CAMBRIDGE — Big Tech is back in the spotlight, and not in a good way.

CAMBRIDGE — Everybody seems to agree that data will play a fundamental role in the economy of the future, whether through health discoveries, smart energy grids, autonomous vehicles or other areas of innovation.

CAMBRIDGE — The 2020s will be the decade when the idea that economic problems can be “left to the market” to solve is finally put to rest, after some 40 years during which that belief has caused untold damage to society and the environment.We can foretell this with such conf

CAMBRIDGE — The word “productivity” typically calls to mind industrial assembly lines pumping out cars or washing machines, breakfast cereal or shoes. The word may also conjure images of crops being harvested, livestock being butchered or houses being built.

CAMBRIDGE — Do we know how economies develop? Obviously not, it seems, or otherwise every country would be doing better than it currently is in these low-growth times.

CAMBRIDGE — One of the biggest concerns about today’s tech giants is their market power. At least outside China, Google, Facebook and Amazon dominate online search, social media and online retail, respectively.

CAMBRIDGE — Is the world becoming increasingly prosperous? It would be hard to answer “yes” right now, at least so far as the leading high-income economies are concerned.

CAMBRIDGE — Algorithms are as biased as the data they feed on. And all data are biased. Even “official” statistics cannot be assumed to stand for objective, eternal “facts”.

CAMBRIDGE — In 1831, when Charles Darwin boarded The Beagle for its five-year voyage of exploration, ships navigated with the help of chronometers, which showed the precise time at a reference location.