Is the Estonian e-residency program a digital fairytale?

5. November 2022

Estonia is considered a role model for digital public administration. The Estonian e-residency program is the most recent e-government initiative, which promises entrepreneurs worldwide access to its public administration 24/7. In its current state, the program cannot achieve its ambitious goal due to structural misconceptions that have caused issues around its efficiency and inclusiveness.

Anna Mayer

School Choice in the United States

16. August 2022

School choice encompasses a variety of programs run by the U.S. government that allows parents to choose a school other than their local publicly funded school. Wealthy parents have been able to afford choices in education for a very long time. Now it is time that we allow poorer citizens to choose an education that best fits the needs of their children. School choice will allow this to happen.

Jaireet Chahal

Inflation During the Pandemic: Is ‘Transitory’ a Myth?

19. Juli 2022

Caused by pent-up demand and intense supply disruptions, inflation has risen to its highest level in decades. As the specter of “entrenched inflation” looms, central banks must use monetary policy sensibly without overreacting. Central banks should allow time for overheated demand and supply disruptions to ease, lest the world’s advanced economies face their hardest landing yet.

Joshua Rajendran

U.S. vs. China? Cooperation in Telecommunications in East Africa

3. Mai 2022

Some Western political strategists suggest a “Tech Cold War” is playing out in Africa between China and the U.S. Based on case studies from Ethiopia and Kenya, this perspective neglects the actual state of affairs. Instead of searching for “China-free” actors, the West should take the rationale of each project as a yardstick to stay engaged and relevant in the emerging African information and communications technology sector.

Jonas Pauly

Fossil Fuels: The Case For Ending Producer Subsidies

27. Februar 2018

Our guest in this epsiode is Tim Pfefferle, one of the winners of our writing competition on new economic thinking. We discuss his article on fossil fuels and producer subsidies, their detrimental impact on climate change and global climate governance as well as possible ways out of this quagmire. We also talk about the European Investment Bank and their largest investment in the energy sector ever – €1.5 billion for a gas pipeline.

Tim Pfefferle & Felix Hoffmann

The Dangerous Depoliticization of Economic Numbers

26. Februar 2018 Wirtschaftspolitik

Daniel DeRock exposes the shaky foundations of macroeconomic statistical methods – from GDP figures to debt measurement – and argues for a fundamental rethinking of how scholars and policymakers engage with quantitative indicators.

Daniel Derock

RE: Divide and Rule

22. Februar 2018 Europapolitik

The EU should be wary: China bought its way into Cambodia to undermine the coherence of the region’s prime institution, ASEAN – and a similar strategy is being applied in the Union’s periphery. Here’s how Brussels can dodge history’s boomerang without compromising on its strategic interests vis-à-vis its ever-closer Eastern Neighbor.

Moritz Matzner

Blockchain and the Fight Against Illicit Financial Flows

19. Februar 2018 Entwicklung und Gesundheit

Illicit financial flows have staggering consequences for global health and development in the world’s poorest countries. Existing policies address this issue but their success is limited by a paradigm of centralization. Blockchain and mobile technologies have enabled new policy possibilities around a paradigm of decentralization and disaggregation to a wider range of stakeholders.

Michael Brooks

Public Credit Scores – A Weapon Against Debt Accumulation?

9. Februar 2018 Wirtschaftspolitik

Debt fueled consumption lay at the heart of the global financial crisis of 2008. Now ten years later, rising household debt in developed economies remains a significant issue. In this article Babatunde Valentine Onabajo proposes a novel solution: making individual credit scores public.

Babatunde Valentine Onabajo

Fossil Fuels: The Case For Ending Producer Subsidies

2. Februar 2018 Energie und Umwelt

Fossil fuel subsidies are bad. Bad for government budgets. Bad for the economy. And bad for the climate. While reform efforts have focused on cutting consumer subsidies, those for production remain prevalent. To realize global climate ambitions, the G20 has to get serious and end producer subsidies.

Tim Pfefferle