February 13, 2021

Two new papers came out in the last couple of weeks.

In the first, Kern, Negre, and I examine some of the side effects of central bank independence. We suspect that governments may respond to a loss of control over monetary policy (i.e. more independent central banks) with policies that are bad for inequality.

• Aklin, Michaël, Andreas Kern, and Mario Negre. 2021. Does Central Bank Independence Increase Inequality? World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 9522. [link (ungated)]

In the second paper (published in Energy Research & Social Science), I find that off-grid renewable has been most successful in countries with good legal systems. The reason, I believe, is that off-grid energy involves private firms (and nonprofits) much more than other facets of energy. And as we know, firms need reasonably well-functioning institutions.

• Aklin, Michaël. 2021. The Off-Grid Catch-22: Effective Institutions as a Prerequisite for the Global Deployment of Distributed Renewable Power. Energy Research & Social Science 72: 101830. [link] [pre-print]