• Will the vaccine(s) be successful?

    Vaccines have had a transformative impact on global public health.  Despite many decades of progress, however, there remain important challenges associated with immunisation. Determining whether a vaccine will be successful involves resolving important questions regarding vaccine effectiveness, distribution and uptake.  … Continued

  • How safe is our data?

    In 2017, The Economist famously highlighted an oft-cited metaphor of Data as the New Oil to describe the growing centrality of data to the global economy (others assert it is not).  More recently, The Economist have re-evaluated and asked whether … Continued

  • The role of institutions in shaping economic and climate outcomes

    This month, the International Monetary Fund released its revised World Economic Outlook for 2020.  It is worth taking a look through their current release, which although describing a dire forecast for 2020 is actually significantly improved on its expectations from … Continued

  • Regulating Big Tech

    Christos sent along a recent blog post he recently wrote with other leading European economists on the Google-Fitbit deal as the topic for this week’s discussion since we will be covering competition policy in both TP1 and TP2 (and will … Continued

  • From scientific evidence to information warfare

    Do facts and scientific evidence matter in policymaking?  For those of us with a strong belief in the scientific process, the answer seems like it should self-evidently be ‘yes’. But the situation is not always so clear — there are … Continued

  • Do prizes work?

    On Thursday (8 October), Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, and Sir David Attenborough launched a £50m “Earthshot Prize”, which, they claim to be “the biggest environmental award ever”, and which, they hope, will become the equivalent of a “Nobel … Continued