VoxTalks Economics

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Latest episodes

• Merit, masters and China's imperial exam

  October 2, 2026 · 21 min

  For more than 1,300 years, China chose its top officials by written exam. Its top officials were chosen meritocratic ally -- or were they? When the results came out, each successful candidate went to pay his respects to the men who had…

• Decoupling from China after Trump's Trade Wars

  September 25, 2026 · 29 min

  In March 2025, Apple chartered cargo flights to deliver 600 tonnes of iPhones from India to the United States. A year earlier, four in five smartphones that imported to the US came from China.  One of the aims of US trade policy has been…

• Loosening inheritance law

  September 18, 2026 · 26 min

  In most of the world you do not get to choose who inherits your money. Across continental Europe, Latin America, and countries governed by Islamic law, a minimum share of your estate will be reserved for your children, your spouse, and in…

• Does sacking the manager work?

  September 11, 2026 · 18 min

  Your football team keeps losing. The season is slipping away. One thing can be changed by Friday, and the crowd is already singing about it: sack the manager. Jan van Ours (Erasmus School of Economics, CEPR, Feyenoord fan) has looked at…

• Lessons from Populism in Latin America

  September 4, 2026 · 33 min

  The new episode of VoxTalks Economics traces the effects of South Americans populism, left and right. Alejandro Werner (Georgetown Americas Institute) is one of the authors of a new paper that traces populist governments across Latin…

• The Dollar Anchor Is Slipping

  September 2, 2026 · 26 min

  April 2025: Liberation Day. President Trump announces sweeping new tariffs. And then, the dollar did something a safe haven currency is not supposed to do: it fell. Tarek Hassan (Boston University, CEPR), working with Thomas Mertens…

• Fiscal Populism and Monetary Policy

  August 28, 2026 · 16 min

  There is a saying in Spanish: get burned by hot milk, and the sight of a cow makes you cry. New research implies that, decades after a populist government leaves office, the central bank it once tried to control is still flinching. Martín…

• Tariffs, Uncertainty, and the Exchange Rate

  August 26, 2026 · 24 min

  Textbook economics says a tariff should strengthen a country's currency. Since the start of 2025, as US tariffs rose ... and the dollar fell. In the first of four episodes of Voxtalks based on papers presented at the second Economic…