10 must-read economics stories of the week

Welcome to your weekly update – a curated list of some of this week’s most interesting stories on economic growth and social inclusion.

1. Facts and figures. A recent report from Citi and the University of Oxford highlights how increased automation could lead to unemployment and greater inequality. (Business Insider)

2. Growth slowdowns in the BRICS have significant negative spillovers for the global economy. For each 1% decline in BRICS growth, global growth could decline by 0.4% over the next two years. (VoxEU.org)

3. Thomas Piketty argues that Eurozone reform, focused on growth and employment, will not only generate economic activity, but will also counter the rise of nationalist parties in the region. (New York Review of Books)

4. Reform is also needed in the US to spur economic growth. This article argues that new fiscal policies are needed to push businesses toward higher real investment. (Bloomberg View)

5. Others suggest that discussions on economic growth are too focused on monetary policy, while instead they should prioritize technology-driven productivity. (Harvard Business Review)

6. Measuring progress of the sustainable development goals is notoriously difficult. One study now suggests that analysing networks of digital and physical flows may be an effective way of tracking global wellbeing. (MIT Technology Review)

7. Why millennials favour short-term spending over long-term saving: they don’t see the point. (Financial Times)

8. But saving for retirement is not just a millennial problem. New research shows that a life expectancy gap between rich and poor means the benefits of lifetime savings are widening in favour of high-income workers. (Brookings)

9. Another analysis points out that the male-female wage gap is not due to differences in skills between the sexes. It’s a dearth of women in specific jobs and industries. (The Atlantic)

10. All this goes to show that equality matters more than you might think. The interplay of socioeconomic inequality and insecurity creates a downward spiral that is hard for countries to escape and people to recover from. (World Economic Forum)