Productivity
The IFF China Report 2019: The Belt and Road Initiative
Over the past five years, China has invested more than $70 billion in Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries, of which there are now in excess of 100. Leading Chinese and international policy-makers explain how BRI efforts are progressing. This section…
The IFF China Report 2019: Redesigning the international trading and monetary system
Reform of the financial system that brought about the 2007–08 financial crisis has not gone far enough and advanced and emerging market economies must find a more co-operative way forward to ensure globalisation can continue.
The IFF China Report 2019: New globalisation – The path to the future
Multilateral rules and multilateral bodies will need to be upgraded in the coming years to better represent the shift in economic gravity towards Asia, which has emerged as the largest contributor to global growth during the past decade.
Major Swedish firms surprised by continuing economic expansion
Riksbank survey finds major companies do not see signs of imminent recession
GDP needs to be supplemented with welfare measure – economist
Daniel Sichel defends GDP as a measure of production, but says it is not enough on its own
Weak EU banks more likely to prop up ‘zombie firms’, ECB paper says
EU needs insolvency reform to reduce proportion of uncompetitive firms, researchers argue
Low rates can harm productivity, say Liu, Mian and Sufi
Low rates may end up discouraging investment across the economy, authors say
Paper proposes ‘re-engineering’ US statistics
System for compiling statistics is dated and overly complex, authors say
Fall in technology use helped slow Canadian productivity, BoC paper finds
But slowdown in labour productivity began eight years before fall in technology use – researchers
ECB’s normalisation could spell trouble for Italy’s bond market
Rome’s budget row with Brussels escalates just as QE is about to halt
Haldane to lead effort to boost UK productivity
BoE chief economist appointed chair of the Industrial Strategy Council
Zombie firms drag down productivity in economy – BIS paper
Lower interest rates create conditions for “zombie firms”, researchers find
Uneven technology adoption behind low productivity and wage growth – RBA research
High-productivity firms are reducing prices and increasing profits rather than boosting salaries
US could lose a third of growth to climate change – Richmond Fed article
Authors warn economic damage could be much more widespread than typically assumed
Rising wages set to increase inflation – ECB research
Strong GDP growth and employment creation underpins higher underlying price pressures
Labour reallocation explains productivity puzzle – BoE paper
Methodological innovation helps solve data-quality issues, author says
BoE’s Cunliffe makes case for ‘stodgy’ policy
Monetary policymakers should not act too fast when uncertainty is high, deputy governor says
Weak US productivity behind low wage growth – IMF
Declining labour share of income is another contributing factor
BoE’s latest big data project targets labour mismatches
Eliminating regional mismatch could have prevented productivity shortfall, researchers find
NY Fed paper: ‘replacement hiring’ affects productivity wage gap
Replacement hiring can explain much of the gap between wages and productivity, authors say
Central banks do not have tools to change productivity growth – Haldane
BoE chief economist says governments are responsible for productivity, challenging proposals in recent report
Alternatives to Japan’s 2% flexible inflation target
The Bank of Japan may review its policy framework, given its five-year failure to hit a 2% flexible inflation target
Haskel says BoE could benefit from focus on intangible capital
Productivity specialist says updated view of the economy could help with setting policy
Report proposes mandating BoE to target productivity growth
UK opposition says BoE should not have to rely on interest rates to lower inflation; 3% productivity target would help push prices down, report says