
VoxTalks Economics
Learn about groundbreaking new research, commentary and policy ideas from the world's leading economists. Presented by Tim Phillips.
Latest episodes

Jun 11, 2021 • 11min
S4 Ep24: Populism in Latin America
Latin America has a long history of populist government. New research by Antonio Spilimbergo quantifies the consequences of populism for the region's institutions and economies.

Jun 8, 2021 • 15min
S4 Ep23: Turning competition research into competition policy
The CEPR's Research Policy Network on competition policy (cepr.online/competition) launches this week. In the first of two special podcasts on the topic, Greg Crawford and Cristina Caffarra tell Tim Phillips why it is so important to have this debate now, and how academics can use the RPN to connect their research to real-world policy.
You can find out more about and register for the event on June 17th 2021 here: Privacy & Antitrust: "Integration", not just "Intersection"

Jun 3, 2021 • 17min
S4 Ep22: How central banks saved us from Covid-19
How well has monetary policy coped with the challenge of Covid-19?Central banks get good grades in a new VoxEU ebook. But Bill English and Angel Ubide warn Tim Phillips that success today may lead to problems in future.

May 28, 2021 • 16min
S4 Ep21: Twitter changes how the media reports conflict
Every day we can see harrowing mobile phone footage from conflict zones, shot by civilians, on the TV news. Ekaterina Zhuravskaya tells Tim Phillips that data from the Israel-Palestine conflict suggests social media has changed the tone of what traditional media reports.

May 25, 2021 • 14min
S4 Ep20: The financial system and climate risk
The latest Barcelona Report from the CEPR discusses how central banks and asset managers should manage climate and natural disaster risks. Xavier Vives tells Tim Phillips what the report has to say about mandates, hedging and resilience.

May 21, 2021 • 20min
S4 Ep19: Are socially responsible banks more resilient?
ESG – Environmental, Social and Governance – measures of bank performance are getting a lot of attention from shareholders and policymakers. But might more investment in ESG make banks less resilient? Thomas Gehrig tells Tim Phillips what the first research on this topic reveals.

May 7, 2021 • 14min
S4 Ep18: Parental age and child health
As more of us wait to have children, more of us also worry if that's best for the health of our babies. Empirical evidence has been inconclusive so far but, based on new evidence, Hans Hvide tells Tim Phillips that this might be a problem with the way the research has been done.

Apr 30, 2021 • 19min
S4 Ep17: Making sense of the US-China trade war
If you had trouble in the last four years keeping up with what was happening in the trade war, you're not alone. Chad Bown tell Tim Phillips about his new paper that explains what happened, when, what it meant - and what happens next.

Apr 27, 2021 • 15min
S4 Ep16: The problems of digital trade
An increasing amount of trade is digital, but trade negotiations are bogged down by arguments over how to regulate it. A new VoxEU ebook investigates what gets in the way of digital trade, and editors Ingo Borchert and Alan Winters tell Tim Phillips what we can do to make it work better.

Apr 23, 2021 • 13min
S4 Ep15: Covid-19 is reshaping European economic policy
Europe has struggled through two crises in the last decade, but this time its response has been much more decisive and ambitious. George Papaconstantinou tells Tim Phillips why Covid-19 may be the catalyst for deeper EU integration.
You can download CEPR Policy Insight 109: Reshaping economic policy in the EU in the post-Covid world, by Marco Buti and George Papaconstantinou, here