People’s spending choices are a good way to assess levels of hunger

FOR most people in rich countries hunger is a temporary inconvenience, easily solved by popping out to the shops or raiding the fridge. But chronic hunger is part of everyday life for many people in poorer places. Halving the proportion of people in developing countries who do not get enough to eat is one of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals.

Reducing hunger is a complicated task. There is no global shortage of food. Less poverty does not always mean better-nourished people. In India, for example, real incomes rose and the price of food fell between 1980 and 2005. Yet evidence suggests that Indians, even those who were originally eating less than recommended, reduced their calorie consumption in that time. Such findings have long puzzled economists. ...

People’s spending choices are a good way to assess levels of hunger

FOR most people in rich countries hunger is a temporary inconvenience, easily solved by popping out to the shops or raiding the fridge. But chronic hunger is part of everyday life for many people in poorer places. Halving the proportion of people in developing countries who do not get enough to eat is one of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals.

Reducing hunger is a complicated task. There is no global shortage of food. Less poverty does not always mean better-nourished people. In India, for example, real incomes rose and the price of food fell between 1980 and 2005. Yet evidence suggests that Indians, even those who were originally eating less than recommended, reduced their calorie consumption in that time. Such findings have long puzzled economists. ...

The economic impact of natural disasters is often short-lived. Will this be the case in Japan?

THE full extent of the damage from the tsunami that hit Japan’s north-eastern coast on March 11th is not yet known, but early estimates of the cost are big. Rebuilding homes, factories, roads and bridges could cost as much as $200 billion, some reckon. Quite apart from these direct costs, is the disaster likely to do lasting harm to Japan’s economy?

Much will depend on the success of efforts to prevent a nuclear catastrophe. Assuming the situation at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant stabilises, the contours of the economic impact of the tsunami itself can already be discerned. Natural disasters disrupt production, much as less destructive episodes of bad weather do. In Japan the interruption to electricity supply means that output has been affected even in areas the tsunami did not directly inundate. Toyota, for example, halted production because of problems with parts and supplies. Operations were suspended in six of Sony’s factories, only one of which was flooded. ...

The economic impact of natural disasters is often short-lived. Will this be the case in Japan?

THE full extent of the damage from the tsunami that hit Japan’s north-eastern coast on March 11th is not yet known, but early estimates of the cost are big. Rebuilding homes, factories, roads and bridges could cost as much as $200 billion, some reckon. Quite apart from these direct costs, is the disaster likely to do lasting harm to Japan’s economy?

Much will depend on the success of efforts to prevent a nuclear catastrophe. Assuming the situation at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant stabilises, the contours of the economic impact of the tsunami itself can already be discerned. Natural disasters disrupt production, much as less destructive episodes of bad weather do. In Japan the interruption to electricity supply means that output has been affected even in areas the tsunami did not directly inundate. Toyota, for example, halted production because of problems with parts and supplies. Operations were suspended in six of Sony’s factories, only one of which was flooded. ...

A complex chain of cause and effect links the Arab world’s turmoil to the health of the world economy

TWO factors determine the price of a barrel of oil: the fundamental laws of supply and demand, and naked fear. Both are being tested by the violence that is tearing through Libya, the world’s 13th-largest oil exporter. The price of a barrel of Brent crude now hovers around $115. On February 24th, however, it rose to almost $120, as traders realised that they might have to do for a while without some or all of Libya’s exports: some 1.4m barrels a day (b/d), or about 2% of the world’s needs.

The situation in Libya is grim, as the rebels and the forces of Muammar Qaddafi battle for control of the country’s only resource. Brega, the seat of the Sirte Oil Company in the east of the country, has changed hands three times in recent days. Most of the oil workers have fled, and production has fallen by two-thirds. The ports of As Sidra, Brega, Ras Lanuf, Tobruk and Zuetina, which together handle almost 80% of Libya’s oil exports, were all seized by the rebels; two have now been retaken by Colonel Qaddafi’s forces. The rebels remain in control of Africa’s largest oilfield, Sarir, pumping some 400,000 barrels on a normal day. But for how long? ...

