Author Archives: Francesc Rodríguez Tous
South Korea
I find South Korea a fascinating country. One of the economic miracles of the second half of the 20th century, South Korea not only went from extremely poor in the 1950s, when it suffered the invasion of North Korea and … Continue reading
Who leaves when a central bank shrinks?
A couple of months ago, I started noticing something on LinkedIn: economists I knew at the Bank of England were announcing they were leaving the institution (always, curiously, with a picture of the building behind them). Many of them very … Continue reading
Generalists in the Age of AI
For most of modern intellectual history, the generalist has been losing. The trend is visible everywhere, including in academia. At my university, Bayes Business School, the finance faculty is divided into groups: banking, asset pricing, M&A, real estate,… These are … Continue reading
The Quantum Bomb Experiment
I have been reading about the history of quantum theory and how this history has shaped the different interpretations of it. ‘Helgoland’, by Carlo Rovelli, ‘Quantum’, by Manjit Kumar, and ‘What is real?’, by Adam Becker, are excellent books that … Continue reading
Rationality, by Steven Pinker
Whenever Steven Pinker, cognitive scientist at Harvard, publishes a book, one should buy it and read it. This is part of living a good life. His books are not easy, although the prose is clear and concise, but they provide … Continue reading
Four Thousand Weeks, by Oliver Burkeman
Four Thousand Weeks is a book that leans against a recent trend—in non-fiction literature but also in podcasts and Youtube videos—in finding hacks to boost our productivity. It is not really an anti-productivity book. The central message is that the … Continue reading
The 10th Anniversary of the Contrarian Prize
A couple of days ago I attended a debate on free speech for the 10th Anniversary of the Contrarian Prize. This prize, founded by Ali Miraj, recognises the independence and courage of British public figures who challenge the status quo. … Continue reading
The impact of school closure on test scores
The great* Emily Oster tweeted yesterday that they got their article on the impact of school closures accepted in the American Economic Review: Insights. Their paper shows that, during 2021, students in districts with more in-person classes performed better in … Continue reading
Seeds of Science: Why we got it so wrong on GMOs, by Mark Lynas
This is a book that I’ve had wanted to read for a long time. I do not remember when I read about it, but the outline of the book—an early anti-GMO activist explaining how the movement started and how he … Continue reading
Loan evergreening: does it “save” firms?
I have written about my paper on loan evergreening in Uruguay in a couple of previous posts (here and here). A paper that is coming soon, by the way. The strategy we study—providing a bullet loan to repay an existing … Continue reading
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