Economics impacts us all on a daily basis. Below are highlights from last week’s news with links to relevant articles.

• Three economists received the 2019 Nobel Prize in economics for their groundbreaking research in the fight to reduce global poverty. Together, the three researchers, Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, along with Harvard’s Michael Kremer, used economics field experiments to identify programs that most benefit the poor. The Associated Press highlights the work of the three researchers. Duflio, 46, was the youngest person to win the prize and only the second woman, joining Elinor Ostrom in 2009.
  
  
• They grew up in vastly different worlds, as the BBC spotlights the Indian-born Abhijit Banerjee and French-born Esther Duflo, two of the three 2019 Nobel Prize recipients in economics. Now, the married couple is fighting to reduce global poverty together at MIT.
  
  
• A record-number of families making six-figure incomes is renting homes instead of buying. Why is America’s middle class choosing to rent instead of buy their homes? The Wall Street Journal ($) reports on the growing trend of renting property and the rise of prices for homes.
  
  
• Singapore was named the most competitive economy in the world in the 2019 Global Competitiveness Report published by the World Economic Forum. Singapore is ranked ahead of the United States, Hong Kong, Switzerland in the latest annual report that measures the productivity of countries around the world.
   
• The global economy is on pace to grow at its slowest pace since the 2008 financial crisis, as reported by the International Monetary Fund Tuesday. The IMF projects that the growth rate for 2019 in the world economy will be 3 percent, as it continues to be weakened by rising trade barriers and increasing geopolitical sanctions. The IMF estimates that the US-China trade war will reduce the global GDP by 0.8 percent by 2020.

• The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is feverishly making preparations to host Expo 2020. The Associated Press reports how the Dubai plans to lure an estimated 25 million people, the impact on businesses, further development of the city and the country’s economy. 

• The United Automobile Workers and General Motors reached a tentative agreement to end a month-long strike. The strike caused many of the workers to seek temporary positions. USA Today reported on the rise of temporary jobs in the United States and how many employees are using those jobs as a bridge to full-time employment.