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As urbanization continues to grow worldwide, affordable housing is a rare commodity in many cities. Sao Paolo, South America’s biggest city, has gained over 2 million new residents in the past decade alone. Elizabeth Johnson heads Brazil research at TS Lombard and has been studying Sao Paolo’s latest attempt at strengthening its housing strategy. In this podcast, Johnson says the city looked to its largely abandoned downtown core to address its housing woes. Transcript: https://bit.ly/4fuFBNj Read the article in Finance and Development: IMF.org/fandd
While housing markets play a significant role in economies, new research shows houses across 40 countries are less affordable than at any time since the 2008 financial crisis. IMF economist Deniz Igan helped develop the Housing Affordability Index. In this podcast, she says the pandemic triggered an unusual sequence of events that housing markets around the world are still struggling to correct. Transcript: https://bit.ly/49AeK0N Read the article in Finance and Development: IMF.org/fandd
Driving Change: Women-Led Development Economics from the Ground Up The International Economic Association’s Women in Leadership in Economics Initiative (IEA-WE) connects women economists worldwide and helps showcase their important empirical research, especially in developing countries. IMF Podcasts has partnered with the IEA-WE to produce a special series featuring the economists behind the invaluable local research that informs policymakers in places often overlooked. Driving Change kicks off this limited-run series from Turkey, with economist Ipek Ilkkaracan, who makes a strong business case for investing in social care infrastructure. Other episodes include Kenyan economist Rose Ngugi, whose indices help local counties design policies that work, and Colombian economics Professor Marcela Eslava, whose research looks to fix Latin America’s dysfunctional social security network. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3CQFQVq Special thanks to IEA editor Navika Mehta for this collaboration.
Driving Change: Women-Led Development Economics from the Ground Up The International Economic Association’s Women in Leadership in Economics Initiative (IEA-WE) connects women economists worldwide and helps showcase their important empirical research, especially in developing countries. IMF Podcasts has partnered with the IEA-WE to produce a special series featuring the economists behind the invaluable local research that informs policymakers in places often overlooked. This episode of Driving Change features Kenyan economist Rose Ngugi, whose indices are helping local counties design policies that work. Other episodes in the series include Colombian economics Professor Marcela Eslava, who looks to fix Latin America’s dysfunctional social security network, and Turkish economist Ipek Ilkkaracan, who makes a strong business case for investing in social care infrastructure. Transcript: https://bit.ly/4eOBbAt Special thanks to IEA editor Navika Mehta for this collaboration.
Driving Change: Women-Led Development Economics from the Ground Up The International Economic Association’s Women in Leadership in Economics Initiative (IEA-WE) connects women economists worldwide and helps showcase their important empirical research, especially in developing countries. IMF Podcasts has partnered with the IEA-WE to produce a special series featuring the economists behind the invaluable local research that informs policymakers in places often overlooked. This episode of Driving Change features Colombian economics Professor Marcela Eslava, whose research looks to fix Latin America’s dysfunctional social security network. Other episodes in the series include Turkish economist Ipek Ilkkaracan, who makes a strong business case for investing in social care infrastructure, and Kenyan economist Rose Ngugi, whose indices help local counties design better policies. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3Os40bc Special thanks to IEA editor Navika Mehta for this collaboration.
With sub-Saharan Africa soon to have one of the largest working-age populations in the world, removing barriers to business growth and encouraging higher productivity industries will help provide the employment opportunities it needs. But reforms don’t come easy. Wenjie Chen and Andrew Tiffin are economists in the IMF’s Africa Department and produce the Regional Economic Outlook for sub-Saharan Africa. In this podcast, they say addressing development needs while realizing reforms that create sufficient jobs will help garner public support and improve regional prospects. Transcript: bit.ly/4fqMdwQ Read the full report at IMF.org
As inflation and interest rates continue to decline and the likelihood of a recession slowly fades, financial markets have seen big equity gains. But the latest Global Financial Stability Report (GFSR) warns of several factors that could upend the recovery, including the apparent disconnect between market buoyancy and heightened uncertainty, especially related to geopolitical risks. Jason Wu and Nassira Abbas lead the IMF’s work on financial stability. In this podcast, they say while the near-term risks appear contained, medium-term prospects remain a concern. Transcript: https://bit.ly/48cGMyV Read the full report at IMF.org/GFSR
While 21st-century globalization and international trade dramatically changed how multinational corporations operate, the way they are taxed is largely based on early 20th-century thinking. Recent efforts by the OECD and the UN to modernize the international corporate tax system include a minimum corporate tax to make it more equitable. The IMF has also joined the effort by providing its expertise on global tax policy. Senior counsel Cory Hillier and senior economist Shafik Hebous are coauthors of recent research that seeks to strengthen the impact of a corporate minimum tax. Transcript: https://bit.ly/47YwFhb
Stories can unify or divide but our ability to imagine them is uniquely human. Cooperation and trust, built through shared stories and narratives, are the foundation of human societies and economies. So what happens when humans no longer hold the pen? Yuval Noah Harari is a historian, philosopher, and author of several books on human evolution, including Sapiens, and Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI. In this podcast, Harari says artificial intelligence is a risk to humankind's most valuable resource, trust. Transcript: https://bit.ly/4dvy3Jb Find his books at ynHarari.com