A complex chain of cause and effect links the Arab world’s turmoil to the health of the world economy

TWO factors determine the price of a barrel of oil: the fundamental laws of supply and demand, and naked fear. Both are being tested by the violence that is tearing through Libya, the world’s 13th-largest oil exporter. The price of a barrel of Brent crude now hovers around $115. On February 24th, however, it rose to almost $120, as traders realised that they might have to do for a while without some or all of Libya’s exports: some 1.4m barrels a day (b/d), or about 2% of the world’s needs.

The situation in Libya is grim, as the rebels and the forces of Muammar Qaddafi battle for control of the country’s only resource. Brega, the seat of the Sirte Oil Company in the east of the country, has changed hands three times in recent days. Most of the oil workers have fled, and production has fallen by two-thirds. The ports of As Sidra, Brega, Ras Lanuf, Tobruk and Zuetina, which together handle almost 80% of Libya’s oil exports, were all seized by the rebels; two have now been retaken by Colonel Qaddafi’s forces. The rebels remain in control of Africa’s largest oilfield, Sarir, pumping some 400,000 barrels on a normal day. But for how long? ...

Has the American economy exhausted the easy sources of growth?

YOU could be forgiven for missing the publication of the most talked-about economics book of the year so far. The author, Tyler Cowen, an economist at George Mason University, quietly announced its release in a post on his blog. “The Great Stagnation” is an e-book*, and at just 15,000 words, a slim one at that. But it has inspired a raucous discussion in the blogosphere which has spilled over to mainstream media.

The book explores the puzzling stagnation in the typical American wage since the 1970s. The prevailing view has been that soggy median wages can be explained by widening income inequality. But Mr Cowen blames lagging pay on a shortfall in growth itself. Output data have been overstated, he reckons, thanks to rising contributions from hard-to-value industries. Worse, economic engines in the rich world are running ever slower as countries exhaust easy sources of rapid growth. ...

Has the American economy exhausted the easy sources of growth?

YOU could be forgiven for missing the publication of the most talked-about economics book of the year so far. The author, Tyler Cowen, an economist at George Mason University, quietly announced its release in a post on his blog. “The Great Stagnation” is an e-book*, and at just 15,000 words, a slim one at that. But it has inspired a raucous discussion in the blogosphere which has spilled over to mainstream media.

The book explores the puzzling stagnation in the typical American wage since the 1970s. The prevailing view has been that soggy median wages can be explained by widening income inequality. But Mr Cowen blames lagging pay on a shortfall in growth itself. Output data have been overstated, he reckons, thanks to rising contributions from hard-to-value industries. Worse, economic engines in the rich world are running ever slower as countries exhaust easy sources of rapid growth. ...

The best journal in the discipline picks its best papers

ONE hundred years ago, in March 1911, the American Economic Review (AER) published its first article—on irrigation in the “sun-blistered” deserts of the western United States. The article described how the “fervid suns of May and June” melted “vast beds of snow and ice”, so that “springs and torrents rush down to the lowlands” and “the rivers overflow their banks”.

It is fair to say that the journal’s prose style has rushed downhill since those first lyrical pages. But if the AER’s opening article ranks among the best-written in the review’s history, it does not rank among the best. To mark its centenary issue, the journal asked six eminent economists to trawl through the thousands of papers that followed and pick the top 20. The results, with links to all 20 papers, are available online.* ...

Internationalisation has boosted Europe’s academic clout

THE tale is familiar: institutional reform and globalisation discomfort long-dominant powers. But in the case of the economics profession, the big winners are not Asian but European.

Until recently European economists tended to teach and publish in their national languages, and cross-border study was relatively rare. But in 1999 European leaders initiated the Bologna process, a series of accords designed to promote uniform academic standards. Degrees and titles are now far more comparable. English-language teaching and publication has spread. ...