Modest gender gaps emerge in primary school, with girls tending to perform better than boys in reading tests, for example, and less likely to experience disciplinary incidents that result in suspension. This column uses data from the US state of Florida to examine why these modest gaps translate into large gender differences in later educational attainment, such as completing
Scott Baker, Aniket Baksy, Nicholas Bloom, Steven Davis, Jonathan Rodden 22 December 2020
Elections can cause economic uncertainty, especially when elections take place in a politically polarised context. This column studies how national election cycles in 23 countries influence economic policy uncertainty, as measured by the share of newspaper articles that discusses uncertainty and economic policy. Economic policy uncertainty clearly rises in the months leading up to national elections. Average economic policy uncertainty values are 13% higher in the month before and the month of national elections than in other months during the same election cycle. In the US, economic policy uncertainty increases are especially pronounced around close and highly polarised presidential elections.
Markus K Brunnermeier, Sam Langfield, Marco Pagano, Ricardo Reis, Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, Dimitri Vayanos
A few days ago, the Eurogroup agreed to a reform of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and to accelerate the establishment of the ESM as backstop to the Single Resolution Fund. This is excellent news for Europe, as these reforms are essential to ensure a credible crisis management framework, particularly given the enormous economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the likelihood of a banking crises once the unprecedented support measures are withdrawn.
But these measures are not sufficient. The Banking Union is incomplete – its second ‘pillar (resolution) does not really work, and the third ‘pillar’ (deposit insurance) does not exist. As a result, the banking market is more fragmented now than at the inception of the Banking Union. Mergers only seem to happen within member states, and home and host regulators continue to fight to ensure sufficient capital and