“AI and the Productivity Paradox” By Georgios Petropoulos, courtesy of Bruegel Institute Our economy is undergoing tremendous digitalisation through numerous new information technology systems that are based on artificial intelligence and machine learning. While these new technologies bring big efficiency gains in the production process, they do not seem to contribute to productivity, […]
Tag: productivity
Congestion costs Mexican cities 94 billion pesos a year
“The cost of congestion: life and resources lost” Courtesy of IMCO Mexican cities do not measure the effects that vehicular congestion has on the population, so the inhabitants pay the high costs generated by this problem due to the lack of public policies and investment to guarantee better public transport services. This […]
Yummy: Thanksgiving dinner costs less than ever
“Thanksgiving Dinner Costs Less and Other Reasons to Be Thankful” By Chelsea Follett, courtesy of the Cato Institute Watching the news or discussing it with your family at Thanksgiving dinner, it is not hard to fall into the trap of thinking that the entire world is moving in a negative direction. It may be […]
“This is a mess”: QE isn’t working – and neither is government
By Erik Sass, TES Editor-in-Chief Collectively and individually the countries of Europe face economic problems that they are either unwilling or unable to confront due to a lack of political courage, despite the availability of effective remedies. That was the bleak takeaway from a panel discussion of economic and political experts at the […]
UK can’t afford to live in fiscal fantasy land
“Budget or no budget, with borrowing now on the rise again fiscal realities can’t just be wished away” By Carl Emmerson, Paul Johnson and Isabel Stockton, courtesy of IFS Today was the intended date of Sajid Javid’s first Budget as Chancellor. The failure to implement a Brexit deal, and the general election campaign, […]
New Protectionism: Still Protectionism and Bad Economics
By Veronique de Rugy, courtesy of the Mercatus Center For several years now, news headlines have reflected anxieties about the effects of globalization and freeing trade: Will jobs evaporate? Does China have an “unfair” advantage? Is the middle class disappearing? These fears need to be addressed, because they have resulted […]
The digital revolution is losing steam
“Dissecting the global growth and productivity slowdown” By Robert Stehrer, courtesy of WIIW Growth rates in the global economy since the financial crisis have been subdued compared to the boom phase at the beginning of this century (see Figure 1). Compared to the period 2000-06 average real GDP growth slowed from more […]
How I learned to stop worrying and love AI
“Artificial intelligence will be good for workers” By Gaël Campan and Luc Vallée, courtesy of MEI Are machines going to steal our jobs? That is the question that keeps popping up in light of the rapid progress of artificial intelligence (AI). Research shows, however, that such fears about the adverse impact of AI […]
Telehealth can help America get back to work quicker
By Davis Warnell and Andrea O’Sullivan, courtesy of the Mercatus Center When employees get sick, it’s like their companies get a little sick, too. Employee health can have dramatic impacts on company productivity. The Integrated Benefits Institute estimates that poor employee health imposes $880 billion in annual costs, which includes a $530 billion deficit […]
Quixotic: Spain leads Europe in meaningless bureaucracy for small biz
Courtesy of Civismo Spain is the country in which small businesses must spend the most hours dealing with bureaucracy. This is the takeaway from a new international comparison, Bureaucracy Index 2019, for which several European think tanks, including Civismo, calculated […]