In many developing countries with a deeply rooted legacy of socialism and egalitarianism, debates about choosing between the policy preferences of economic growth, equality and social justice remain as contentious as ever. Within economics, unanimity is really never meant to be achieved when studying the following questions: What is the optimal tax rate? What is … Continue reading China and inequality
Economic development in advanced and developing democracies
The past 4-6 weeks have been incredibly hectic, as I've recently been embroiled in many weeks (and weekends) of busy work, online studies and two full weeks of field missions to the border areas of Indonesia and Timor-Leste (I will share more about the field experience in a separate blog post). Now that I am … Continue reading Economic development in advanced and developing democracies
#WhatEconomistsReallyDo
It's always refreshing to keep being reminded about the reasons why I remain optimistic about what's actually going on in economics research. A recent podcast episode by VoxEU, which featured this year's Yrjö Jahnsson Award winners, Oriana Bandiera and Imran Rasul, proved to be just one of those reminders. Generally speaking, the interview was aimed … Continue reading #WhatEconomistsReallyDo
Fasting and elections
For several weeks now, I've been slowly adopting to life in Jakarta in conjuncture with many important events taking place in Indonesia. Two events have personally left me with significant impressions: the first being the hotly contested 2019 presidential elections, in which over 190 million were eligible to cast their votes on 17 April, and … Continue reading Fasting and elections
Emi Nakamura and #WomenInEconomics
On 2 May, it was announced that the economist, Emi Nakamura (Berkeley), had earned the John Bates Clark Medal, an annually-awarded prize which enjoys similar prestige among young American economists as the Yrjö Jahnsson Award does among young European economists. While myself being an enthusiastic follower of the "credibility revolution" within microeconomics - which can … Continue reading Emi Nakamura and #WomenInEconomics
Testing myths about parenthood with data
https://nyti.ms/2vecHgC A recent piece on the New York Times by the economist, Emily Oster (Brown), briefly introduces her upcoming book about how common feelings of guilt among young parents - often transferred down by society and its gold standards of ideal parenthood - are refutable by new data-driven evidence suggesting that the feelings of guilt … Continue reading Testing myths about parenthood with data
Is economics always pro-market?
“Economics Now Points Away From the Laissez-Faire Approach”: A recent interview featuring the economist, Sureish Naidu, briefly summarized all the reasons why economics these days has a lot more to contribute to the policy world. Here's a few quotes to which I could directly relate to my own reflections and past experience with economics, being … Continue reading Is economics always pro-market?
