Over the last decade or so, productivity growth has slowed considerably in most major developed economies, even as impressive advances have been made in areas like computing, mobile telephony and robotics.All of these advances ostensibly should have boosted productivity; and yet,

For 15 years, China has been a key engine of global growth.

By Chee Yoke Ling and Edward HammondFour hundred years ago, John Rolfe used tobacco seeds pilfered from the West Indies to develop Virginia’s first profitable export, undermining the tobacco trade of Spain’s Caribbean colonies.More than 200 years later, another Briton, Henry Wick

We live in turbulent times, and popular discontent with the status quo is mounting. The reasons for popular frustration vary from country to country, but the common thread everywhere is a growing sense that the economy is rigged in favour of the few.Indeed, the gains from ec

Wetlands, forests and oceans absorb and store carbon, which makes them a vital asset for countries pursuing the Paris climate agreement’s targets for reducing CO2 emissions. So how can we use them most effectively?The Paris accord was concluded by 196 governments last Decemb

We often take it for granted that any infection we encounter can be cured, and that all-powerful modern medicine will do precisely what it is supposed to do.But imagine an alternative scenario: You are diagnosed with a potentially life-threatening infectious disease that was once

October 24, 2016, should be a unique day in the history of polio.If all goes according to plan, it will be the last annual World Polio Day before the disease is eradicated.But now is not the time for celebration or complacency; while we know how to eliminate polio, we have not ye

In game theory, the “price of anarchy” describes how individuals acting in their self-interest within a larger system tend to reduce that larger system’s efficiency.It is a ubiquitous phenomenon, one that almost all of us confront, in some form, on a regular basis.For example, if

As the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank begin in Washington, DC, one member country is conspicuously absent: Venezuela.Yet, there is much to be discussed about the country’s finances.