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Nick O'Donovan

@nickod.bsky.social
1.8K followers 490 following 94 posts

Political scientist and occasional policy wonk, interested in big tech, the digital economy, taxation and inequality. Author of Pursuing the Knowledge Economy: www.agendapub.com/page/detail/pursu… @DrNickOD

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Reposted by Nick O'Donovan
Nick Garland @npjgarland.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Here, Nick O'Donovan @nickod.bsky.social weighs up Burnham and Healey's choices for a fiscal reset: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Unknown Pressures: Resetting Fiscal Policy for Uncertain Times
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Nick Garland @npjgarland.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Everything in the new issue of the relaunched @ippr.org Progressive Review is now FREE TO READ here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1...
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Lukas Bogner @lbogner.eurosky.social · 23/09/2026
New Paper out in Socio-Economic Review! Part of a coming special issue on the socio-economics of loss and decline. About the 4D chess of using blended finance for the coal exit in the Global South. Read it here: doi.org/10.1093/ser/... (or ask me for a copy if you don't have access)!)
 The spectre of de-assetization: legal infrastructures and fragile fixes in fossil decommissioning - Lukas Bogner. Abstract: Efforts to decommission coal power plants in the Global South are constrained by the legal infrastructures that create and protect them as assets. This article examines the Asian Development Bank’s Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM) as a case of managing these constraints via a series of increasingly complex and fragile spatio-temporal fixes: First, power purchase agreements and investment treaties require compensation of investors at business-as-usual asset valuations; second, for lack of public funding, this compensation is to be generated via a blended finance mechanism; third, its inability to stem these costs necessitates further legal-financial engineering, including a novel guarantee mechanism and ‘coal-to-clean’ credits. The ETM and its successive fixes are haunted by the power relations inscribed in asset creation and protection in the Global South. This renders ‘de-risked’ transition finance dubious as a blueprint for fossil decommissioning and highlights the troubled nature of climate-related asset stranding in transnational, hierarchical legal space.
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Philipp Golka @pgolka.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Second paper of our SER special issue (with @vapunkt.bsky.social & @trgn.bsky.social) out just hours after the first and it's just as great - congrats Nick! 🎉 More information in the thread below ⬇️
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Nick O'Donovan @nickod.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The concept of ‘stranded assets’ has become central to analysis of the climate crisis. Rapid decarbonisation will result in the mass devaluation of a whole host of fossil-fuel-related investments. But where did the language of stranding come from, and how has its meaning changed over time?
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Mike Cook @mtrc.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
New Post: Why I Love AI Next month it'll be twenty years since I went to university, learned to program, and studied AI. I wrote about why I loved it, why I still love it, and why, unfortunately, it no longer exists. www.possibilityspace.org/blog/posts/i...
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Nick O'Donovan @nickod.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Day 1: "There is a light that never goes out" due to reductions in electricity bills Day 2: "Get on the bus and cause no fuss, get a grip on yourself, it don't cost much" more than £1.99 Day 3: "Cigarettes and alcohol" (albeit cigarettes only in designated outdoor smoking areas)
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Good provocation from @carlbfrey.bsky.social here - how much will AI mean people move to greater self service? As was shown by eg consumers scanning their own groceries, this phenomenon is hard for economic statistics to capture www.ft.com/content/47f4...
This shift has broader macroeconomic implications. When work shifts to the consumer, it vanishes from the economy that statisticians measure. A company that replaces a billing department with a chatbot interface records lower costs and higher output per worker. The national accounts register a productivity gain. But the hours that patients spend decoding their own tests appear nowhere - not in labour statistics, not in GDP. As AI self-service expands into professional domains, this blind spot will grow.
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Nick O'Donovan @nickod.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
10 years ago, I wrote an article about the upcoming Brexit referendum. It argued that the Remain campaign’s warnings weren't cutting through, as too many UK citizens felt disconnected from the country’s aggregate economic performance. [1/3] www.newstatesman.com/business/eco...
newstatesman.com
Why “it’s the economy, stupid“ may not be enough to see Remain over the line
The benefits of growth are more unfairly distributed than ever, says Neil James.
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Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
This is not a reasoned political response. Labour has spent two years making all the voting groups who backed the Greens feel unwelcome and unheard, and now attacks them for daring to back someone else. They believe Labour isn’t listening and Starmer seems determined to prove them right
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Simon Hix @simonhix.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
This is from Keir Starmer’s letter to Labour MPs today. This sort of stuff is shockingly partisan and nasty. It will only backfire with voters who switched to Green or are thinking of switching.
