Faculty of Economics and Business

How to compare people’s incomes internationally? How do economists assess which citizens are wealthiest, and which poorest, when costs differ all over the world?

It has been observed in many sports that the level of competition has increased over the years to an extent that we can speak nowadays of a crises at the top of these sports. Not only the number of ex aequo game results is large, also the variation in...

In interviews and autobiographies, powerful people such as business magnates, well-known politicians, or high-ranked military commanders often emphasize the importance of relying on their gut feeling when making decisions. The question that comes to mind...

Emerging market firms are increasingly visible in the global economy. A significant number of these emerging market firms expand to developed economies through cross-border acquisitions (M&A). For example, in 2007, the Tata Group of India obtained a 100...

If you want your company to become more innovative, it makes sense to set demanding targets for your employees. Setting the bar high helps employees to enjoy their work, and actually enables them to be more creative. It also pays to create a culture in...

In his Nobel Lecture in 1994, Douglass C. North emphasised that “institutions are the humanely devised constraints that structure human interaction. They are made up of formal constraints (e.g., rules, laws, constitutions), informal constraints (e.g.,...

On October 8, the Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to William Nordhaus and Paul Romer for their contributions to long-run economic development and the role of climate change (Nordhaus) and innovation (Romer). It is hard to overstate the importance of...

This month is the 10th anniversary of the start of the 2008 financial crisis. The fall of  Lehman Brothers on 15 September 2008 impacted on the entire global business world, and was the trigger for  the so-called Great Recession. Economists have been...

Make America Great Again (MAGA) is key for Donald Trump’s agenda as president. An important part of his policies involves trade. With the mid-term elections approaching in November, Trump is stepping up his aggressive economic stance towards, in...