The labor force 30 years from now will look very different as working-age populations in advanced economies start to shrink. While some today worry they’ll lose their jobs to robots, economists like Google’s Hal Varian, wonder if technology will boost productivity enough to compensate for the shifting demographics. Varian, and Harvard’s David Canning, discussed the topic during an IMF World-Bank Spring Meetings seminar earlier this month.

Hal Varian, Google’s Chief Economist and an Emeritus Professor at UC Berkeley.

David Canning, Professor of Population Sciences, Economics and Intl Health, Harvard University, Department of Global Health and Population.

The IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook projects global growth at 3.5 percent in 2017 and 3.6 percent in 2018. In this podcast, IMF Chief Economist Maurice Obstfeld says global growth is gaining momentum.

Contributors:

Maurice Obstfeld, IMF Economic Counselor

The 2008 global financial crisis exposed the vulnerability of banks that do not hold enough capital. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has since revised capital requirements for banks. In this podcast, we ask IMF economist Lev Ratnovski, how much capital banks need to hold to avert another crisis.

Contributors:

Lev Ratnovski, Senior Economist in the IMF’s Research Department.

Muna AbuSulayman, is founder and co-host of the most popular social issues program on Arab television. Kalam Nawaem tackles controversial topics and has been pushing social boundaries in the region for 15 years. In this podcast, AbuSulayman says Arab women should be free to achieve their goals without cultural or economic barriers.

Contributors:

Muna AbuSulayman, Co-founder of Meedan.com, a news hub for Arab youth and women.