EconTalk
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Michael Munger on Choosing in Groups
Michael Munger talks with host Russ Roberts about his latest ...
Michael Munger talks with host Russ Roberts about his latest book (with co-author Kevin Munger), Choosing in Groups. Munger lays out the challenges of group decision-making and of agreeing on constitutions or voting rules for group decision-making. The conversation highlights some of the challenges of majority rule and uses the Lewis and Clark expedition as an example.
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Benn Steil on the Battle of Bretton Woods
Benn Steil of the Council on Foreign Relations talks with ...
Benn Steil of the Council on Foreign Relations talks with host Russ Roberts about his book, The Battle of Bretton Woods, and the conference that resulted in the IMF, the World Bank, and the post-war international monetary system. Topics include conflicting interests during and after World War II between Britain and America, the relative instability of the post-war system, and the personalities and egos of the individuals at Bretton Woods, including John Maynard Keynes and Harry Dexter White.
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Daniel Sumner on the Political Economy of Agriculture
Daniel Sumner talks with host Russ Roberts about U.S. agricultural ...
Daniel Sumner talks with host Russ Roberts about U.S. agricultural subsidies, the winners and losers from those subsidies, and how the structure of subsidies has changed from the New Deal to the present. Sumner also explains how American policies have affected foreign farmers.
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Luigi Zingales on the Costs and Benefits of the Financial Sector
Luigi Zingales talks with host Russ Roberts on whether the ...
Luigi Zingales talks with host Russ Roberts on whether the financial sector is good for society and about difference between how banks and bankers are perceived by the public vs. finance professors. He discusses the costs and benefits of financial innovation, compares the finance sector to the health sector, and suggests how business education should talk about finance to create better behavior.
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Alex Tabarrok on Private Cities
Alex Tabarrok talks to host Russ Roberts about a recent ...
Alex Tabarrok talks to host Russ Roberts about a recent paper he co-authored with Shruti Rajagopalan on Gurgaon, a city in India that until recently had little or no municipal government. They discuss the successes and failures of this private city, the tendency to romanticize the outcomes of market and government action, and the potential for private cities to meet growing demand for urban living in India and China.
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Nassim Nicholas Taleb on the Precautionary Principle and Genetically Modified Organisms
Nassim Nicholas Taleb talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about ...
Nassim Nicholas Taleb talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about a recent co-authored paper on the risks of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and the use of the Precautionary Principle. Taleb contrasts harm with ruin and explains how the differences imply different rules of behavior when dealing with the risk of each. He argues that when considering the riskiness of GMOs, the right understanding of statistics is more valuable than expertise in biology or genetics. The central issue that pervades the conversation is how to cope with a small non-negligible risk of catastrophe.
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Greg Page on Food, Agriculture, and Cargill
Greg Page, former Cargill CEO, talks to host Russ Roberts ...
Greg Page, former Cargill CEO, talks to host Russ Roberts about the global food supply and the challenges of running a company with employees and activity all over the world. He talks about the role of prices in global food markets in signaling information and prompting changes in response. Other topics include government's role in agriculture, the locavore movement and genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
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Joshua Greene on Moral Tribes, Moral Dilemmas, and Utilitarianism
Joshua Greene talks with host Russ Roberts about morality and ...
Joshua Greene talks with host Russ Roberts about morality and the challenges we face when our morality conflicts with that of others. Topics discussed include the difference between what Greene calls automatic and manual thinking, the moral dilemma known as "the trolley problem," and the difficulties of identifying and solving problems in a society that has a plurality of values. Greene defends utilitarianism as a way of adjudicating moral differences.
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James Tooley on Private Schools for the Poor and the Beautiful Tree
James Tooley talks with host Russ Roberts about low-cost for-profit ...
James Tooley talks with host Russ Roberts about low-cost for-profit private schools in the slums and rural areas of poor countries. Tooley shows how surprisingly widespread private schools are for the poor and how effective they are relative to public schools where teacher attendance and performance can be very disappointing. The conversation closes with whether public schooling should remain the ideal in poor countries.
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Joshua Angrist on Econometrics and Causation
Joshua Angrist talks with host Russ Roberts about the craft ...
Joshua Angrist talks with host Russ Roberts about the craft of econometrics--how to use economic thinking and statistical methods to make sense of data and uncover causation. Angrist argues that improvements in research design along with various econometric techniques have improved the credibility of measurement in a complex world. Roberts pushes back and the conversation concludes with a discussion of how to assess the reliability of findings in controversial public policy areas.
