While official statistics compiled by government agencies are still considered the most reliable, policymakers are increasingly using private data to get around their limitations. Claudia Sahm is a former principal economist at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and has studied the growing role of alternative data in monetary policy. In this podcast, Sahm says the immediacy and granularity of private company data should serve as a complement to traditional data, not as a substitute.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3MH31X6

Read the article at IMF.org/fandd

Price stability is the main goal for central banks, and monetary policy is how they achieve it. However, societies are always in flux, and central bankers who pay close attention to emerging trends are more likely to make better policy decisions. Bank of Korea Governor Chang Yong Rhee has expanded the scope of research to include structural issues like population aging to better understand the changing dynamics of Korea's economy. Before becoming Governor in 2022, Mr. Rhee held several senior roles in global financial institutions, including the IMF, where he led the Asia and Pacific Department.

Bringing nations together to maintain peace and security and raise living standards for all seemed a utopian idea in the early 20th century. Still, geopolitics, economics and vision by world leaders eventually came together to make it a reality. But what happens when the great powers that have been supporting the multilateral system decide it's not working for them anymore? Danny Quah has studied the increase in global economic tensions and sees the rising East as an important factor. Quah is the Li Ka Shing Professor of Economics at the National University of Singapore. In this podcast, he says that while economics and geopolitics worked together to build the multilateral rules-based system, they are now working together to break it apart.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/4grrx9n

 Read the article in Finance & Development magazine: IMF.org/fandd

Most countries have infrastructure and governance structures that allow the private sector to take advantage of new technologies to innovate and improve payment and financial services. But at the international level, it's a different story. Cross-border payments are as slow, expensive, and risky as ever. IMF Financial Counsellor, Tobias Adrian, and coauthors published some new research on creating a Multi-Currency Exchange and Contracting Platform that would effectively transform the cross-border payment system. In this podcast, Adrian says payments are the foundation for the entire monetary and financial system, and new technologies can help get global payments right.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3D1RKJ7

Read the research at IMF.org

Innovation is often associated with developments in information and communication technologies, but for economists, innovation is also about developing new business models and new ways for governments to deliver public services like health and education. Michael Kremer is a professor of economics at the University of Chicago and the founder of the Development Innovation Lab. His work on poverty reduction with colleagues Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee won them the Nobel Prize in economics in 2019. In the early 2000s, Kremer helped develop the design of Advance Market Commitment models used to incentivize the private sector to work on issues of relevance for the developing world. Michael Kremer was invited to deliver the IMF Richard Goode Lecture, an annual event to discuss policy issues and debates. In his talk, Kremer says commercial incentives for innovation are not always aligned with social needs, which results in underinvestment in some types of innovation and creates a role for public investment.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3ka1daT

We often think about the economy as being driven by how productive we are on the job, but the pandemic made it clear that our personal lives and our work lives are in fact deeply linked. Betsey Stevenson is a labor economist who studies how families are shaped by their economic situations and the decisions that policymakers make. Stevenson is a professor at the University of Michigan and a former economic advisor to the Obama administration. Journalist Rhoda Metcalfe spoke with Betsey Stevenson about her research into the powerful connections between our work and home life for the IMF series on extraordinary Women in Economics.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3X7ihML 

More than half of the world's population lives in cities, and it's expected that almost 70 percent will live in urban areas by 2050. People are attracted to cities for the economic and social opportunities they offer. But if the COVID pandemic taught us anything, it's that population density presents significant health risks. David Cutler is a Professor of Economics at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and the Chan School of Public Health. Cutler and his Harvard colleague Edward Glaeser write about Cities After the Pandemic in the December issue of Finance and Development. In this podcast, David Cutler discusses the article with journalist Rhoda Metcalfe. He says cities now need to put more emphasis on public health to keep economies healthy.  

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3UHR6X6

Read at IMF.org/FandD

After decades of being shrouded in suspicion and controversy, nuclear energy is emerging as a viable clean alternative to oil and gas. The war in Ukraine has turned post-pandemic energy shortages into a full-blown energy crisis and nuclear power plants across Europe that were destined to close will continue to operate. Ted Nordhaus is the Executive Director of the Breakthrough Institute, which looks for technological solutions to environmental problems. Nordhaus and coauthor Juzel Lloyd published an article titled The Nuclear Resurgence, in the December edition of Finance and Development. In this podcast. Nordhaus discusses the benefits of nuclear energy with Journalist Rhoda Metcalfe.  Transcript: https://bit.ly/3Uq4yim

Read The Nuclear Resurgence at IMF.org/FandD

Events of the last three years have made life difficult on many levels for millions of people around the world. And while expecting more support from social and financial institutions during hard times is nothing new, the recent rise in prices has left people angry and questioning the efficacy of the social contract between the government and its citizenry. Justin Wolfers is a Professor of Economics and Social Policy at the University of Michigan. In this podcast, he says there has never been a better time to reinvent- for the first time in decades perhaps centuries, the institutions that foster social cohesion.