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Nick O'Donovan @nickod.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
I am trying not to read anything too sinister into the fact that, when I searched for "money as a social contract", the concept of "society" induced a nervous breakdown in Google's AI bot, which began randomly yelling "YouTube" at me in response.
Google search results AI Overview: Money is fundamentally a social contract, functioning as a shared agreement among people to trust in and accept a medium—like fiat currency or digital assets—as a store of value and method of exchange. It represents a, YouTube social bond,, YouTube that enables, YouTube cooperation, YouTube and acts as a, YouTube "claim upon society," YouTube rather than possessing, YouTube intrinsic, YouTube value.
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Nick O'Donovan @nickod.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
Lots of good commentary in the FT from @stephenkb.bsky.social and others questioning whether the delayed fiscal consolidation in yesterday's Budget will ever be delivered, given these tax rises are due to kick in from 2028 with an election looming... [1/2] on.ft.com/3LVEeOK
on.ft.com
Rachel Reeves’ Budget fails her own 3 claims
Chancellor’s actions not enough to satisfy pledges on cost of living, debt and NHS
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Ben Zaranko @benzaranko.bsky.social · 31/08/2025
There's an important debate to be had on the wisdom of simultaneously increasing employer NICs, the minimum wage and employment rights. The jobs market does look weaker. But an alternative reading of this chart is that employment has just continued on its pre-election trend?
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Diane Coyle @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
This kind of descriptive analysis is v interesting- well worth a read
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Nick O'Donovan @nickod.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
***New article announcement!*** Prosperity and inequality in mature knowledge economies Barely a week goes by without new reports of generative AI displacing high-skilled knowledge work. But this is part of a trend stretching back more than 20 years. [1/5]
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Nick O'Donovan @nickod.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
Will AI eliminate high-skilled, high-paid knowledge work? If the recent past is anything to go by, yes. My new article explores how knowledge work has already become more capital-intensive since the early 2000s, undermining hopes of inclusive prosperity: doi.org/10.1093/ser/...
doi.org
Prosperity and inequality in mature knowledge economies
Abstract. In the 1990s, policymakers in affluent democracies viewed the ‘knowledge economy’ as a solution to economic stagnation and social exclusion. Yet,
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Nick O'Donovan @nickod.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
A reminder of the impermanence of currency hierarchies from the US Commercial and Financial Chronicle, 1 December 1877: 'in the great exchange markets of the world... our paper is not current and never will be.'
The South was never in spite of all her troubles in a position of such genuine promise as now She has forced to learn economies in production she can grow cotton now profitably at a low price although she used to get poor on it at a high one she has also learned to grow a large crop the labor question is in great measure solved on her soil and her position in the world's markets was never so favorable as now Her great staples are the equivalent of gold in a peculiar sense the governing price of cotton to day is a gold one in the great exchange markets of the world where our paper is not current and never will be The dream of all Southern publicists has always been for direct commercial relations with England Perhaps this is more than a dream perhaps not but what can be more foolish than to insist upon spurning and excluding the currency of mankind in order to cling to the non exportable paper which is the worst foe the country has
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Economics Observatory @econ-observatory.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
💰One-off wealth taxes: what can we learn from history? @nickod.bsky.social TODAY on the Economics Observatory👇
buff.ly
One-off wealth taxes: what can we learn from history? - Economics Observatory
In the wake of crises that have caused national debts to grow rapidly beyond ‘normal’ levels, the idea of drawing on private wealth in order to pay down those debts has sometimes gained currency.
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Philipp Golka @pgolka.bsky.social · 15/10/2024
The #climate crisis leads to unprecedented losses & damages to real and financial #assets. But the dynamics and consequences of asset stranding are only poorly understood. If you want to change this, please join @trgn.bsky.social, @vapunkt.bsky.social & me for our #SASE2025 Mini-Conference (1/2)
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Nick O'Donovan @nickod.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
Really looking forward to this online seminar with Quinn Slobodian, author of Crack-Up Capitalism and Hayek's Bastards, 5pm BST on Weds 4th June. It promises to be a fascinating discussion of neoliberalism and its discontents. The link to sign up (for free!) is: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/professor-...
eventbrite.co.uk
Professor Quinn Slobodian (Boston University) - Title TBA
TBA
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Nick O'Donovan @nickod.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
Excellent (if depressing) article from the FT. Fixating on skills supply in the "knowledge economy", without considering other bottlenecks (housing/transport, access to capital, access to intellectual property/data etc), is tantamount to pumping air into a punctured tyre. www.ft.com/content/cd13...
ft.com
Is the UK failing its graduates?
