Political Economy

The UK has decided to seek a divorce from the EU after a 43-year rocky marriage.  It was not an overwhelming decision.  Brexit won by 52%-48% margin, seemingly too small for such a momentous decision. The UK has not decided...

Sterling has been sold beyond the panic low seen when it became clear that UK voters were choosing to leave the EU though nearly every economists warned of at least serious short- to medium-term negative economic implications.  Sterling has been...

In January 2016, Tsai Ing-wen made history after being elected as Taiwan’s first female president. Several women before her such as Park Geun-hye in South Korea, Ying-luck Shinawatra in Thailand and Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar have all risen...

We showed that younger age cohorts in the UK are more inclined to vote to stay in the EU than their elders.  However, some suggested that this consideration is blunted by the fact that the younger people are less likely...

Last year families of the Sandy Hook shooting filed a potentially precedent-setting lawsuit. They sued the manufacturer of the AR-15 rifle that Adam Lanza used to gun down 20 schoolchildren and their teachers in a small town in Connecticut in 2012. Last...

This is supposed to be the Asian century, with East Asian countries leading the way. The world admires many East Asian countries for their miraculous economic growth, democracy-building and cultural innovation. However, can East Asia also provide a model for...

If the Coalition loses this election there will be some insiders pointing fingers at the Business Council of Australia.  There have been times in the last three years when the Coalition has held the line on policies that looked to...

Many people understand politics and economics to be two different disciplines.  I remember in graduate school more than two decades ago, many colleagues and professors operationally defined political economy as how politics, by which they meant the state, screws up...

Japan has the lowest percentage of women’s political representation in the industrialised world. Women hold only 12 percent of seats in the national legislative assembly, the Diet. This is compared to a 22 percent world average and a 19 percent...

Virtually every Asian academic, business leader, policymaker or taxi driver I have encountered in the last six months has, within minutes, pummelled me for answers to the Trump question. Virtually every Asian academic, business leader, policymaker or taxi driver I...

"Every thinking person in America is going to vote for you Governor Stevenson," said an enthusiastic voter.  "I am afraid that won't do.  I need a majority," reportedly quipped Stevenson (1952 or 1956).  "Every thinking person in America is going...

The media circus surrounding Donald Trump’s bid for the US presidency is briefly switching from America to the £200m reopening of a golf resort in south-west Scotland. Trump Turnberry, as it has been renamed, boasts a remodelled course and a...

  When it comes to forecasting elections, opinion polls that are often proved wrong bombard the public. Meanwhile, the betting markets get it right every time, so when they say Hillary Clinton will score a comfortable win over Donald Trump,...

Promoting economic development and “wealth creation” is one of the London mayor’s three main functions – alongside taking care of the city’s social and environmental development. The fact that London regularly tops major rankings of global financial centres is a key pillar of the...

In both the US and the UK, politicians are using racial smears and anti-Muslim rhetoric to try to gain white votes. However, the strategy carries risks in increasingly multi-cultural societies. Within days of his election last week as London mayor,...