Transcript: http://bit.ly/3XKUNy7

Economic progress improves lives, but it can also clash with some of the bigger development problems we face, like gender equality and the environment. Seema Jayachandran believes striking that balance is key to making economic development work for everyone. Jayachandran's research has helped change gender attitudes in India's schools, and conserve climate-critical forests in Uganda. Seema Jayachandran is a Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University and serves on the board of directors of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab. In this podcast, Jayachandran talks about her work with journalist Rhoda Metcalfe as part of a special IMF series on extraordinary Women in Economics.

Transcript: http://bit.ly/3tW9Wz4

Inflation is high virtually everywhere, but what's pushing prices to record levels in Europe is not necessarily what's fueling inflation in the United States. The European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve share a common problem and similar financial tools to fight it, but Europe's supply-dominated inflation and America's mostly demand-dominated inflation require slightly different approaches. Philip Lane is Chief Economist for the European Central Bank. In this podcast, he says finding the "sweet spot" between fiscal and monetary policies will allow for continued support to vulnerable Europeans hard hit by high energy prices and double-digit inflation, while not further straining public finances. Transcript: http://bit.ly/3X55sU2

Philip Lane participated in the IMF's Jacques Polak Annual Research Conference. Watch the Webcast at IMF.org

Economic outlooks don't come easy in the current environment but the latest Regional Economic Outlook for sub-Saharan Africa proved to be particularly challenging. Its title Living on the Edge tells part of the story but in this podcast, economist Wenjie Chen walks us through the research behind the new report. Chen is a deputy head in the Regional Studies Division and part of the team of macroeconomists who dissect regional trends to come up with key priorities for policymakers.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3U6lUBy

Read the report at IMF.org

Cryptocurrencies have grabbed news headlines with their dramatic highs and lows, and their proponents argue they could revolutionize the financial system, making it faster and fairer. But is the cryptocurrency craze dragging us all into dangerous waters? Hilary Allen is a professor of law at American University and studies the impact of new financial technologies on financial stability. Allen is also the author of The Superficial Allure of Crypto published in the September edition of Finance and Development. In this podcast, Allen sits down with journalist Rhoda Metcalfe to discuss the risks associated with cryptocurrencies and why she thinks that they simply cannot deliver their claimed benefits. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3eJTuOh

Read The Superficial Allure of Crypto at IMF.org/FandD

A lot has happened in the global economy since 2019, and few people know that better than Gita Gopinath. As the IMF Chief Economist and subsequently the institution's First Deputy Managing Director, she navigated unprecedented global crises, including the pandemic and the ensuing great lockdown, wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, inflation, and geopolitical fragmentation. Her career as a Professor at Harvard University was put on hold to take on those IMF roles, but now she's back. How will the 2025 version of Professor Gopinath compare to the 2018 version? In this podcast, Gita Gopinath reflects on her experiences at the Fund and what she's taking back with her to Harvard.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/4npTyR5

Amid growing calls to deglobalize the economy, Raghuram Rajan says not so fast. Rajan, a former Governor of the Bank of India and former IMF Chief Economist, delivered this year's Per Jacobsson Lecture, in which he argues that continued globalization is our best chance to tackle climate change.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3EVhCIC

Watch the webcast of the Per Jacobsson Lecture at IMF.org

Rising risks to the inflation outlook and rapidly changing views about the likely pace of monetary policy tightening have been dominant themes affecting financial stability. The latest Global Financial Stability Report (GFSR) says the Russian invasion of Ukraine has also exerted a material drag on the global recovery from the pandemic and increased financial vulnerabilities. Fabio Natalucci heads the GFSR and Global Financial Markets Monitoring. In this podcast, he says with inflation now at a multi-decade high and tightening financial conditions, it will take time for investors and policymakers to adjust to the new world.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3Ml5h21