Young people are bearing the brunt of a long-term slowdown in the labour market, data shows
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
The lesson of Donald Trump’s business career would seem to be, to adapt Keynes, that Donald Trump can remain irrational longer than Donald Trump can remain solvent.
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Valentina Ausserladscheider @vapunkt.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
📢 Next week is our first seminar of the @psabcpe.bsky.social online series with fantastic @ankehassel.bsky.social talking about Growth Strategies And Welfare Reforms: How Nations Cope With Economic Transitions💡Please sign up 💻 & share widely ‼️
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Sander Tordoir @sandertordoir.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
The European Union remains a funny animal. Outside observers: rich place, lots of industry, lower debt levels than US/China. Should be able to rearm quickly and cheaply if they coordinate decision-making. Leaders on the inside: I don’t trust my neighbour so let’s bicker while the house burns down.
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Nick O'Donovan @nickod.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
"Man rejects means, demands end."
Extract from the guardian website, reading Trump says more tariffs coming and calls for lower interest rates"
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Nick Garland @npjgarland.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
This was an excellent piece by @craigpberry.bsky.social & @nickod.bsky.social on the relationship between equality and innovation, busting the idea that the two need be in tension: journals.lwbooks.co.uk/renewal/vol-...
journals.lwbooks.co.uk
The productivist welfare state: how tackling inequality can unleash innovation - Lawrence Wishart
In UK welfare debates, equality and economic growth are often treated as opposites: one inevitably comes at the expense of the o
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
Lost much of the afternoon to this. It’s excellent.
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Nick O'Donovan @nickod.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
If you're interested in DeepSeek and the competitive landscape around generative AI, you might find this article from a while back interesting: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.... (Feeling particularly smug about this passage this week...)
By contrast, with second-order network effects, there could come a point when it becomes difficult to improve the quality of connection between any given individual and the things to which they might be connected (products in online retail, webpages in a search engine, diagnoses in a diagnostics app, responses to a prompt in generative AI). Beyond a certain level, additional data may cease to affect results, instead serving primarily to confirm matches. This means that incumbency advantages associated with second-order network effects do not always grow indefinitely. The risk of markets tipping irrevocably on this basis alone is thus limited, and there may be less need for privacy-invading and/or innovation-curtailing interventions to preserve competition. Conceivably, multiple organisations could acquire the number of users necessary to provide an adequate quality of matches.
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Jérôme Deyris @jdeyris.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
📊 Last week, we released our new central bank speeches database, which almost doubles the coverage of the @BIS_org database. We also released a tool to facilitate research on central bank communication: meet the #CBSpeeches explorer! Four tools for the price of one (=free!)
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George Dibb @georgedibb.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
Really recommend this excellent rebuttal to the 'Foundations' essay It shouldn't need pointing out but you really can't wonder at the ability of France, South Korea, or post-WW2 Britain at building things *and* argue that the state simply can't do things open.substack.com/pub/energyne...
open.substack.com
Without Foundation
A critique of the essay Foundations by Bowman, Southwood and Hughes
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Alisa Bokulich @alisabokulich.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
💯 As I tell my students, having AI write your philosophy paper is like sending a robot to the gym for you and expecting to reap the health benefits.
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Nick O'Donovan @nickod.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
Really interesting which parties have sharp variations in support across ages groups and which don't (Lib Dems relatively cross-generational in appeal; Reform cross-generational among men only).
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Nicole Sykes @nicolesykes.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
Andy Haldane says “Today’s Great Division is a slow puncture, silently undermining us over more than half a century.” “Malign neglect of social capital has sowed the seeds of many of today’s largest problems, economic, social and spatial. “
ft.com
Financial TimesFinancial Times
News, analysis and opinion from the Financial Times on the latest in markets, economics and politics
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Prof Colin Talbot (and the late Rory) @colintalbot.bsky.social · 07/12/2024
Counting the cost of bowling alone? Interesting piece in the @financialtimes.com on.ft.com/41lNtgE
on.ft.com
Counting the cost of bowling alone
Malign neglect of social capital has sowed the seeds of many of our largest problems
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Jakub Jaraczewski @jakubjaraczewski.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
🇷🇴⚖️Tremendous: the Romanian Constitutional Court, tasked with hearing electoral protests and validating the elections, decides to annul the first round of the presidential election (effectively ordering them to be retaken in entirety at a later date). 1/
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Nick O'Donovan @nickod.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Whether you agree with it or not, this thread from someone claiming to be an anonymous civil servant offers an interesting counter-perspective to the frustrations voiced by Labour "sources" in @hzeffman.bsky.social's recent article (which is also well worth your time). www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Why Labour ministers are starting to agree with Tory criticism of the civil service
The government’s aims are bold, but they want to galvanise the civil servants who implement the government’s agenda.
