Economics & Marginalia

Economics and Marginalia is an attempt to keep ahead of the avalanche of content published every week – the writing on economics, politics, development and pop culture that keeps my brain occupied. In it, I pick between 5 and 10 of my favourite pieces of -mainly- popular economics and political commentary every week and briefly summarise what I liked about it, or what it taught me, in an accessible way.

The guiding spirit behind this blog is that the world is complicated but comprehensible, and I look to showcase writing that doesn’t dumb down the complexity, but puts a premium on clarity.

More from the Series

Blog Post

Economics & Marginalia: February 26, 2021

February 26, 2021
Have you ever seen a fight between two kittens? It involves a great number of swipes at thin air, a lot of leaping around and much complaining, but it’s over very quickly and is often the source of great hilarity among the spectators. Such were my thoughts as I watched 21 out 30 wickets th...
Blog Post

Economics & Marginalia: February 12, 2021

February 12, 2021
I’m not the only one hoping for some normality this year, and in seeing some green shoots that I want to believe in, I have good company. Tim Harford sets out some of the signs that might portend our much delayed spring of 2020 – and invokes Hemingway to describe the pattern he expects:&nb...
Blog Post

Economics & Marginalia: February 5, 2021

February 05, 2021
Economics has a generally hostile seminar culture, even compared to other academic disciplines. For some this is part of the appeal: there are no easy rides, and anyone presenting a model, a theory, a finding has to fight to prove it. A balance is needed between the kind of scrutiny that keeps metho...
Blog Post

Economics & Marginalia: January 29, 2021

January 29, 2021
Of course, a podcast isn’t the only way you can do a great deep dive into a paper. One of the best things about Development Impact has always been that it’s written by a group of people who marry technical brilliance with absolute clarity of communication, and there were two particularly great examp...