Nick O'Donovan
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nickod.bsky.social
Nick O'Donovan
@nickod.bsky.social
1.6K followers 460 following 77 posts
Political scientist and occasional policy wonk, interested in big tech, the digital economy, taxation and inequality. Author of Pursuing the Knowledge Economy: https://www.agendapub.com/page/detail/pursuing-the-knowledge-economy/?k=9781788215145

@DrNickOD
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nickod.bsky.social
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
July 16, 2025 at 8:03 AM
nickod.bsky.social
"Man rejects means, demands end."
Extract from the guardian website, reading Trump says more tariffs coming and calls for lower interest rates"
February 12, 2025 at 3:51 PM
nickod.bsky.social
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.
January 29, 2025 at 8:51 AM
nickod.bsky.social
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...
November 28, 2024 at 9:35 AM
nickod.bsky.social
One of the advantages of being in government is the ability to set the narrative, and the fact that half the new spending is paid for by borrowing matters much less than it would have done in opposition. (And it helps that bond markets seem to think the extra public investment is sensible, so far.)
Extract from OBR's Economic and Fiscal Outlook: "The Budget increases spending by £70 billion annually, with two-thirds on current and one-third on capital spending. Half is funded through tax increases which raise £36 billion annually and push the tax take to a historic 38 per cent of GDP. The rest is funded by £32 billion more borrowing annually"
October 30, 2024 at 2:12 PM
nickod.bsky.social
Restricting lump sum relief to £100k denies everyone below retirement age a tax benefit worth up to £30k.

Added to that, younger cohorts have already been battered by the tax and spending decisions taken by Conservative-led governments over the last 14 years.

[4/8]
September 13, 2024 at 10:15 AM
nickod.bsky.social
This is genuinely massive news: Apple has lost its tax case at the ECJ. curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/...
(Apologies for bad reposting etiquette, I can't find Stephen Daly on BlueSky, all credit to him)
September 10, 2024 at 8:18 AM
nickod.bsky.social
Much to enjoy in this new report by @adamcorlett.bsky.social of @resfoundation.bsky.social, which outlines how to raise an additional £20bn+ while also making the tax system fairer (tho more on this soon).
www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications...

This graph gets to the heart of the unfairness:
Graph showing how UK applies a wide range of tax rates to different forms of income
September 10, 2024 at 8:00 AM
nickod.bsky.social
Grant Shapps is absolutely right: Gary Lineker should concentrate on the day job. Or at the very least use a pseudonym to disguise his extra-political activities.

(Hoping to see Lineker wearing a badge like this next time he presents Match of the Day...)
December 11, 2023 at 11:00 AM
nickod.bsky.social
Setting up on Bluesky after a brilliant conference on digital markets in Cambridge last week, hosted by the Centre for Competition Policy and the Bennett Institute.

My paper explored how regulators cannot always reconcile competition, privacy and innovation- contact me if you'd like more info!
November 29, 2023 at 1:47 PM