When there's a financial crisis, policymakers and politicians increasingly kowtow to the demands of an influential group: the global middle class. Jeffrey Chwieroth and Andrew Walter tell Tim Phillips how their Great Expectations are destabilising the wor

Doing a good job of deciding who can borrow is fundamental for the global economy. Stefania Albanesi tells Tim Phillips that current consumer credit ratings do a poor job at predicting which of us will default, and explains how she has used machine learni

When the law changed to allow same-sex partners to get married, did the symbolism of marriage have any effect on the stability of relationships? Shuai Chen tells Tim Phillips about a surprising result from The Netherlands.

How much is spent on end-of-life care, and who foots the bill? Eric French of UCL tells Tim Phillips about the total cost of the last year of our lives, and how different countries have very different ideas of who should pay it. Read about the research at

The Royal Economic Society has launched Discover Economics (http://www.discovereconomics.ac.uk/) , an ambitious three-year campaign to attract more women, minority students and students from state schools to study the subject. Sarah Smith and Arun Advani,

We are living longer, and that affects every part of our economic future. David Bloom is the editor of a new VoxEU book on what he calls "the what, the so what, and the now what" of ageing. He tells Tim Phillips about some of the policy choices our societ

Economists date the growth of London's financial system, and its impact on the British economy, from the end of the 17th century. Nathan Sussman tells Tim Phillips how how he discovered contemporary records that tell a different story.

Patrick Honohan took over as governor of the Central Bank of Ireland in 2009 with the economy in meltdown, and steered it through its deepest crisis. His new book re-examines what happened, and lessons for future crises. Tim Phillips talks to Patrick and

On 24 September the CEPR launches the latest Geneva Report on the world economy, called Banking disrupted? Financial intermediation in an era of transformational technology. Tim Phillips asks Tara Rice and Kathryn Petralia, two of the authors, whether fin

Economists argue whether foreign direct investment in developing economies exports pollution or generates green growth. Beata Javorcik talks to Tim Phillips about a surprising conclusion from factory-level research. Read about the research at VoxEU (https