Policymakers use tax penalties and incentives as a mechanism to modify the public’s behavior. Cigarette taxes are one of the most obvious examples of such a policy. As a matter of public health, society would be better off if fewer people smoked cigarettes—rai... More »
Raghuram Rajan is the Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. He is also the Vice-Chairman of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). From September 2013 to September 2016, he... More »
In August 2017, the United States, Canada, and Mexico began renegotiations of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)—one of President Trump’s top priorities during his electoral campaign. Trump argued that trade with Mexico and Canada had resulted in ... More »
A person’s decision to migrate is affected by various economic, political, and social factors not only in the country of origin (push factors), but also in the destination country (pull factors). More specifically, push factors are elements that cause people t... More »
Over the past several years, foreign exchange rates among Latin American countries have fluctuated significantly. These oscillations have been caused by several factors, including the U.S. presidential elections, changing oil prices, the Taper Tantrum (the exp... More »
In 2015, women surpassed men in their likelihood of holding a bachelor’s degree. The gender pay gap has been steadily closing since 1973 but remains persistent. One potential avenue for reducing this gap is further support for women with children, particularly... More »
A chief concern of modern policy is the impact of immigrants on natives’ employment prospects. The difficulty for academics attempting to verify these effects is daunting. In the real world, immigrants arrive from and disperse throughout many areas, choosing c... More »
Will the central bank in the United States reduce or maintain the current interest rate? Do statements made by the Board Chair suggest a possible increase in the interest rate? What is the central bank´s forecast for inflation and employment in the medium-term... More »
Over the past few years, rapid advances in technology have posed greater threats to jobs, especially those vulnerable to automation. Recently, McKinsey published a report analyzing the technical feasibility of automation in several occupations and concluded th... More »
In 2015, the United Nations estimated an international migrant population of 243 million people around the world. Immigration has been a recurrent phenomenon in many economies and prompts a continuous debate regarding its impact on socioeconomic indicators — p... More »
The immigration debate playing out in the United States is beleaguered by concerns over whether unskilled immigrant workers are undermining the economic position of low-skilled American citizens. But concern over low-skilled immigration may be overshadowing di... More »
In the last year, immigration has captured political and economic debates in numerous countries. Some argue that immigrants displace citizens of the receiving country, while others claim that their tax contributions stimulate economic growth. In spite of these... More »