Our ‘textbook’ discussion of how regulation can be justified was in the context of market failures. Using this lens, most of the historical cases seem pretty straightforward (at least in retrospect!). But (how) should regulation address something novel like non-fungible tokens … Continued
In a recent tweet, Jesus suggested a topic that was, perhaps, inevitable to be our focus during a week when world leaders assembled in Glasgow for the first major climate conference held in the UK. His question: ‘which institutions (rules of … Continued
Diego already pointed to this week’s topic: Facebook (even if last week’s topic was intellectual property!) In her testimony before the US Congress, Frances Haugen, the Facebook whistleblower highlighted the dangers posed by its algorithms. In some circles, such as The … Continued
In an effort to remain joined up across the programme, Christos has suggested this week’s blog topic: “Intellectual property represents a compromise between encouraging new ideas and allowing the full use of existing ideas” Kenneth Arrow (1962) The subject of … Continued
In an era of disinformation, holding onto what we mean by ‘truth’ can be increasingly challenging. A decade ago, Photoshop might have been used to manipulate images, for example, by adding in a person to a photo who was not … Continued
As I mentioned in my last-minute slide about Clearview AI and facial recognition technology (FRT), I think this is a great case of an emergent issue where, for better or worse, firms have had both considerable ability to shape the … Continued
This week, the British Government released its 10-point plan for a ‘green industrial revolution’ (you can read the press release, which was actually the only information available for the first 24 hours!). The plan claims to ‘mobilise £12 billion of … Continued
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
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
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