Policymakers have long accepted the central role of innovation in spurring aggregate productivity and growth. They have looked at the arrival of new systems of organization and new technologies, from the steam engine to electricity and the internet, as catalysts to material progress in the modern age. But in doing so, they may have underestimated the importance of another … [Read more...] about When an Excess of Small Firms Hurts Productivity
Macroeconomics and Finance
The Challenges of the Technological Revolution
Amazon's decision earlier this month to spend $13.4 billion to buy Whole Foods, the organic supermarket chain in the United States, may have been the kind of brash, high risk move that has helped catapult the former discount book seller into the ranks of the world's top five publicly traded companies. But for workers—and economists—it suggests a milestone in a brave new world … [Read more...] about The Challenges of the Technological Revolution
The Cost of Murder in Latin America and the Caribbean
The most recent ranking of the world's deadliest cities makes for depressing reading. The report, released April 5 by the Citizen's Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice, a Mexican non-governmental organization, finds that 43 of the 50 most murderous cities in 2016 are in Latin America and the Caribbean. To top that, the region encompasses all of the world's ten … [Read more...] about The Cost of Murder in Latin America and the Caribbean
Tackling the Vulnerability to Economic Crisis
For Latin Americans, there are few memories as nightmarish as the "lost decade" of the 1980s, with its flagging growth and soaring levels of foreign debt, inflation and unemployment. Today, those days are gone. Dictatorships are no longer the norm. In most of the region, governing institutions have improved, and economic policymaking is generally more responsible, with stricter … [Read more...] about Tackling the Vulnerability to Economic Crisis
When Poorly Designed Pensions Threaten the Future
Over the last three months, tens of thousands of demonstrators have poured into the streets of Brazil's major cities, blocking roads, clashing with police, and bringing public transport to a halt in protests in which pensions loom large. But Brazil's pension crisis, which has the government trying to raise the minimum retirement age and workers angrily pushing back, will not be … [Read more...] about When Poorly Designed Pensions Threaten the Future