S1 Ep5: Happiness: the impact of growth, inequality and recession
Justin Wolfers interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 24 July 2009 Justin Wolfers of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about happiness economics – the state of knowledge; the explosion of data; the debate about the Easterlin paradox; the impact of inequality and the business cycle on people’s happiness; and the implications for public policy. The interview...
20m Jul 24, 2009
20m
S1 Ep5: Moving to opportunity
Lawrence Katz interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 17 July 2009 If people in disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods have the opportunity to move house, what is the impact on their wellbeing and their educational and labour market outcomes? Lawrence Katz of Harvard University talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about the ‘Moving to Opportunity’ project, which is tracking 5,000 low-income families with childr...
12m Jul 17, 2009
12m
S1 Ep5: Immigration to the land of redistribution
Tito Boeri interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 10 July 2009 Tito Boeri of Bocconi University talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his research on public perceptions of migrants in Europe, which, in the middle of a recession, are increasingly seeing migrants as a fiscal burden and are pressing governments to reduce their access to welfare and tighten immigration policies. The interview was recorded...
13m Jul 10, 2009
13m
S1 Ep5: The Warhol economy
Elizabeth Currid interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 03 July 2009 Elizabeth Currid of the University of Southern California talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about her book, The Warhol Economy: How Fashion, Art and Music Drive New York City, which describes the inner workings of New York’s creative industries, the significant economic value they generate and the implications for policy-makers wanting...
15m Jul 03, 2009
15m
S1 Ep5: People’s beliefs about the market economy
Gilles Saint-Paul interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 26 June 2009 Gilles Saint-Paul of the Toulouse School of Economics talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his work on the evolution of people’s beliefs about the market economy – how it affects occupational choice; how it is influenced by intellectuals who may be biased against the market economy; and how this all plays out in public debate about...
12m Jun 26, 2009
12m
S1 Ep5: Private delivery of public services
Paul Grout interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 19 June 2009 Paul Grout of the Centre for Market and Public Organisation (University of Bristol) talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his report, Private Delivery of Public Services, which surveys the theory and evidence on three models of private sector involvement in the delivery of public services: privatisation; public-private partnerships; and no...
24m Jun 19, 2009
24m
S1 Ep5: Obesity: the links with age and socioeconomic status
Christopher J. Ruhm interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 12 June 2009 Christopher Ruhm of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his work with Charles Baum, which analyses data from the US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to explore how body weight and obesity change with age and how that relates to socioeconomic status. The interview was recorded a...
8m Jun 12, 2009
8m
S1 Ep5: Getting more young people to go to university
Bruce Sacerdote interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 05 June 2009 Bruce Sacerdote of Dartmouth College talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his work with Scott Carrell, identifying children in New England high schools who have the qualifications to go to college and encouraging them to apply with information or cash incentives. They discuss the returns to college education, and the role of guidance...
10m Jun 05, 2009
10m
S1 Ep5: Nominal rigidities: how often do retailers really change prices?
Martin Eichenbaum interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 30 May 2009 Martin Eichenbaum of Northwestern University talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his research on nominal rigidities and reference prices, which analyses a new weekly scanner data set from a major US retailer containing information on prices, quantities and marginal costs for every item in over 1,000 stores. The interview was record...
8m May 30, 2009
8m
S1 Ep5: Tax deductions and tax reform
James Poterba interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 22 May 2009 James Poterba of MIT and President of the National Bureau of Economic Research talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his research on the economic consequences of ‘tax expenditures’ (the US term for tax deductions), and the short- and long-term prospects for tax reform in the United States book. The interview was recorded at the American ...
9m May 22, 2009
9m
S1 Ep5: The race between education and technology
Lawrence Katz interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 15 May 2009 Lawrence Katz of Harvard University talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his book (co-authored with Claudia Goldin), The Race between Education and Technology, a history of US economic inequality and the roles of technological change and the pace of educational advance in affecting the wage structure. The interview was recorded at the A...
13m May 15, 2009
13m
S1 Ep5: Doing economics at Google
Hal Varian interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 08 May 2009 Hal Varian, on leave from the University of California, Berkeley, talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about the kinds of things he thinks about as chief economist at Google – using the tools of economics to analyse business opportunities, making money out of search and content, and forecasting (including Google’s flu forecasts). The interview w...
10m May 08, 2009
10m
S1 Ep5: Field experiments in economic research
John List interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 30 April 2009 John List of the University of Chicago talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about the use of field experiments in economics, including his research on people’s motivation for charitable giving, gender differences in competitiveness, and discrimination in the labour market. The interview was recorded at the American Economic Association meetings...
