You can drive for hours across northern Scandinavia and see nothing but forests, rivers, and open sky. The roads are smooth, the towns are quiet, the prosperity seems effortless. Nothing appears to be missing. That is the point. Somewhere beyond the road, reindeer herds move across land that has been used for centuries. Not owned, […]
Even though the dynamics of economic power in the world keep shifting, world income and wealth inequality increase in a gradual manner, causing not only a decrease in the wealth and income of the bottom 50% of people globally but also resulting in a higher number of people living in poverty. As of 2024, almost […]
The moment you open TikTok, your For You feed comes alive. Powered by its recommendation system, it delivers content that almost perfectly matches your interests. That’s the magic of this type of platform: there is no one ‘For You’ page, while different people might come across some of the same standout videos, each person’s feed […]
If a stranger were to ask you today how productive your day was, what would come to mind first? For the majority of us, it’s how many things we have managed to do in the limited hours of the day. We, as a society, have agreed to this particular definition of productivity, and not often […]
People are strange. We all make decisions that are difficult to explain, sometimes even baffling. In particular, we make baffling decisions about how we spend. Why do we gamble, knowing that the casino is always in the green? Why do we hardly ever cancel subscriptions, even the ones we don’t use, and when we do, […]
Intertemporal choice is one of the foundational models in economic theory. It sets the human lifetime in just two periods – today and tomorrow – to evaluate how people make choices over time. Generally, an individual can prefer to save money today and spend more tomorrow, or borrow today and spend less tomorrow. Quite often, […]
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The Sausage That Started a War
History is full of grand causes for conflict: rival empires, contested borders, the clash of civilizations. And then there’s Zurich in the 16th century, where Catholics and Protestants found themselves squaring off over… a sausage. Yes, a plump, greasy, perfectly ordinary wurst managed to become the spark for sectarian strife. If it sounds ridiculous, that’s […]
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The Crime We Don’t See
We’re the good guys. That’s what we’ve always told ourselves. During fascism, “we weren’t like the Germans.” When it comes to the mafia, “we’re not like the Sicilians.” The myth of the good Italian has followed us for nearly a century. But every myth has its cost. Today, while the mafia evolves, infiltrates, and thrives, […]
Imagine two ice cream labels: “90% Fat-free” and “Contains 10% fat”. Same product;same message. Still, the first somehow feels healthier than the second. This effect is known as framing -a psychological mechanism through which information presentation shapes the audience’s interpretation and judgment. Framing means selecting and emphasizing specific information elements while omitting others, thereby increasing […]
Article by Nika Vanadze Introduction In theory, public policy should be a rational exercise: gather evidence, assess alternatives, and implement the most effective and equitable solution. In practice, however, policies are shaped by people, and people are not always rational. All humans are influenced by some sort of cognitive biases that will change their behaviour, […]
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