Fragility and conflict have forced hundreds of millions of people to live outside of state control without access to basic services. And with violent conflict on the rise, two-thirds of the world's poorest could soon be living in fragile and conflict affected states. The International Committee of the Red Cross is one of the world's most important providers of humanitarian assistance and works at the front line of most conflicts across the globe. In this podcast, ICRC President, Peter Maurer discusses the importance of including the expertise of economists in their humanitarian work and the significance of the IMF's new strategy to strengthen its support to fragile and conflict affected states.
Transcript: https://bit.ly/3P8coMh
Becoming an economist in the 1970s- for a woman, was a lonely road. When Clair Brown joined the Department of Economics at UC Berkeley in 1974 alongside people like Nobel laureate George Akerlof, she was the only female faculty member. But thanks to Brown's prodding, the department hired more women and Berkeley has since become well known for its female economists. Brown has always seen the power of diversity in her work. In 2013 she helped create a new graduate program called Development Engineering that teams engineers with economists to develop technologies that benefit developing regions. Today, she's advocating for a new, more sustainable approach to economic thinking in her book, Buddhist Economics. Journalist, Rhoda Metcalfe spoke with Clair Brown for our special series on extraordinary Women in Economics. Transcript: https://bit.ly/388DzG3
Book: http://buddhisteconomics.net/
While the world has been focused on the pandemic for the past two years, the rapid rise of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias pose another threat to global public health. Nathaniel Counts is Senior VP for Behavioral Health Innovation at Mental Health America and Assistant Professor at Albert Einstein's School of Medicine. In this podcast, Counts says dementia will vastly increase across the globe as the population age rises with increasing life expectancy and have profound impacts on welfare and economic growth, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Transcript: https://bit.ly/32cwKQc
Read the F&D article at IMF.org/fandd
لم تسلم أي منطقة من الآثار الاقتصادية الناجمة عن جائحة فيروس كورونا. ويقول جهاد أزعور إن جائحة كوفيد-19 كان لها تأثير بالغ على منطقة الشرق الأوسط وآسيا الوسطى، نظرا لارتفاع مستوى الاعتماد على النفط والانتشار الواسع للعمل في القطاع غير الرسمي في كثير من بلدان المنطقة. ويرأس السيد أزعور "إدارة الشرق الأوسط وآسيا الوسطى" بصندوق النقد الدولي، وهي الإدارة التي أصدرت مؤخرًا تقرير آفاق الاقتصاد الإقليمي والذي يوضح التحديات الهائلة التي يفرضها التصدي لهذه الجائحة.
يمكنكم قراءة مدونات أخرى لجهاد أزعور حول التأثير العالمي لجائحة كوفيد-19.
In his latest book, Raghuram Rajan takes a close look at the relationship between the state, markets and communities, and argues localism is the answer to globalization. Rajan is a distinguished professor of finance at the University of Chicago, former head of India’s central bank and former Chief Economist at the IMF, where he was invited to talk about The Third Pillar: How Markets and the State Leave the Community Behind
The use of digital technologies is transforming how tax administrations operate, helping to improve efficiency and service delivery. A striking example has been Peru's adoption of electronic invoicing, which allows the automatic transfer of billing information between firms and the tax authority. Drawn by its potential to strengthen tax compliance and reduce costs, Peru is among more than 50 countries around the world to have implemented e-invoicing and many others are preparing to follow suit. IMF economists Salma Khalid and Matthieu Bellon have been studying the impact of Peru's mandatory e-invoicing reform that started back in 2014. Their research paper will be published this fall.
Salma Khalid is an economist in the Western Hemisphere Department and Matthieu Bellon is an economist in the Fiscal Affairs Department at the IMF.
International corporate tax avoidance is a growing concern for both advanced economies and low-income countries. The changing nature of the global economy–notably increasing digitalization, in some cases, is making it easier for firms to shift profits to low-tax countries. Michael Keen is a Deputy Director in the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department, and in this podcast he says the international tax system is under unprecedented stress. Keen was a lead author of a recent IMF policy paper that sets out the current state of the international corporate tax system and explores ways to address some of its shortcomings.
The effects of copyright and patent laws on artistic creativity and technological innovation are gaining more and more significance in today’s economy driven to a large part by content. Economic historian Petra Moser uses data from 19th century Italian operas and world fairs to examine the economic implications of basic copyright and patent protection for innovators. In this podcast, Moser describes how Napoleon’s military victories in Italy in the late 1700s changed the copyright landscape and created an excellent model to study the effects on Italian opera composers. Petra Moser is an associate professor of Economics at New York University, and was invited by the IMF’s Institute for Capacity Development to present her research on the economic impact of creativity and innovation.
Petra Moser is an economic historian at the Stern School of Business, New York University. You can find all of her research papers at PetraMoser.net.
It’s been ten years since Lehman Brothers—one of the largest firms on Wall street, was wiped out and closed its doors. Only two weeks before it filed for bankruptcy it held more than 600 billion dollars in assets. The fall of Lehman’s turned a volatile financial market into a full-blown panic and is widely seen to be what triggered the global financial crisis in 2008. In this podcast, IMF Managing Director, Christine Lagarde looks back at one of the most disruptive events in history for the global financial system.
The latest forecasts from the International Monetary Fund show global growth is on the rise. A very different picture from early last year, when the world economy faced faltering growth and financial market turbulence. In this podcast, IMF Chief Economist Maurice Obstfeld, delves into the current trends behind this recent upswing.
Contributors:
Maurice Obstfeld, IMF Director of Research, and Economic Counsellor.
The technological revolution has far reaching implications and is rapidly changing the way the world does business. But technology also offers the potential for finding solutions to some of the challenges facing the global economy. To encourage creative thinking among its economists, the IMF recently opened an innovation lab. In this podcast, Tristan Walker, first iLab Chief, says innovation will help make the institution more agile.
Contributors:
Tristan Walker, Innovation Lab Unit Chief
Good data and statistics can help drive economies and are the basis for sound policy decisions in both private and public sectors. The advent of ‘big data’ poses opportunities for private companies and public institutions to better understand today`s economic and social trends. A new study by the IMF shows how big data can also provide valuable insight for economic and financial analysis. In this podcast, coauthor Diane Kostroch discusses the benefits and the challenges that come with big data.
Contributors:
Diane Kostroch, IMF economist, Statistics Department.
Labor unions around the world are having to adapt to a fast changing labor market. John Evans heads the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD, and represents some 65 million organized workers worldwide. In this podcast, Evans says workers are caught in the middle of rapid technological change and slow global growth.
Contributors:
John Evans, General Secretary of the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD.