IMF Podcasts

As the average annual global temperature is expected to rise by 4 degrees Celsius or more by 2100, economic output in countries with hot climates continues to fall. And given that most low-income countries are located in hot regions, low-income countries are bearing the brunt of the negative economic costs of climate change even though they contribute very little to the greenhouse gas emissions that cause it. In this podcast, IMF economists Sebastian Acevedo and Natalija Novta say the increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters is having a negative impact on growth. Acevedo and Novta are coauthors of Weather Shocks and Output in Low-Income Countries:Adaptation and the Role of Policies

Migration is on the front burner these days. We hear a lot about people moving from one country to the next, fleeing conflict or seeking a better life. But what about the movement of people within a country? Economist Tamim Bayoumi says a well-functioning economy has people moving around to maximize their own welfare and in turn maximize the system; a basic tenant of market economics. Bayoumi is coauthor of Stranded! How Rising Inequality Suppressed US Migration and Hurt Those "Left Behind. In this podcast, Bayoumi says increasing house price and income inequality has reduced long distance migration, the type most linked to jobs. Tamim Bayoumi is Deputy Director in the IMF's Strategy, Policy and Review Department.

July was the hottest month on record according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Scientific research now indicates more clearly than ever that our growing carbon footprint is warming the planet at an alarming rate and threatening our ecosystems. In this podcast, economist Ralph Chami, and whale conservationist Michael Fishbach, explain the carbon capture potential of whales and how supporting international efforts to restore whale populations around the world is one of the simplest ways to fight climate change. Ralph Chami's article Whales Fight Climate Change in the online edition of Finance and Development Magazine.

Being diagnosed with a serious illness is a shock to the system, and treatment and recovery can mean major disruptions in a person's life. But illness also takes millions of people out of the labor force every year and the quality of the care they receive can determine the extent to which this is a shock to the economy. IMF economist Nicola Pierri, with coauthors Anne-Line Koch Helsø and Adelina Yanyue Wang have published a research paper on The Economic Impact of Healthcare Quality. In this podcast, Pierri says low quality hospitals can wind up being very costly to both people and the economy at large.

In his latest book, Raghuram Rajan takes a close look at the relationship between the state, markets and communities, and argues localism is the answer to globalization. Rajan is a distinguished professor of finance at the University of Chicago, former head of India's central bank and former Chief Economist at the IMF, where he was invited to talk about The Third Pillar: How Markets and the State Leave the Community Behind

The use of digital technologies is transforming how tax administrations operate, helping to improve efficiency and service delivery. A striking example has been Peru's adoption of electronic invoicing, which allows the automatic transfer of billing information between firms and the tax authority. Drawn by its potential to strengthen tax compliance and reduce costs, Peru is among more than 50 countries around the world to have implemented e-invoicing and many others are preparing to follow suit. IMF economists Salma Khalid and Matthieu Bellon have been studying the impact of Peru's mandatory e-invoicing reform that started back in 2014. Their research paper will be published this fall. Salma Khalid is an economist in the Western Hemisphere Department and Matthieu Bellon is an economist in the Fiscal Affairs Department at the IMF.

Technological innovation like automation using robots to produce goods and provide services creates tremendous opportunities for businesses. But as the cost of producing robots goes down, is this technology widening the income gap? Economist Arnaud Costinot has been studying technological change and its impact on inequality, and in this podcast, he discusses how a robot tax might help better distribute the benefits of artificial intelligence, or AI technologies. Arnaud Costinot is a Professor of Economics at MIT, and coauthor of Robots, Trade, and Luddism: A Sufficient Statistic Approach to Optimal Technology Regulation. Costinot was invited to present his research at the IMF.

International corporate tax avoidance is a growing concern for both advanced economies and low-income countries. The changing nature of the global economy–notably increasing digitalization, in some cases, is making it easier for firms to shift profits to low-tax countries. Michael Keen is a Deputy Director in the IMF's Fiscal Affairs Department, and in this podcast he says the international tax system is under unprecedented stress. Keen was a lead author of a recent IMF policy paper that sets out the current state of the international corporate tax system and explores ways to address some of its shortcomings.

When it comes to environmental policies, Ian Parry argues none are more effective than carbon taxes. Parry, an expert on fiscal policy and climate change at the IMF, says carbon taxes promote a full range of responses for reducing emissions–like switching from coal to clean generation fuels, reducing the demand for electricity, transportation fuels, and so on and can be administratively straightforward to implement. Parry is author of several research papers on carbon taxation and his recent article What Is Carbon Taxation? is published in the June 2019 edition of Finance and Development Magazine. Ian Parry is the principal environmental fiscal policy expert in the IMF's Fiscal Affairs Department.

Global value chains break up the production process so that different steps can be carried out in different countries. In the past, a country had to master the production of a whole manufactured product to export it, which rarely happened. With value chains, a country can specialize in one or several activities in which it has a comparative advantage. In this podcast, David Dollar says he's seen Asia's economies transformed by value chains in recent years. Before joining Brookings as Senior Fellow at the China Center, Dollar was World Bank Country Director for China and represented the US Treasury in Beijing. Dollar's recent article on value chains Invisible Links is published in the June 2019 edition of Finance and Development Magazine. Check out the Dollar and Sense podcast at Brookings.edu