20m Apr 30, 2009
20m
S1 Ep5: Cross-country comparisons of wage rates: the Big Mac index
Orley Ashenfelter interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 24 April 2009 Orley Ashenfelter of Princeton University talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his research comparing wage rates for workers in identical jobs across countries, for which he has collected data from branches of McDonald’s, the fast food restaurant chain, in North and South America, Western and Eastern Europe and the rising economie...
23m Apr 24, 2009
23m
S1 Ep5: The Commission on Growth and Development
Michael Spence interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 17 April 2009 Nobel laureate Michael Spence of Stanford University talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about the work of the Commission on Growth and Development, the prospects for and the obstacles to achieving sustainable growth in developing countries, and the impact of the global financial and economic crisis on the growth agenda. The interview was...
25m Apr 17, 2009
25m
S1 Ep5: Happiness and the Easterlin paradox
Richard Easterlin interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 10 April 2009 Richard Easterlin of the University of Southern California talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about the Easterlin paradox – his finding, first published in 1974, that although people with higher incomes are more likely to report being happy, rising incomes do not lead to increases in subjective wellbeing. The interview was recorded at...
18m Apr 10, 2009
18m
S1 Ep5: The moral consequences of economic growth
Benjamin Friedman interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 03 April 2009 Benjamin Friedman of Harvard University talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his book, The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth, which explores how growth boosts such values as opportunity, tolerance, generosity and democracy. They discuss how growth relates to inequality, happiness and the environment – and the potential consequ...
17m Apr 03, 2009
17m
S1 Ep4: This job is ‘getting old’
David Autor interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 27 March 2009 David Autor of MIT talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his research on the hollowing out of the occupational distribution in the US and Europe over the past 30 years: high- and low-wage occupations have been expanding rapidly and hiring younger workers, while routine middle-skill occupations have been shrinking and ‘getting old’. The i...
14m Mar 27, 2009
14m
S1 Ep4: Financial market interdependence
Francis Diebold, Kamil Yilmaz interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 20 March 2009 Francis X. Diebold of the University of Pennsylvania and Kamil Yilmaz of Koc University talk to Romesh Vaitilingam about their measure of financial asset return and volatility spillovers across global equity markets, described in the January 2009 Economic Journal. They discuss potential use of the index in macroecon...
16m Mar 20, 2009
16m
S1 Ep4: Social and economic networks
Matthew Jackson interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 13 March 2009 Matt Jackson of Stanford University talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his new book, Social and Economic Networks. They discuss the impact of communication technologies like Facebook on social and professional relationships; how social connections interact with financial transactions in settings from western banks to rural India; ...
14m Mar 13, 2009
14m
S1 Ep4: Public finance: theory, evidence and policy
Raj Chetty interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 06 March 2009 Raj Chetty talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about the optimal design of tax policies and social welfare programmes like unemployment insurance. They discuss his work on US public finance as well as new research on how to improve tax compliance in developing countries. The interview was recorded at the American Economic Association meetings...
24m Mar 06, 2009
24m
S1 Ep3: Modern economic growth
Daron Acemoğlu interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 27 February 2009 Daron Acemoglu of MIT talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his new book, Introduction to Modern Economic Growth. They discuss why sustained growth took off in Europe in the nineteenth century, the roles of technology and institutions in explaining why some countries grow rapidly while others stagnate, and the growth prospects for ...
16m Feb 27, 2009
16m
S1 Ep3: The venturesome economy
Amar Bhidé interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 20 February 2009 Amar Bhidé of Columbia University talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his new book, The Venturesome Economy: How Innovation Sustains Prosperity in a More Connected World. He explains why know-how developed abroad enhances prosperity at home, and why trying to maintain the US lead by subsidising more research or training more scientis...
20m Feb 20, 2009
20m
S1 Ep3: Returns to the carry trade
Martin Eichenbaum interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 13 February 2009 Martin Eichenbaum of Northwestern University talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about the carry trade, a currency speculation strategy in which an investor borrows low-interest-rate currencies and lends high-interest-rate currencies. The interview was recorded at the American Economic Association meetings in San Francisco in Januar...
8m Feb 13, 2009
8m
S1 Ep3: Social comparisons, perceptions of fairness and wellbeing
Armin Falk interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 06 February 2009 Armin Falk, director of the Bonn Laboratory of Experimental Economics talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his experimental research on how people compare themselves with others and its impact on their health and wellbeing. The interview was recorded at a workshop on happiness research at the Centre for Economic Performance in London ...