Read the full report at IMF.org/GFSR

Read the blog at blogs.imf.org

With shock upon shock hitting the world economy in the last three years, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva's customary opening speech to the Annual Meetings warned of a darker global outlook and emphasized the need for the world to come together to deal with the consequences. The speech was delivered to an audience of students at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and presided over by Dean Joel S. Hellman and Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3MgciB9

How can multilateral institutions like the IMF help close the gender gap? IMF Senior Advisor on Gender, Dr. Ratna Sahay joins Jason Mitchell, Head of Responsible Investment Research at Man Group, on their A Sustainable Future podcast to talk about how gender disparities hurt economic growth. Dr. Sahay has been a gender equality pioneer over the years- helping to break down barriers within her own institution. She now heads the IMF's first strategy toward mainstreaming gender into its core work. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3dNaCm1

Go to  man.com/ri-podcast  to see more episodes of A Sustainable Future with Jason Mitchell.

The Michel Camdessus Central Banking Lecture is an annual event honoring the IMF's longest-serving Managing Director. This year's lecture was presented by François Villeroy de Galhau, Governor of the Banque De France, and introduced by IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva. In his lecture, Governor de Galhau says today's multiple crises are challenging public trust in central banks.  Transcript: https://bit.ly/3Sna8Bx

Go to IMF.org to watch the webcast of the entire event including a post-lecture discussion.

While consumers' expectations of where prices are going are something that economists have been tracking for a long time, understanding how those expectations are formed provides valuable insight toward controlling inflation. New research by economists Carlo Pizzinelli (IMF), Peter Andre (Briq Institute), Christopher Roth (University of Cologne), and Johannes Wohlfart (University of Copenhagen) shows a surprising divide between what experts think and consumers believe drives inflation and other economic trends. Carlo Pizzinelli is the author of an article in the latest Finance and Development based on the study. In this podcast, Pizzinelli sits down with Journalist Rhoda Metcalfe to discuss how the collective consumer mind influences economic policy. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3RMPYAv

Read the study: https://bit.ly/3RrXmlb

Welcome to the 5th and final episode of Fintech Forward, the IMF podcast that focuses on financial technology. Hosted by IMF economist Tara Iyer, the special 5-part series draws from the expertise of the IMF Monetary and Capital Markets Department (MCM) to better understand the impact of emerging technologies on financial systems and local economies around the world. In this podcast, MCM's May Khamis talks about how the IMF's Financial Stability Assessment Programs, which started in the early 2000s, are adapting to the rapid rise of FinTech. 

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3wJ9HZM

Sanctions are not new, but they deliver bigger global shocks and are easier to avoid than at any time in history. Nicholas Mulder's latest book, The Economic Weapon, the Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War, looks at sanctions regimes of the past to better understand the implications of today's sweeping sanctions against Russia. In this podcast, Mulder says we need to think more carefully about crafting macroeconomic policy at a global level to offset the negative effects that the sanctions are having on third countries.  Transcript: https://bit.ly/3wBUZnq

Read Nick Mulder's article in Finance and Development at IMF.org/fandd

Welcome to episode 4 of Fintech Forward, the IMF podcast that focuses on financial technology. Hosted by IMF economist Tara Iyer, the special 5-part series draws from the expertise of the IMF Monetary and Capital Markets Department (MCM) to better understand the impact of emerging technologies on financial systems and local economies around the world. In this podcast, MCM's Aditya Narain and Marina Moretti say regulation of financial technology aims to protect consumers and markets, not stifle innovation.  Transcript: https://bit.ly/3wkEMCY

Economic growth depends on several factors, but a new study (forthcoming) by Eric Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann shows nothing is more important for development than equitable education. Hanushek is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and in this podcast, he says skill differences account for three-quarters of cross-country variations in long-term growth. Hanushek also says the global skills deficit is immense, with two-thirds or more of the world's youth never reaching even basic skill levels. Hanushek and Woessmann are coauthors of The Basic Skills Gap published in Finance and Development where they say reaching the goal of global universal basic skills would raise future world GDP by $700 trillion over the remainder of the century.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3AqSxCE

Read the article at IMF.org/fandd

As tech innovation, particularly in the field of AI, is increasingly focused on a few key players, the industries benefiting from these tools have also become more concentrated, which Carl Benedikt Frey says could weigh on growth. Frey is an associate professor of AI and Work at Oxford University, and his latest book, How Progress Ends, suggests that waves of technological and economic progress are often followed by stagnation. In this podcast, Frey says the concentration of AI-using industries will push the direction of technological change further towards automation rather than product innovation.

