CEPR - Centre for Economic Policy Research

🗣️In many Germanic languages, the word for ‘debt’ also means ‘guilt’. This column explores whether the linguistic overlap leads to greater #debt aversion in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland. Using a guilt-laden term reduces willingness to borrow, lowers approval for government debt, and influences firms’ financing plans and politicians’ framing of fiscal policy. While support for public debt goes down with use of the laden term, the effect disappears when the purpose of the debt is clear. Linguistic framing may help guide borrowing toward socially optimal levels. Vox column by: Cevat Giray Aksoy (EBRD, King's College London), Mathias Dolls (ifo Institut), Justyna Klejdysz (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München), Andreas Peichl (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München), Lisa Windsteiger (Universität Salzburg) Read more here: https://ow.ly/pK1U50XgJbc

📢#CallForPapers - 26th CEPR-JIE Conference on Applied Industrial Organization 📍LUISS University, Rome - 28-29 May 2026 Submission deadline: Sunday 11 January 2025 at 11:59 PM (GMT) The 2026 CEPR-JIE Conference on Applied Industrial Organization will take place in Rome, hosted by the Luiss Guido Carli University on Thursday 28 and Friday 29 of May 2026. Financial support for the conference is generously provided by the Journal of Industrial Economics (JIE), LUISS University and CEPR. The Applied IO conference series seeks to contribute to the understanding of the breadth of topics analysed within the field of Industrial Organization, including demand analysis, productivity, competition in the short- and long-run, innovation, investment, and auctions, to develop empirical protocols and tests of economic models, to promote the exchange and the dissemination of results at the forefront of research, and finally, to evaluate current competition and regulation policies. It will cover the state of the art in both theoretical and empirical Industrial Organization. The local organisers are Emilio Calvano (LUISS University & CEPR) and Fabiano Schivardi (LUISS University & CEPR). More information and submit a paper: https://ow.ly/MuWO50XfEtj

🏦Classifying loans as fixed-rate or floating-rate fails to fully capture their distinct sensitivity to changes in ECB policy rates. This column analyses the maturity of the relevant risk-free rates used to price new loans to see if it affects their short-term interest rate sensitivity. In countries where new loans were priced using shorter-term risk-free rates, interest rates increased more sharply during the ECB’s monetary tightening, regardless of the loan’s own maturity. Banks partly offset this rise by lowering the premia they charged. This highlights how variations in lending practices drive cross-country differences in monetary policy pass-through. Vox column by: Kārlis Vilerts (Latvijas Banka), Sofia Anyfantaki (Bank of Greece, European Central Bank), Konstantins Benkovskis (Latvijas Banka), Sebastian Bredl (Deutsche Bundesbank), Massimo Giovannini (Central Bank of Malta), Florian Horky (Národná banka Slovenska), Vanessa Kunzmann (European Central Bank), Tibor Lalinsky (Národná banka Slovenska, European Central Bank), Athanasios Lampousis (Bank of Greece), Elizaveta Lukmanova (Central Bank of Ireland), Filippos Petroulakis (Bank of Greece), Klāvs Zutis (Latvijas Banka) Read more here: https://ow.ly/891r50Xg7hp

🏆Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt have been jointly awarded the 2025 #NobelPrize in Economic Sciences with Joel Mokyr ‘for having explained innovation-driven economic growth’. Aghion and Howitt were cited by the Nobel committee ‘for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction’. As this column explains, their work transformed creative destruction from an evocative metaphor into a rigorous analytical framework. The Nobel recognition honours research that has fundamentally transformed how economists understand the engines of prosperity and technological progress. Vox column by: Peter J. Klenow (Stanford University) Read more here: https://ow.ly/sUUX50Xg72Y