With all the instability within the Middle East and North Africa region of late, Egypt has nonetheless managed to reign in soaring inflation and win its largest-ever foreign investment. Egypt’s efforts to restore macroeconomic stability in recent years have led to an arrangement under the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility for Egypt, which makes available US$820 million to help support its reform agenda. Ivanna Vladkova Hollar leads the IMF’s work in Egypt. In this podcast, she says that while stabilizing its economy is positive, Egypt’s next big step is an economic transformation that will lift its private sector. Transcript: https://bit.ly/4efXuzH Learn more about the IMF’s work in Egypt at IMF.org/Egypt
Working from home was not an option for most people before March 11, 2020, when work and home life suddenly collided. The pandemic upended many aspects of doing business, but the daily commute is one routine that seems unlikely to return to what it was. Nicholas Bloom was studying the potential impact of remote work long before the pandemic launched it into the mainstream and now has data to suggest businesses should stick to the hybrid working model. Bloom is the William D. Eberle Professor of Economics at Stanford University. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3Xbxfmz Read the article in Finance and Development: IMF.org/fandd
The world has changed since postwar economic thought placed GDP growth as its guiding principle. 20th-century progress has pushed planetary resources to the limit and brings the sustainability of traditional macroeconomic models into question. In this podcast, Kate Raworth talks with journalist Rhoda Metcalfe about her alternative model Doughnut Economics, which places economic objectives within the social and ecological boundaries of the living planet. Raworth is an ecological economist and the author of Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist. Transcript: https://bit.ly/475TLBW
For many emerging market economies, moving from an export-oriented strategy with labor-intensive manufacturing to a more sophisticated production process was key to their development. But the world is quickly changing, and Raghuram Rajan says India need not follow that same path. In their new book, Breaking the Mold, the former Reserve Bank of India governor and co-author Rohit Lamba argue that India has lost its labor cost advantage and must focus on developing its human capital. In this podcast, IMF Asia and Pacific Department Head Krishna Srinivasan and Raghuram Rajan discuss how India might leverage its growing workforce and pivot from “brawn to brain”. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3yt3iX2 Read Krishna Srinivasan’s book review in September’s Finance and Development: IMF.org/fandd
For decades, governments have been tapping into global sovereign debt markets to smooth ups and downs in revenue with the hope that it would help spur investment. But what happens when government borrowing fails to deliver, and the citizens are left paying the bill? Mark Aguiar says emerging market and developing economies are especially vulnerable to interest rate spikes when debt levels are high. Aguiar is the Director of the International Economics Section at Princeton University, and his research suggests that sovereign borrowing to stabilize the economy may have the opposite effect. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3yHY3T8 Read the article at IMF.org/fandd
The world is changing so quickly it’s hard to think of one aspect of our economic lives that hasn’t shifted from what it was only a few years ago. Trade is no exception. New technologies, the re-emergence of industrial policy, and rising geopolitical tensions are all putting added pressure on the international trading system. Michele Ruta is a trade expert at the IMF. He says global cooperation is key to preventing economic fragmentation, from which no one benefits. Transcript: https://bit.ly/4fuz7zo Check out the global trade webpage at IMF.org/en/Topics/Trade
Aging populations in many advanced and emerging market economies mean shrinking workforces, weighing on growth. However, the opposite is true in low-income countries where populations are growing, and the expanding workforce may lack the skills for the job market. How can these two scenarios offset each other? Lisa Kolovich says women hold the key. Kolovich is an economist in the IMF Inclusion and Gender Unit, which has published a study that shows that supporting women’s health and education isn’t only the right thing to do but helps build critical human capital. In this podcast, Kolovich says gender equality can serve as a stabilizing factor to rebalance demographic trends. Transcript : https://bit.ly/4bFhZ6y
Nigeria’s new administration has set out on an ambitious reform path to stabilize its currency, regain market confidence, and tame inflation. In this podcast, Governor Olayemi Cardoso and IMF Africa Department head, Abebe Aemro Selassie discuss the role of Nigeria’s central bank in restoring macroeconomic stability. The conversation took place as part of the Governor Talks series held during the IMF-Word Bank Spring Meetings.
Economic growth is often seen as the core ingredient to social development, but it’s a relatively new idea. So what did pre-growth society look like and how much growth can modern society sustain? In his latest book, Daniel Susskind argues that economic policy should consider the costs of growth more carefully and realign the drivers to better fit with the challenges of our time. Susskind is a research professor at King's College London and a senior research associate at the Institute for Ethics in AI at Oxford University. In this podcast, he says growth doesn’t come from the tangible world of things but from the intangible world of ideas. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3yY83aK
Central banks worldwide share common practices in how they operate, but the UK’s central bank is unique in how it makes its rate decisions. Catherine Mann is a Professor of the Practice at Brandeis University and one of four external voting members of the Monetary Policy Committee at the Bank of England. In this podcast, Mann says the pickup in capital flows in neighboring countries earlier this year required careful consideration by the BOE, and the broader range of backgrounds on its board helped to make the right monetary policy decisions. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3RaurnK
It’s no mystery where the IMF was born but its origin story might surprise you. While the spotlight was on the charismatic British economist John Maynard Keynes during the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference, a little-known American economist was working in the shadows. Harry Dexter White’s plan would lead to the creation of the IMF and forever change the world economy. In this podcast, IMF historian and author, James Boughton speaks with Rhoda Metcalfe about how Harry White made history without making a splash. Transcript: https://bit.ly/456YgLB Read the article in Finance and Development: IMF.org/fandd James Boughton is also the author of Harry Dexter White and the American Creed
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