13m Feb 06, 2009
13m
S1 Ep3: The crisis and its impact on the economics profession
Robert J. Gordon interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 30 January 2009 Robert Gordon of Northwestern University talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about the causes and consequences of the economic crisis, the emerging consensus on the need for fiscal stimulus, and the challenge to the schools of thought that have dominated macroeconomics in recent decades. He argues that we will see a return to old-fash...
20m Jan 30, 2009
20m
S1 Ep3: Policy priorities for the Obama administration
Jeff Madrick interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 23 January 2009 Jeff Madrick, editor of Challenge magazine, talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his new book, The Case for Big Government (Princeton University Press), the impact of the economic crisis, and policy priorities for the Obama administration. The interview was recorded at the American Economic Association meetings in San Francisco in Ja...
12m Jan 23, 2009
12m
S1 Ep3: Evaluating fiscal stimulus measures
Jonathan Parker interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 16 January 2009 Jonathan Parker of Northwestern University talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about the effectiveness of fiscal stimulus measures, beginning with his research on the impact of the US income tax rebates of 2001 and 2008 on household spending. The interview was recorded at the American Economic Association meetings in San Francisco in J...
16m Jan 16, 2009
16m
S1 Ep3: People’s experiences of physical pain
Alan B. Krueger interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 09 January 2009 Alan Krueger of Princeton University talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his research on the influence of age and income on people’s reported experiences of physical pain. The interview was recorded at a workshop on happiness research at the Centre for Economic Performance in London in October 2008.
11m Jan 09, 2009
11m
S1 Ep3: The psychology of savings and investment
David Laibson interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 02 January 2009 We need a combination of psychology and economics to understand people's savings and investment decisions, says David Laibson of Harvard University in an interview with Romesh Vaitilingam. We can then build institutions that help people do what they want to do. The interview was recorded at the Centre for Economic Performance in ...
17m Jan 02, 2009
17m
S1 Ep3: One economics, many recipes
Dani Rodrik interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 19 December 2008 Dani Rodrik of the Harvard Kennedy School talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about the role of institutions in economic development. They discuss the use of ‘growth diagnostics’ to identify the binding constraints on economic activity and hence the priorities for policy and institutional reform, drawing on Rodrik’s experiences applying t...
21m Dec 19, 2008
21m
S1 Ep3: What world leaders should do to halt the spread of protectionism
Simon Evenett interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 12 December 2008 Simon Evenett of the University of St Gallen talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about the latest e-book in Vox’s ‘What leaders should do in the crisis’ series, focusing particularly on the prospects for completing the Doha Round of world trade negotiations in the light of the economic crisis. The interview was recorded on Tuesday 9 Dec...
11m Dec 12, 2008
11m
S1 Ep3: Conflict in sub-Saharan Africa: private sector incentives and impacts
Eliana La Ferrara interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 05 December 2008 Eliana La Ferrara of Bocconi University talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about her research on the causes and consequences of conflict within countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. The interview was recorded at the annual congress of the European Economic Association in Milan in August 2008.
13m Dec 05, 2008
13m
S1 Ep3: Designing internet auctions
Paul Milgrom interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 05 December 2008 Paul Milgrom of Stanford University talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about the application of auction theory, focusing particularly on the world’s most frequently used auction – the sponsored-search auction employed by many internet search engines. The interview was recorded at the annual congress of the European Economic Association ...
9m Dec 05, 2008
9m
S1 Ep3: Does direct democracy reduce the size of government?
Patricia Funk interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 28 November 2008 Patricia Funk of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about her research on the impact of direct democracy on government spending, which draws on over a hundred years of data on the cantons of Switzerland. The interview was recorded at the annual congress of the European Economic Association in Milan in Augus...
6m Nov 28, 2008
6m
S1 Ep3: Political markets
Micael Castanheira interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 28 November 2008 Micael Castanheira of ECARES (Université Libre de Bruxelles) talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about the economic analysis of interactions between politicians, political parties and the voters. The interview was recorded at the annual congress of the European Economic Association in Milan in August 2008.
19m Nov 28, 2008
19m
S1 Ep3: The emergence of women’s rights and gender equality
Matthias Doepke interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 21 November 2008 Matthias Doepke of Northwestern University talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his research on the emergence of women’s rights and gender equality in England and the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth century. The interview was recorded at the annual congress of the European Economic Association in Milan in August 2008.
14m Nov 21, 2008
14m
S1 Ep3: Understanding happiness: the distinction between living – and thinking about it
Daniel Kahneman interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 21 November 2008 Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman of Princeton University talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about wellbeing as an indicator of social progress, arguing that we need at least two measures of happiness – one that comes when you ask people how they feel right now (‘experience happiness’) and one that comes when you ask people how they thi...