Transcript: http://bit.ly/45Z1IbR

 Read the article in Finance & Development magazine: imf.org/fandd

Mahatma Gandhi once said, "Live simply so that others may simply live." In this podcast, we hear from an economist who believes there is more to poverty reduction than just money. Sabina Alkire began her long career helping the poor doing volunteer work alongside the likes of Mother Teresa- then studying theology before turning to economics. Today, Alkire heads the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and is one of the creators of the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which the United Nations uses to identify and help the most vulnerable people in the world. Journalist, Rhoda Metcalfe spoke with Sabina Alkire to discuss her work for our special series on extraordinary Women in Economics. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3bWv56W

Welcome to episode 3 of Fintech Forward, the IMF podcast that focuses on financial technology. Hosted by IMF economist Tara Iyer, this special 5-part series draws from the expertise of the IMF Monetary and Capital Markets Department (MCM) to better understand the impact of emerging technologies on financial systems and local economies around the world. In this podcast, Fabio Natalucci, Head of the Global Financial Stability Report, discusses the growing correlation between crypto and equity markets and what that means for financial stability. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3zJn2lO

Inflation has pushed up prices for almost everything, but rising food prices could mean life or death for people in countries already struggling with conflict, economic downturns, and the effects of climate change. Maximo Torero Cullen is Chief Economist for the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, which tracks global food security. In this podcast, Torero says wheat and fertilizer supply shortages have driven up prices and increased food import bills for the most vulnerable countries by more than 25 billion dollars, putting 1.7 billion people at risk of going hungry. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3vlHUht

Welcome to episode 2 of Fintech Forward, a new IMF podcast series with a focus on financial technology. Hosted by IMF economist Tara Iyer, Fintech Forward draws from the expertise of the IMF Monetary and Capital Markets Department (MCM) to better understand the impact of emerging technologies on financial systems and local economies around the world. In this podcast, MCM Deputy Director, Dong He, discusses how central bank digital currencies (CBDC) are set to transform the global monetary system.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3v2T8rb

The energy crises of the early 70s, the 80s, and the early 2000s all had their challenges, but none were so intertwined with other emergencies like a war in Europe, climate change, and a global pandemic. Daniel Yergin won the Pulitzer Prize and many other accolades for his writing on the political economy of global energy. His latest book The New Map: Energy, Climate and the Clash of Nations looks at where today's energy markets are headed and the geopolitics of an energy transition from hydrocarbons to renewable energy. In this podcast, Yergin says renewables use a lot more minerals than people realize and will move us from the world of big oil to a world of big shovels.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3uMI4OO

Daniel Yergin is Vice Chairman of S&P Global.

Albert Einstein once said, "In the midst of every crisis, lies great opportunity." But while the war in Ukraine has sparked crises on several fronts, the opportunities are not all that obvious at this point. Historians can help connect those lines by looking back at how we emerged from history's darkest hours. Patricia Clavin is Professor of Modern History at Oxford University. In this podcast, journalist Rhoda Metcalfe asks Clavin what the geopolitical fallout from the war might mean for globalization. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3RdufCi

Read Patricia Clavin's article Turbulence and the Lessons of History in the June issue of Finance and Development. IMF.org/FandD

While international financial institutions work with policymakers to help countries navigate their way through the myriad of disruptions in the global economy of late, the private sector plays a critical role in catalyzing investment that will help bring long-term solutions. In this podcast, Alphabet and Google Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat and IMF First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath discuss the growing number of challenges facing the global economy and the opportunities where the private sector can help.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/39X0g0S

The war in Ukraine and the rise of emerging market economies have opened a new chapter in international relations, with important implications for the global economic order. Like an earthquake, the war has an epicenter, located in Russia and Ukraine, but its seismic waves are impacting economies far and wide and revealing a shift in the underlying geopolitical tectonic plates. In this podcast, IMF Chief Economist, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas discusses what fragmentation of the global economy might mean for the dominance of the US dollar in the international monetary and financial system. 

