By Date

 

It sometimes surprises those who do not follow fiscal policy closely just how much of the process is often based on a series of polite fictions that those involved sometimes pretend to believe. The best example comes from the United Kingdom and concerns Fuel Duty, the duty charged on motor vehicle fuels.  In theory, and […] 

This US survey examines (a) All else equal, making permanent the 2017 tax cuts that were set to expire at the end of 2025 would substantially increase federal deficits and the federal debt over the coming decade; (b) All else equal, making permanent the 2017 tax cuts that were set to expire at the end of 2025 would measurably increase the rate of US economic growth over the coming decade, (c) In the US, given Congressional budget scoring rules, temporary tax cuts generate sufficient pressure for extension as to be effectively permanent 

The life cycle of the archetypal successful American firm was once straight forward. The initial entrepreneur would at first fund their start-up idea utilizing cash from the so-called three Fs of family, friends, and fools. If their business proved to be a hit it would expand using a mixture of debt and injections of equity […] 

This Finance survey examines (a) The lower willingness of private firms to go public, combined with the increased number of publicly traded firms being taken private over the last 25 years, is measurably net negative for economic growth; (b) All else equal, reducing regulatory barriers (including reporting requirements such as Sarbanes Oxley 404) to public listing would substantially increase the share of publicly traded firms in the economy; (c) The lack of transparency about unlisted private firms' financial performance substantially hinders the efficiency of the allocation of capital 

This US survey examines (a) The lower willingness of private firms to go public, combined with the increased number of publicly traded firms being taken private over the last 25 years, is measurably net negative for economic growth; (b) All else equal, reducing regulatory barriers (including reporting requirements such as Sarbanes Oxley 404) to public listing would substantially increase the share of publicly traded firms in the economy; (c) The lack of transparency about unlisted private firms' financial performance substantially hinders the efficiency of the allocation of capital 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology continues to advance rapidly and grab the attention of investors, policymakers, and media opinion formers. For the latter, the ability of the latest generation of large language models (LLMs) to not only write increasingly passable copy but to do so in the style of named authors is causing more than a […] 

This European survey examines (a)  US antitrust investigations of the dominant firms in artificial intelligence are warranted by the need to foster competition and innovation in the technologies; b) Seeking to slow the pace of artificial intelligence use and implementation would be a more effective means of assessing potential harms from the technologies than market deployment and ex post assessment 

Short-termism is one of the frequently invoked criticisms of the management of publicly listed firms, asset managers, and individual shareholders. Critics allege that over the past few decades changes in the structure of financial markets and investor behavior have aligned into a system that encourages managers to focus on short term profits, at a potential […]