📢#CallForPapers - International Seminar on Trade (ISoT) Second Edition Co-organised by: Journal of International Economics, Université de Genève, The World Bank and CEPR Submission Deadline: Sunday 11 January, 2026 The Journal of International Economics, University of Geneva, World Bank, and CEPR invite submissions for the 2nd edition of the “International Seminar on Trade” (ISoT). ISoT will focus on recent advances in empirical, theoretical, and quantitative international trade. We also welcome papers in closely related fields if they include a significant international trade component. Submitted papers should be motivated by real-world questions and firmly grounded in policy-relevant empirical evidence. Submissions must not be under consideration for publication in another journal. By submitting to this call for papers, authors agree to allow the Journal of International Economics to consider their papers for publication in a special issue. The refereeing process will be overseen by two Guest Editors, who will be Isabelle Mejean (Sciences Po and CEPR) and Marc Melitz (Harvard University and CEPR). More information: https://ow.ly/KQGa50Xfw9b

🏦#Fintech has improved efficiency and inclusion in banking, especially lending, but has also raised concerns about financial stability, privacy, discrimination, and overall wellbeing. This column introduces a framework that outlines the differences between fintech firms and traditional banks and how fintech affects frictions in lending. New technologies influence the differentiation between banks and fintechs and the efficiency gap between them, which in turn shape market performance and overall welfare. The framework can inform policies on price discrimination and data sharing, as well as the desirability of levelling the playing field between incumbents and entrants. Vox column by: Xavier Vives (IESE Business School) Read more here: https://ow.ly/5WHi50Xfnwn

🔔 Reminder! Don’t miss our inaugural webinar in “The Economics of Longevity & Ageing” series🔔 Join us for our very first event with distinguished speaker Amy Finkelstein, Professor of Economics at MIT 📖 Topic: Elderly Health and Longevity in the US: Evidence and Implications 📅 Date: Wednesday, 19 November ⏰ Time: 10:00–11:30am ET | 3:00–4:30pm GMT This session will explore cutting-edge research on ageing, health, and longevity, one of the defining policy and economic challenges of our time. ✅ Open to all with advance registration: https://lnkd.in/e3yi42ky 💻Visit our RPN website on Ageing & Longevity here:https://lnkd.in/ef8nRu5J

📈In 2025, the US government underwent a large fiscal switch, with Congress enacting large income tax cuts and the second Trump administration putting new tariffs on goods at levels not seen in the US since the Great Depression. This column evaluates tariffs as a broad tool of fiscal policy, reviewing both tax policy and macroeconomic considerations, and concludes that this fiscal switch will leave most Americans worse off. Vox column by: Kimberly Clausing (University of California, Los Angeles - School of Law, Peterson Institute for International Economics), Maurice Obstfeld (Peterson Institute for International Economics, University of California, Berkeley) Read more here: https://ow.ly/CeU250XeTf6

🛑A key debate surrounding export controls is whether they accelerate innovation in targeted rivals. This column studies this question using a set of US export controls, the 2007 ‘#China Rule’, by comparing sanctioned goods with goods just excluded from the policy. It finds that the policy reduced Chinese imports of restricted goods. It also finds strong evidence of a domestic #innovation response: Chinese firms cut off from US inputs substantially increased R&D spending and patenting, and upstream Chinese suppliers of similar products to exposed firms increased patenting in related technologies. Vox column by: Xueyue Liu (复旦大学), Yu Liu (复旦大学), Alexey Makarin (MIT Sloan School of Management), Jaya Wen (Harvard Business School) Read more here: https://ow.ly/fKgZ50XeSZg

⚠️Geopolitical risks impact firms on both sides of the Atlantic. While the short-term outlook is better than expected, there remains huge uncertainty related to the nature and extent of more permanent geopolitical shifts and breaks. This column reports findings from the EIB #Investment Survey 2025, which show that #EU and #US firms continue to invest, albeit with a somewhat weaker appetite. US firms have been adjusting their supply chains, looking into import substitution, enhanced diversification, and expanding production capacity. EU firms are taking a measured approach, balancing measures to improve efficiency and resilience, and investing in digitalisation, energy efficiency, and mitigation as drivers for future competitiveness. As geopolitical risks unfold, the competitiveness of EU firms will increasingly depend on the EU’s capacity to deliver on the Draghi and Letta agendas. Vox column by: Tessa Bending, Matteo Ferrazzi, Péter Harasztosi, Debora Revoltella, Huyen Tran, Václav Žďárek (European Investment Bank (EIB)) Read more here: https://ow.ly/plfs50XcTGn