10m Nov 21, 2008
10m
S1 Ep3: Economic gangsters
Raymond Fisman interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 14 November 2008 Ray Fisman of Columbia University talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his new book, Economic Gangsters: Corruption, Violence, and the Poverty of Nations, written with Ted Miguel. They discuss witch-killing in Tanzania, parking violations by United Nations diplomats, and the value of political connections in both the developing an...
12m Nov 14, 2008
12m
S1 Ep3: Blood donations: the impact of material incentives
Alois Stutzer interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 14 November 2008 Alois Stutzer of the University of Basel talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his research on the impact of material incentives on people’s willingness to give blood – a field experiment offering free lottery tickets or free cholesterol tests to different groups of current and potential donors. The interview was recorded at the ann...
11m Nov 14, 2008
11m
S1 Ep3: Children: consumption goods or investment goods?
Vincenzo Galasso interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 07 November 2008 By analysing the effects of a pension reform in Italy, Vincenzo Galasso of Bocconi University has been able to explore why people might decide to have children – because they like them or to provide security in old age. In an interview recorded at the annual congress of the European Economic Association in Milan in August 200...
11m Nov 07, 2008
11m
S1 Ep3: Behavioural game theory: how real people think in strategic interactions
Vincent Crawford interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 07 November 2008 Vincent Crawford, then of the University of California, San Diego, talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about the research programme of behavioural game theory, which uses economic theory and lab experiments to make the analysis of strategic behaviour more like the way real people think and therefore potentially more applicable. The i...
18m Nov 07, 2008
18m
S1 Ep3: Stalin as a rational dictator
Konstantin Sonin interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 31 October 2008 Stalin’s mass killings are often viewed as the acts of a deranged dictator. But according to Konstantin Sonin of the New Economic School in Moscow, such violence may have reflected the Soviet leader’s rational efforts to avoid losing power. In an interview with Romesh Vaitilingam, recorded at the annual congress of the Europea...
9m Oct 31, 2008
9m
S1 Ep3: Promoting innovation to solve global challenges: opportunities for R&D in health and agriculture
Michael Kremer interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 31 October 2008 Michael Kremer of Harvard University talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about the potential of ‘advance market commitments’ for encouraging innovative new products in health and agriculture for developing countries. The interview was recorded at the headquarters of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London in Octob...
14m Oct 31, 2008
14m
S1 Ep3: Energy versus climate change
Nebojsa Nakicenovic interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 24 October 2008 At the Global Economic Symposium in Schleswig-Holstein in September 2008, Nebojsa Nakicenovic of the Vienna Institute of Technology and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis spoke at a session on energy versus climate change. Afterwards, he talked to Romesh Vaitilingam about the options for reducing green...
12m Oct 24, 2008
12m
S1 Ep3: Public policies against global warming: don’t forget the supply side
Hans-Werner Sinn interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 24 October 2008 According to Hans-Werner Sinn of CESifo, public policy discussion of climate change has focused only on the reduction of demand for fossil fuel, neglecting the supply side. In an interview with Romesh Vaitilingam, recorded at the annual congress of the European Economic Association in Milan in August 2008, he explains his view.
13m Oct 24, 2008
13m
S1 Ep3: Food markets, financial markets and development
Erik Berglöf interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 17 October 2008 Erik Berglof, chief economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about the interlinkages between food markets, financial markets and development, particularly in the countries in which the EBRD operates, from central Europe to central Asia. The interview was recorded at the ...
10m Oct 17, 2008
10m
S1 Ep3: Food production in the formerly communist countries: opportunities and threats from rising food prices
Gilles Mettetal interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 17 October 2008 Gilles Mettetal, director of agribusiness at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about food production in the countries in which the EBRD operates, from central Europe to central Asia. The interview was recorded at the EBRD headquarters in London in October 2008 following a p...
10m Oct 17, 2008
10m
S1 Ep3: Causes and consequences of high food prices
Peter Timmer interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 10 October 2008 Peter Timmer of Stanford University and the Centre for Global Development talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about the causes of high food prices – including the growth of China and India, dollar depreciation, biofuels and speculation – and the consequences – notably the renewed incentives for investment in raising agricultural productiv...
16m Oct 10, 2008
16m
S1 Ep3: Thought for food: the challenges of coping with soaring food prices
Nora Lustig of George Washington University talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about rising food prices – causes of the recent increases and how developing countries and international institutions should respond. The interview was recorded at the headquarters of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London in October 2008 following a public discussion meeting on ‘Rising food prices: ...
15m Oct 10, 2008
15m