Publication collection
Clear treatments of the economic concepts, institutions and accounting relationships used in research and policy debate.
Explainers develop a concept far enough to show how it changes an interpretation. They connect a definition with the decisions, evidence and institutional arrangements to which it applies.
The treatment is accessible without dispensing with qualifications. An identity establishes an accounting relationship; an assumption describes a model; an empirical result depends on the data and method that produced it.
Economic Explainer
The public-debt ratio relates a stock of obligations to a period’s output. The explainer examines the effects of growth, interest, primary balances and valuation changes, and why the ratio alone cannot establish financing pressure.
Read the analysisEconomic Explainer
Domestic output, national income and disposable income follow different accounting boundaries. A cross-border production example explains when GDP measures local activity and when resident income or purchasing power is the more relevant comparison.
Read the analysisEconomic Explainer
Gross trade records border transactions; value-added trade traces the origin of income embodied in final demand. A multi-stage supply chain explains double counting, domestic contributions and the limits of either measure for evaluating dependence.
Read the analysis12 publications
Economic Explainer
The public-debt ratio relates a stock of obligations to a period’s output. The explainer examines the effects of growth, interest, primary balances and valuation changes, and why the ratio alone cannot establish financing pressure.
Economic Explainer
Domestic output, national income and disposable income follow different accounting boundaries. A cross-border production example explains when GDP measures local activity and when resident income or purchasing power is the more relevant comparison.
Economic Explainer
Gross trade records border transactions; value-added trade traces the origin of income embodied in final demand. A multi-stage supply chain explains double counting, domestic contributions and the limits of either measure for evaluating dependence.
Economic Explainer
A productivity residual records output growth left after measured inputs are accounted for. A transparent growth-accounting exercise shows why that residual cannot, by itself, identify the economic contribution of a particular technology.
Economic Explainer
Fiscal balances depend on institutional coverage, consolidation and the timing of recognition. A government-transfer example demonstrates how the same transactions generate different central-government, general-government and cash-flow measures without an accounting contradiction.
Economic Explainer
Monetary decisions affect corporate borrowing through funding benchmarks, contractual repricing and lender risk assessment. A financing example distinguishes the immediate exposure of floating-rate borrowers from the delayed response of fixed-rate debt.
Economic Explainer
Installed capacity, actual production and economically sustainable output measure different constraints. A plant-level example separates engineering limits, operating schedules and commercial conditions before interpreting capacity utilization or announced industrial investment.
Economic Explainer
Industrial energy costs include more than the quoted wholesale price. A delivered-cost calculation separates usage, network and demand charges, contractual protection and the operational cost of interruptions when comparing production locations.
Economic Explainer
Participation, employment and hours describe successive margins of labor input. A population-to-hours identity explains why stronger employment does not necessarily imply greater working time or an equivalent improvement in household welfare.
Economic Explainer
Foreign direct investment statistics record financial relationships that need not coincide with newly installed capacity. Transaction examples distinguish acquisitions, reinvested earnings, intercompany finance and greenfield construction within a consistent investment assessment.
Economic Explainer
Market exchange rates and purchasing-power parities answer different questions about economic size. A common-price example explains the appropriate conversion for domestic production comparisons, external purchasing capacity and international financial obligations.
Economic Explainer
A scenario reports what follows from specified assumptions; a forecast adds a judgment about likely outcomes. An explicit fiscal calculation shows how sensitivity, consistency and uncertainty should be presented without assigning unsupported probabilities.
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