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Melanie Mitchell @melaniemitchell.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
Someone went down this rabbit hole and wrote a fascinating post about it: centreforaileadership.org/resources/an...
centreforaileadership.org
The Curious Case of David Mayer, the man ChatGPT cannot name.
ChatGPT users have noticed a curious behavior: It refuses to talk about a 'David Mayer'. We have the explanation and point out less obvious implications.
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Nick O'Donovan @nickod.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
"The problem lies with those thinking that the world would be different, and that their priorities would become national priorities, if we ditched GDP and measured something else instead." -Important point. Too often, efforts to go "beyond GDP" lack a sense of the political economy of GDP...[1/2]
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Nick O'Donovan @nickod.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
So the UK's Office for National Statistics literally uses "the market for lemons" to illustrate how deflators work... www.ons.gov.uk/economy/infl...
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Nick O'Donovan @nickod.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
"The problem lies with those thinking that the world would be different, and that their priorities would become national priorities, if we ditched GDP and measured something else instead." -Important point. Too often, efforts to go "beyond GDP" lack a sense of the political economy of GDP...[1/2]
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 24/11/2024
Renewables are exceeding expectations - but so are emissions. Why? Part of the fossil economy's staying power comes from false promises of techno-neutralisation. CCS is the OG machine saviour. A new blog for you, on why its second coming hasn't come. ketanjoshi.co/2024/11/24/2... (+ thread)
a chart showing operational ccs being very low persisently, while scenarios show high expectations a chart showing operational ccs being very low persisently, while scenarios show high expectations a chart showing operational ccs being very low persisently, while scenarios show high expectations
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Nick O'Donovan @nickod.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
"In the shift from horses to cars, while the businessmen invested in factories and the mechanics worked on their motors, governments wrote the highway code and built the roads. They did not just put a tax on horseshit and hope for the best."
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Nick O'Donovan @nickod.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Just noticed that I am officially Bigger On Bluesky Than On Twitter. Do I get a badge? Do people wish each other a happy bobtotday and send each other bobtotday cards?
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Bennett Institute for Public Policy @bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk · 19/11/2024
In @theguardian.com, @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social is quoted in a report on new “sustainability-focused inclusive income formula accounts” being developed by the ONS to measure the economic benefits that haven’t been priced before & how they either enhance/destroy the wealth of a nation bit.ly/4fTGcIO
bit.ly
Housework to green energy: the new markers of growth in rival metric to GDP
Sustainability-focused inclusive income formula accounts for non-monetary factors overlooked in GDP, says ONS
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Simon Evans @drsimevans.carbonbrief.org · 19/11/2024
+++NEW ANALYSIS: China’s CO2 emissions have now caused more global warming than EU+++ Our new analysis comes as the "principle of historical responsibility" is being cited in #COP29 talks on a new climate finance goal THREAD with details, caveats + bonus chart www.carbonbrief.org/... 1/12
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Michael Thrower Chowdhury @bevansadvocate.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Wonderful passage from @epopppp.bsky.social new book "Thinking like an Economist: How Efficiency Replaced Equality in U.S. Public Policy" detailing 3 ways someone's values may conflict with conventional econ approaches to public policy analysis (Berman calls it the 'economic style'). 1/5
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Ed Conway @edconway.bsky.social · 16/11/2024
🖌️WATCHING PAINT DRY🖌️ A thread about the rise of mass production. 💵The ascent of mass consumption. 📈The rise & fall of economic growth. 📉 And why our productivity growth seems to have stalled. 🚗But, above all else, it's about why watching paint dry is actually a perfectly good use of your time 🧵
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Glen Peters @glenpeters.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
📢Global Carbon Budget 2024📢 Despite some predicting a peak in global fossil CO2 emissions, we estimate growth of 0.8% [-0.3% to 1.9%] in 2024. Maybe a peak next year? Is it all bad news, or can we find some good news? essd.copernicus.org/preprints/es... 1/
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