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3N4ZOei

Read the article at IMF.org/fandd

Welcome to Fintech Forward, a new IMF podcast series with a focus on financial technology. Fintech has grown exponentially in recent years and prompted a paradigm shift in virtually all areas of finance, with significant implications for financial stability. Fintech Forward, hosted by IMF economist Tara Iyer, will draw from the expertise of the IMF Monetary and Capital Markets Department to better understand the impact of emerging technologies on financial systems and local economies around the world. In this first episode, Tobias Adrian, Director of the IMF's Monetary and Capital Markets Department, says fintech is causing nothing less than a revolution in the global financial system.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3aQSqWH

When women begin to participate more in the economy, good things happen. There's more growth, less inequality, and greater financial stability. So, why is women's labor force participation still so low in so many countries? Katharine Christopherson is an Assistant General Counsel in the IMF legal Department and coauthor of some new research that looks at the legal impediments to women's economic activity across the globe. In this podcast, journalist Rhoda Metcalfe and Katharine Christopherson discuss the outdated laws that hold women back and what drives countries to reform them.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3xbEO0P

There was a time when economic expertise ruled policy debates at virtually all levels of government. And while trade, taxation, and other important policies are still guided by economic analysis, economists increasingly feel sidelined by politics. In her former roles as chief economist at the US Treasury Department and senior economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers, Harvard professor Karen Dynan has seen too much solid economic research be rejected due to overly dense presentations. In this podcast, Dynan says economists need to engage with policymakers and the public at a level that they can understand if they want to be part of the policy conversation.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/4ojNbA6

Read the article in Finance & Development magazine: www.imf.org/fandd

Most of the goods we purchase travel across the oceans in steel containers aboard the largest ships ever to sail the seas. But the pandemic and ensuing lockdowns knocked the wind from their sails and disrupted the entire global shipping network, causing supply shortages and soaring shipping costs. IMF economist Yan Carrière-Swallow has studied the macroeconomic impact of shocks to ocean freight, and in this podcast, he says shipping costs are an important driver of inflation around the world.  Transcript: https://bit.ly/3GjIdxD

Yan Carrière-Swallow is coauthor along with Pragyan Deb, Davide Furceri, Daniel Jimenez, and Jonathan Ostry, of Shipping Costs and Inflation available at IMF.org.

Economies grow better when they are more equal, and taxation is a powerful tool to help reduce inequalities. But increasingly, the international tax system is doing the opposite of that by allowing corporations and the world's wealthiest people to avoid paying their fair share. The Tax Justice Network estimates the combined global revenue losses from cross-border tax abuse by people with undeclared offshore assets and of multinational companies amount to some $483 billion a year. Alex Cobham is Chief Executive of the Tax Justice Network, and in this podcast, he speaks with journalist Rhoda Metcalfe about his article Taxing for a New Social Contract in Finance and Development. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3sG6rMI

Read the article at IMF.org/fandd

Fragility and conflict have forced hundreds of millions of people to live outside of state control without access to basic services. And with violent conflict on the rise, two-thirds of the world's poorest could soon be living in fragile and conflict affected states. The International Committee of the Red Cross is one of the world's most important providers of humanitarian assistance and works at the front line of most conflicts across the globe. In this podcast, ICRC President, Peter Maurer discusses the importance of including the expertise of economists in their humanitarian work and the significance of the IMF's new strategy to strengthen its support to fragile and conflict affected states.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3P8coMh

Becoming an economist in the 1970s- for a woman, was a lonely road. When Clair Brown joined the Department of Economics at UC Berkeley in 1974 alongside people like Nobel laureate George Akerlof, she was the only female faculty member. But thanks to Brown's prodding, the department hired more women and Berkeley has since become well known for its female economists. Brown has always seen the power of diversity in her work. In 2013 she helped create a new graduate program called Development Engineering that teams engineers with economists to develop technologies that benefit developing regions. Today, she's advocating for a new, more sustainable approach to economic thinking in her book, Buddhist Economics. Journalist, Rhoda Metcalfe spoke with Clair Brown for our special series on extraordinary Women in Economics.                                Transcript: https://bit.ly/388DzG3

Book: http://buddhisteconomics.net/

La reprise économique en Afrique subsaharienne a surpris à la hausse au second semestre 2021, mais ces progrès ont été compromis cette année par l'invasion russe de l'Ukraine. La guerre a déclenché un choc économique mondial qui frappe la région à un moment où la capacité de réaction des pays est minime, voire inexistante. Papa N'Diaye dirige l'équipe qui produit les Perspectives économiques régionales pour l'Afrique subsaharienne. Dans ce podcast, il affirme que la croissance a de nouveau ralenti et ne suffira pas à rattraper le terrain perdu.

