mostly Economics
Anna Ignatenko, Ahmad Lashkaripour, Luca Macedoni & Ina Simonovska in this paper analyse impact of MAGA tariffs: On April 2, 2025, President Trump declared “Liberation Day,” announcing broad tariffs to reduce trade deficits and revive U.S. industry. We analyze the long-term economic impacts of these tariffs through the lens of a trade model that features flexible tariff passthrough and…
Bank of England teams up with University of Manchester to improve access to economics in schools | Mostly Economics
Central banks do not generally commission reports to understand access to economics in schools. Bank of England did commission such a report to FFT Education Datalab. The findings of the report are: Economics has become increasingly popular at A Level and undergraduate level over the last decade. There are stark regional differences in participation with…
Decline of Bank Branching | Mostly Economics
Rajesh P. Narayanan, Dimuthu Ratnadiwakara & Philip Strahan in this NBER paper: We study U.S. bank branch openings and closings from 2001 to 2023. Both are more common in areas with low deposit franchise value, a consequence of greater interest-rate sensitivity among financially sophisticated households with higher digital banking adoption. The effects are strongest for large banks. Lending…
Trolling Vikram Misri, Foreign Secretary of India | Mostly Economics
The poison of hate has spread thick and fast. It is appalling how trolls attacked Mr Vikram Misri after doing press conference communicating about the ceasefire. The nastiest and choicest of abuses towards a person and his family were used. He had no choice but to lock his account. More details on x timeline. I…
Book Review: The Legacy of John Kenneth Galbraith | Mostly Economics
Book Review: The Legacy of John Kenneth Galbraith Steven Pressner ed. 2011. The Legacy of John Kenneth Galbraith. Routledge. ISBN13: 978-0-415-61739-0. Annavajhula J C Bose, PhD Department of Economics (Retd.), SRCC, DU Economics students are not wasting their time as long as they are reading books like this and pluralist textbooks like that of Irene…
Resuming char dhaam helicopter yatra despite a major helicopter crash | Mostly Economics
The Char dhaam yatra via helicopter was suspended on 9 May 2025 due to ongoing border tensions. The services resumed within a day after the ceasefire. Just around the same time, there was a major helicopter crash in the region on 8 May 2025 (I witnessed personal tragedy in the crash). The government announced an…
Amidst war tensions: Defence stocks rally, rush to register trademark, IPL.. | Mostly Economics
Miseries and grave losses for many families and yet humanity figures way to make money amidst grave pains. As the war escalated, some of the developments made one's stomach churn: Largest Indian company registered a trademark for the operation to withdraw it: Reliance Industries has no intention of trademarking Operation Sindoor, a phrase which is now…
The Rise and Demise of Paper Money in Imperial China | Mostly Economics
The essay is based on the forthcoming book: The Rise and Demise of Paper Money in Imperial China, 1000–1500: Fiscal Innovation, Market Growth, and Monetary Transitions by Richard von Glahn. Over the past two decades, the issue of the “Great Divergence” in economic performance between Europe, where the Industrial Revolution occurred, and China, where it did…
The role of ethical leadership amid threats to academic freedom: Lessons from South Africa | Mostly Economics
Academic freedom is under pressure in quite a few countries. I mean who could imagine that one of US's iconic brands - its universities - will be targeted by its politicians, Lesetja Kganyago, Governor South Africa Reserve Bank in this speech draws lessons from South Africa: During apartheid, South Africa's universities became key sites of…
Wassily Leontief on State of Academic Economics | Mostly Economics
Wassily Lentief in this 1982 letter laments on the State of academic economics (HT: RWER Blog): Year after year economic theorists continue to produce scores of mathematical models and to explore in great detail their formal properties; and the econometricians fit algebraic functions of all possible shapes to essentially the same sets of data without…
The Demographic and Research Styles of Economics Writing | Mostly Economics
Prof Daniel Hamermesh in this NBER paper traces changing research styles in economics since 1960s: This study examines publications in three leading general economics journals from the 1960s through the 2020s, considering levels and trends in the demographics of authors, methodologies of the studies, and patterns of co-authorship. The average age of authors has increased…
Oil countries: what kind of capitalism? | Mostly Economics
Martin Paldam and Jamel Saadaoui in this paper discuss capitalism in oil countries: The paper considers 18 OPEC countries that were low-income countries when oil was found. Oil has given the countries a special path to high income. Normally wealth leads to democracy, but in oil countries it leads to a consolidation of the previous…
Developing world cities: Poverty traps versus pathways to prosperity | Mostly Economics
Edward Glaeser, Martina Viarengo, César A. Hidalgo and Radu Barza in this voxeu research impact of city development on people in Brazil: In higher-income countries, urban proximity has been shown to enhance workers’ skills and income, but less is known about low- and middle-income countries. This column examines how the income of initially poor workers…
Food prices matter most: sensitive household inflation expectations | Mostly Economics
Nikoleta Anesti, Vania Esady and Matthew Naylor in this Bank of England paper: We construct a novel data set to investigate the sensitivity of household inflation expectations to personal experienced inflation, testing whether households weigh price changes differently across items in the consumption basket. Across households of all age, income, gender, work status, UK region,…