What we suspected all along. Time to move on. science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

Nice analysis of how to offset distributional impacts from fuel taxes in Sweden. Links the E3ME macro model to a micro analysis. Cambridge Econometrics tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

I've finally got round to setting up on BlueSky too, which I will mostly use for more specialized content, plus some previews from the forthcoming book with JFMercure . And I hope to be back to blogging soon...

Recent post on LinkedIn about the importance of interdisciplinary research - and not just for climate change. It also introduces ICENS lab, which takes a broader perspective. Thoughts and comments welcome! linkedin.com/pulse/why-inte…

People like to claim that banks lend the funds deposited with them. They don't. It is technically impossible for them to do so. In this post, I explain why that is the case and how banks really create the loans that they offer to their customers. taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/08/1…

The Economist is going big on transformational scenarios at the moment. Three weeks ago it was AI, this week climate tipping points. These are exactly the sorts of questions economists should be looking at - but often shy away from. economist.com/leaders/2025/0…

Very interesting. The power of metaphor has always been strong in economics. It helps our thinking and drives ideas, but can easily mislead us too. I’m all in favour of trying new metaphors.

Great quote. It’s funny how close this is to the definition of macroeconomics, but so far away from what is often done in practice.

This made me laugh. But it gets to the heart of the issue. Commoditising things makes them cheap. But not using them at all makes things cheaper still. And there’s a role for policy to decide what we want to be cheap.

Point well made. Maths has a useful role to support a broader analysis, but too often it displaces the rest. Important issues get missed. Just because we can do fancy maths doesn’t mean we always should.

I’m definitely in favour of bringing new maths techniques into economics - if it helps explain real world phenomena. If it is just a fancy new way to do optimisations then not interested.

I found Joel Mokyr's Culture of Growth interesting and well worth reading. It benefited from looking beyond standard economic issues. The bits trying to reconcile with textbook economics were painful... clearly appreciated by others though...

Great point - and I would add that we won’t get far in understanding capitalism if we don’t cover innovation. But also Schumpeter was a great writer and his work is a pleasure to read.

This hits on a critical point. Yes, there are papers that relax these assumptions, often very interesting. But it's not enough to treat non-adherence to assumptions that defy reality as a special case. Especially when there is no need to use them at all.

On CharGPT for fun. Which economic theory best reflects reality.

Fun indeed. Initially I was a worried that LLMs would just reinforce neoclassical ideas based on sheer volume of publications - but have been pleasantly surprised by some of the answers. If it makes people think and read more that’s a good thing.

Bill Gates… the point is we don’t know what will happen when the climate warms. Every 0.1C increases chance of disaster. But he probably thought nothing could go wrong with every Microsoft product.