Web Articles

The war in Ukraine has been waging for a month now, not only causing human suffering on a massive scale, but also sending economic tremors that are felt far beyond the country’s borders. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine’s economy has been pulled between its strong historical ties with the Russian economy and the opportunities in forging new ties with the European Union (EU). With the help of Metroverse, an online tool for analyzing the local economies of over a thousand cities worldwide, and of the data that power this tool, we analyze the evolving economic relations between Ukraine, Russia and the West and weigh the consequences of their disruption.

Explore: The Economic Geography of the War in Ukraine 

Related reading:
Media Release
Bloomberg Opinion: Markets Need to Lose the ‘Peace in Our Time’ Reflex

A little over a year ago, the EU’s political leaders agreed on an unprecedented fiscal package – dubbed ‘Next Generation EU’ – to aid Europe’s recovery from the pandemic. Ricardo Hausmann, Miguel Angel Santos, Corrado Macchiarelli and Renato Giacon write that economic complexity theories can provide a useful tool for evaluating whether the recovery and resilience plans submitted by EU member states to receive this funding are well-designed. Assessing the case of Greece, they argue that investments should be tailored toward export-oriented sectors and aim to help close the country’s product complexity gap with other EU states. 

The Growth Lab, which works with countries to identify obstacles to growth and propose targeted policy solutions, has been conducting applied research in Albania since 2013. This brief analysis takes stock of Albania’s economic growth prior to the COVID-19 crisis and what the strengths and weaknesses of the pre-COVID economy imply for recovery and the possibility of accelerating long-term and inclusive growth in the years to come. Albania is a place where much has been achieved to expand opportunity and well-being as growth has gradually accelerated since 2013-14, but where much remains to be done to continue this acceleration once the immediate crisis of COVID-19 has passed.