UChicago Economics Events and Conversations - podcast cover

UChicago Economics Events and Conversations

Becker Friedman Institute at UChicagobfi.uchicago.edu
The Becker Friedman Institute for Economics at the University of Chicago (BFI) serves as a hub for cutting-edge analysis and research across the entire UChicago economics community to uncover new ways of thinking about the field. Featuring conversations and lectures from premier BFI events, this podcast explores the latest economic insights and trends from leading voices in policy, business, the media, and academia, revealing how rigorous thinking shapes our understanding of the world.
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Episodes

Discussion Section Uncut: Nancy Stokey

In this episode, Murphy talks with Nancy Stokey, The Frederick Henry Prince Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, about the transformative effects that technology has on economies.

Dec 18, 20171 hr 12 min

Economics Amplified: Rick Evans on How Computer Science is Transforming Economics

Richard Evans is a Senior Fellow in Computational Social Science at the University of Chicago, and Fellow here at the institute. Evans sees immense potential in the methods, practices, and even workflows that computer engineers have implemented in their own discipline, and is working to bring those skills into Chicago economics through his role both here at the institute and via the Masters in Computational Social Science, a graduate program he’s a part of. Evans spoke to us about how we can exp...

Oct 12, 201620 min

Discussion Section Uncut: Edward Lazear

Edward P. Lazear is a labor economist and a founder of the field known as personnel economics. His research centers on employee incentives, promotions, compensation and productivity in firms. In this episode, Lazear and Kevin Murphy talk about the legacy of human capital and labor economics at the University of Chicago, as well Lazear’s experience crossing from academia to the Council of Economic Advisers and back again.

Sep 19, 20161 hr 1 min

Economics Amplified: Building Policy Beyond Best Intentions

Amanda Agan is interested in the ways that laws and regulations play out in the real world, often yielding unintended consequences. She visited the institute this spring and spoke about her recent work to evaluate policies that eliminate questions about previous criminal convictions from job applications Advocates of these “Ban the Box” policies have argued that these laws could increase employment for minorities, but some economic theories imply that they could have negative consequences for mi...

Aug 01, 201614 min

Discussion Section Uncut with Kevin Murphy and Casey Mulligan

In this episode, Kevin Murphy talks with Casey Mulligan, professor in economics at the University of Chicago. Mulligan examines microeconomic trends, including labor, through a macroeconomic lens, with a particular interest in how policy can inadvertently shape the labor market in unexpected ways.

Jun 23, 20161 hr 20 min

Discussion Section Uncut with Manasi Deshpande and Kevin Murphy

Manasi Deshpande is an emerging expert in how social insurance programs shape the outcomes of their recipients. In this episode, she and Kevin Murphy discuss the importance of empirical measurement of such programs over a lifetime and how those effects shape the recipients' labor response. The pair talk about the ways that economists bring a unique framework to public policy in order to better measure the efficacy of what a policy is trying to do.

Jun 16, 201653 min

Discussion Section with Kevin Murphy and Chad Syverson

In this episode, Murphy gets concrete with Chad Syverson, the J. Baum Harris Professor of Economics at Chicago Booth, about how his engineering background influences his approach to economics, understanding the drivers of productivity, how it is measured, and what can be gleaned from past growth trends in predicting what may come.

Apr 01, 20161 hr 26 min

Discussion Section with Kevin Murphy and Mohammad Akbarpour

In this episode, Murphy and Muhammad Akbarpour, a Becker Friedman Institute Research Fellow, examine the opportunities that surround the development of an international kidney exchange market, the obstacles that inhibit that market from being implemented, and the experience of being an early career scholar at the University of Chicago.

Apr 01, 20161 hr 21 min

Discussion Section with Kevin Murphy and José Scheinkman

In this episode, Murphy and José Scheinkman, a former UChicago faculty member and department chair now at Columbia University and Princeton University, elaborate on the experience of being an economist at the University of Chicago, evaluate recent trends in the global economy, and highlight ways in which economic thinking can more broadly be applied to a wide range of problems and solutions.

Mar 28, 20161 hr 1 min

Discussion Section with Kevin Murphy and Erik Hurst

In this episode, Murphy talks with Erik Hurst, V. Duane Rath Professor of Economics and the John E. Jeuck Faculty Fellow at Chicago Booth, to explore Hurst's perspective on the possible common ground between macro- and micro- economic perspectives and to evaluate labor market trends from the early 2000s leading up to today on the employee side of the manufacturing and housing industries.

Mar 28, 20161 hr 18 min

Discussion Section with Kevin Murphy and James Heckman

In this episode, Murphy and James Heckman, Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, delve into the topic of human capital, focusing on how both education and early home life play a defining role in the development of a child, and talk about how the economics toolkit is influencing the work of social scientists outside the discipline.

Mar 28, 20161 hr 23 min

Discussion Section with Kevin Murphy and Steve Davis

In this episode, Murphy talks with Steven Davis, William H. Abbott Professor of International Business and Economics at Chicago Booth, explore labor market trends from the employer side and talk about how uncertainty over impending government policy and regulatory shifts can influence labor market trends and job creation.

Mar 28, 20161 hr 11 min

Discussion Section with Kevin Murphy and Benjamin Brooks

In this episode, Murphy talks with Benjamin Brooks, a Becker Friedman Institute Research Fellow, about what drew Brooks to economics as his field of research, the nuances of understanding game theory, and the role of the Becker Friedman Institute in enriching the study of economics at the University of Chicago.

Mar 28, 20161 hr 3 min

Economics Amplified: Measuring Long Term Outcomes of Social Insurance Programs

In this episode, we speak with Manasi Deshpande, who currently works at the Institute as a postdoctoral research fellow leading up to joining the UChicago Economics Department as an assistant professor in the fall of 2016. Deshpande’s research interests include the effects of social insurance and public assistance programs on consumption, health, and well being, and the interaction between these programs and labor markets. By taking advantage of newly available data from the Social Security Admi...

Mar 23, 201612 min

Economics Amplified: When Game Theory Gets Complicated

In today’s episode we talk with Ben Brooks, a research fellow at the Becker Friedman Institute interested in how incomplete information complicates classical game theory. This summer, Brooks organized a conference, bringing together experts in mathematical modeling, incomplete information and game theory. Researchers highlighted important developments in modeling information in auctions and continuous games, as well as the relationship between information and behavior in the era of the internet ...

Nov 17, 201513 min

Economics Amplified: Crafting Policy to Face an Uncertain World

In this episode, we speak with David Weisbach and Jennifer Nou of the University of Chicago Law School, as well as Alan Sanstad of the Computation Institute and The University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. The trio of researchers organized a conference in April 2015 centered on a persistent issues for federal institutions: when making regulations and rules, how should policymakers account for what they don’t know: the uncertainties that could affect the long term costs and benefits ...

Jul 14, 201512 min
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