Intergovernmental Grants to School Districts and Educational Outcomes During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Individuals may fail to recall and use information they already know when making decisions. We empirically investigate whether such “retrieval failures” distort consumption smoothing behavior among Zambian farmers, who derive their income from one annual harvest and then spend it down over the course of the year. We document that individuals underestimate upcoming spending by…

With disbelief I heard some days ago of the passing of Óscar Ugarteche, one of the Tax Justice Network’s long time senior advisers. This mournful news left me dismayed. The loss of an inspiring person always brings sadness even to those of us who were not fortunate enough to meet him in person. At the same time, this news made me want to pay tribute to the greatness of his persona.  Characterised by his…

The last few weeks should end any illusion that the United States can improvise its way through frontier AI policy. What we have witnessed was not serious governance. It was vibe policymaking: ad hoc, deal-by-deal reactions with no clear standard, public explanation, or predictable process. The result was not just confusion. It exposed a deeper…

There is weaponisation of privacy, and then there are cases that take it a step further. One thing is to close “public” access to information, as the infamous ruling of the European Court of Justice did to beneficial ownership information in 2022. But restricting routine access to information by tax authorities is another matter entirely. The European Court of…

Sometimes the great verities are pretty straightforward. For example, “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop,” an observation made famous by economist Herb Stein. Let’s stick with that one, given its sensible application to the Trump administration’s current quasi-licensing regime for frontier AI models. The effort has proven to be a vibey, ad…