Agencies
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Surging Energy Prices May Not Ease Until Next Year
Spot prices for natural gas have more than quadrupled to record levels in Europe and Asia, and the persistence and global dimension of these price spikes are unprecedented. Typically, such moves are seasonal…
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A Nobel Prize For A Revolution In Economics
Let's time travel back in time to see why Card and Krueger's work was such a revolution. It was the early 1990s. A Tribe Called Quest and Nirvana were blaring on sound systems.…
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Crypto Boom Poses New Challenges to Financial Stability
As crypto assets take hold, regulators need to step up. Crypto assets offer a new world of opportunities: Quick and easy payments. Innovative financial services. Inclusive access to previously “unbanked” parts of the…
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How Countries Can Diversify Their Exports
By looking beyond commodities, the research shows that economy-wide policies such as governance and education help foster diverse exports more than narrowly targeted industrial policies, a finding that can better guide nations aiming…
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The Behavioral Economics Manifesto Gets Revised
“The basics of behavioral economics are really sound because they’re kind of obvious,” Thaler says. It’s obvious, he says, that people aren’t perfectly rational. It’s obvious that they suffer from self-control problems and…
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Cryptoassets as National Currency? A Step Too Far
New digital forms of money have the potential to provide cheaper and faster payments, enhance financial inclusion, improve resilience and competition among payment providers, and facilitate cross-border transfers. But doing so is not…
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Taming Market Power Could (also) help Monetary Policy
Some central banks are currently debating whether to tighten monetary policy to fight inflationary pressures, after having eased decisively in response to the COVID-19 shock. In making such decisions, central bankers have to…
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Sub-Saharan Africa: We need to act now
The growth of infections in sub-Saharan Africa is now the fastest in the world, with an explosive trajectory that is outpacing the record set in the second wave. At this pace, this new…
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Four Facts about Soaring Consumer Food Prices
Rising world food prices for producers are making headlines and causing concerns among the public. The most recent data show a moderation in consumer food price inflation globally, but as we explain below,…
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A Proposal to End the COVID-19 Pandemic
Many countries have stepped up in the global fight against the pandemic, as have institutions such as the World Health Organization, the World Bank, Gavi (the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization), the…