The economic recovery in sub-Saharan Africa surprised on the upside in the second half of 2021, but that progress has been jeopardized this year by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The war has triggered a global economic shock that is hitting the region at a time when countries' ability to respond is minimal to nonexistent. Papa N'Diaye leads the team that produces the Regional Economic Outlook for sub-Saharan Africa. In this podcast, he says growth has slowed once again and will not be enough to make up for lost ground.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3OIo6N8

Read the report at IMF.org

The war in Ukraine has sparked one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times. So, can Europe afford to accommodate the millions of people coming across its borders? Giovanni Peri says while a crisis of this scale will imply significant upfront costs, the European Union is doing right by investing in the human capital of refugees. Peri heads the Global Migration Center at UC Davis, and in this podcast, he says Ukrainian migrants are an opportunity for many European countries that are experiencing aging populations and labor shortages.  Transcript: https://bit.ly/3jY7cMn

While financial stability risks have risen on several fronts since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the latest Global Financial Stability Report (GFSR) says no global systemic event affecting financial institutions or markets has materialized so far. Fabio Natalucci heads the GFSR as well as IMF Global Financial Markets Monitoring. In this podcast, he says stronger banking systems, higher capital and higher liquidity have helped to absorb the shock, but an intensification of the war could further test the resilience of the global financial system. Transcript: https://bit.ly/36qyl7D

Read the full report at IMF.org/GFSR

Read the blog at blogs.imf.org

Just as many countries were beginning to feel the grip of the pandemic start to ease, another global calamity is threatening the recovery. In her customary curtain-raiser speech to the IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said the war in Ukraine has disrupted millions of lives and many aspects of the global economy.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3KJjeFt

Go to IMF.org to follow the Spring Meetings and find all the IMF flagship reports, including the World Economic Outlook, the Global Financial Stability Report, and the Fiscal Monitor.

Most people and virtually all businesses now use electronic money for their transactions, yet central banks are still dealing with what's known among economists as the paper currency problem, which limits central banks' ability to use deep negative rates to fight recessions. In this second episode of a two-part series on inflation, economists Miles Kimball and Ruchir Agarwal discuss how fully committing to an electronic money standard would allow central banks to break the zero lower bound associated with paper currency and help them to fight both inflation and recessions more effectively, including by lowering the inflation target.  Transcript: https://bit.ly/3vncUwW

Miles Kimball is a professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Ruchir Agarwal is a senior economist in the IMF Research Department.

This podcast series is based on their inflation trilogy published in Finance and Development. Read the articles at IMF.org/fandd

Public resistance to new policies often leaves policymakers scratching their heads. What seems a perfectly reasonable policy to a government is often perceived by its citizenry as regressive. Stefanie Stantcheva's multidisciplinary approach to research digs deep into the minds of people at the receiving end to help design better policies. Stantcheva is a professor of economics at Harvard University, and this year's recipient of the prestigious Clark Medal, awarded by the American Economic Association for the most significant contributions to economic thought by an economist under 40. She sat down with journalist Rhoda Metcalfe to discuss how tax policy impacts innovation for the IMF series on extraordinary Women in Economics.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/453h1ku

Everyone feels the pinch when inflation is on the rise and so the pressure on central banks to manage inflation rates has grown exponentially in recent weeks. In this first podcast of a two-part series on inflation, distinguished economists Miles Kimball and Ruchir Agarwal discuss how a robust negative interest rate policy can help central banks better control inflation and stabilize the economy. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3xlHFEK

Miles Kimball is a professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Ruchir Agarwal is a senior economist in the IMF Research Department.

This podcast series is based on their inflation trilogy published in Finance and Development. Read the article at IMF.org/fandd

The pandemic has sparked an enormous upheaval in education around the world. But in India and many other low-income countries where remote learning is often not an option, children's education has simply fallen off the rails. Yamini Aiyar is President of the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi. In this podcast, Aiyar speaks with journalist Rhoda Metcalfe about how the digital divide has pushed poor kids into an educational deficit that could reverberate for years.  

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3NBfWpk

Yamini Aiyar is also the author of The Education Pandemic published in Finance and Development.

Read more about bridging learning gaps amongst children here

The last two years have proven a test for the global financial system, and the nature of the crises is getting more complex by the day. In this podcast, Foreign Policy magazine's Ravi Agrawal asks the IMF's two top leaders how governments should respond to the growing number of challenges facing the global economy. Transcript: https://bit.ly/382IPKX

Watch the webcast at https://foreignpolicy.com/events/