The Unassuming Economist

From the World Economic Forum:

“The World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2025 united more than 3,000 global leaders to tackle technological, economic and climate challenges under the theme “Collaboration in the Intelligent Age”.

For me, as Secretary-General of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the gathering served as a powerful opportunity to reinforce the crucial role international standards play in addressing the world’s most pressing challenges.

From advancing the responsible use of technology to driving the energy transition and fostering inclusivity, standards provide the trust and shared frameworks needed to unlock progress.

Davos is more than a meeting of minds – it is a catalyst for collective action on the defining challenges of our time: achieving net zero, adapting to climate impacts, harnessing technology responsibly, and ensuring innovation benefits everyone.

The discussions emphasized that by fostering collaboration across sectors and regions, we can truly transform global challenges into opportunities for sustainable and inclusive growth.”

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From a post by M. Nolan Gray:

“After a lot of hard work by activists, America’s political class has finally started to accept that we are in a housing crisis that is ruining everything. But what do we mean when we talk about a housing crisis? The reality is that housing market conditions are quite varied across the United States. There is not one single crisis, but three different varieties of housing crisis that require three different policy responses.

• Housing Shortage Crisis: These are the places where there is simply too little housing, of every variety, everywhere in the city. In these places, we urgently need to build more housing, in any form.
• Housing Inaccessibility Crisis: These are the places where housing is cheap by national standards, yet still inaccessible due to low local incomes. In these places, the near-term fix is to build subsidized deed-restricted affordable housing and expand access to housing choice vouchers. The long-term fix is to create the conditions for economic revitalization.”

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From a paper by Ihtisham Hussain, Abdul Saqib, and Hooi Hooi Lean:

“Alleviating environmental damage has become a significant challenge for BRICS countries, where economic progress amidst urbanization and fossil fuel consumption pollutes the environment. In this context, BRICS countries must transition from fossil fuels to green energy to sustain their economic progress and protect the environment. However, economic policy uncertainty may affect their fight against climate change and their actions towards environmental sustainability. Therefore, this study examines the roles of economic policy uncertainty and green energy in the environmental sustainability of BRICS countries. Under the STIRPAT framework, we employ a novel augmented autoregressive distributed lag model. Our results show that green energy has a negative and significant impact on carbon emissions and temperature. Moreover, economic policy uncertainty aggravates carbon emissions and temperature in India and Russia. But it was found to reduce carbon emissions and temperature in Brazil and China. To better address the impacts of policy uncertainty on environmental outcomes, Brazil and China should expand renewable energy investments and stabilize economic policies, while India and Russia could prioritize the transition to cleaner technologies and reduce their reliance on fossil fuels to enhance environmental sustainability.”

From a paper by Hugo Morão:

“This study quantifies the impact of European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) on inflation and key macroeconomic variables in the Euro Area (EA). Using a structural vector autoregression (SVAR) model, the analysis reveals that stricter climate policies significantly affect industrial production, unemployment, and inflation in transportation, utilities, and food sectors. Furthermore, the post-2020 regulatory adjustments in emissions caps and allowances have contributed to recent consumer price increases, an effect amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions. The findings suggest the European Commission underestimated the macroeconomic consequences of EU ETS Phase 4. This highlights the need for a more flexible climate policy approach that balances environmental goals with macroeconomic stability.”

From UNDP:

“The European Union (EU) has committed funding of $1 Million to the Africa Facility to Support Inclusive Transitions (AFSIT), a joint initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the African Union Commission (AUC). This funding will advance the development and updating of the Africa Transition Index (ATI) platform, providing African governments with vital data-driven insights to guide their transitions, strengthen governance and promote long-term stability across the continent.

ATI is designed to equip policymakers with the tools they need to make informed decisions that ensure stability and foster sustainable development. By addressing the challenges of governance, AFSIT will support African nations in crafting long-term, inclusive solutions aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions) and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.”

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