Investors do more business than we would expect close to home. Can Germany’s car licence plates explain what drives local bias in investment? Thilo Huning and Fabian Wahl take Tim Phillips on an unlikely journey.
Aug 18, 2023•22 min•Season 6Ep. 35
We are living longer, and so studying the consequences of changes to our income and health after we stop working is becoming more important. Jeanne Commault tells Tim Phillips how income and health shocks affect seniors, and whether the impact of these changes is the same as for working-age people.
Aug 11, 2023•17 min•Season 6Ep. 34
From the PSE-CEPR Policy Forum at the Paris School of Economics. One route out of poverty is to change external conditions: provide assets, jobs, healthcare. But can we also treat depression, or low self-esteem, or low aspirations, and does that help poverty reduction? Dean Karlan of Northwestern University tells Tim Phillips what new research is telling us – and what we don’t yet know.
Aug 04, 2023•26 min•Season 6Ep. 33
Recorded live at the PSE-CEPR Policy Forum at the Paris School of Economics. We all learn that high inflation creates price distortions. But it has been impossible to observe that effect directly -- until now. Klaus Adam of the University of Mannheim has used price data to identify those elusive distortions, and he tells Tim Phillips how he did it.
Aug 02, 2023•16 min•Season 6Ep. 32
Recorded live at the PSE-CEPR Policy Forum at the Paris School of Economics. Does economic inequality create political inequality? Julia Cagé tells Tim Phillips about the strategies that rich people can use to influence the political debate, how democracy is undermined when the wealthy have access to power – and how we can change the system to restore the confidence of voters.
Jul 28, 2023•16 min•Season 6Ep. 31
Recorded live at the PSE-CEPR Policy Forum at the Paris School of Economics. India is still one of the five worst countries in the world for the health and survival of women. The recent introduction of massive health insurance programmes should help close this deadly gender gap. But is that happening? Pascaline Dupas of Stanford talks to Tim Phillips.
Jul 26, 2023•15 min•Season 6Ep. 30
From the PSE-CEPR Policy Forum at the Paris School of Economics, Tim Phillips meets three of the young researchers who were chosen to present to the conference. Duncan Webb and Thiago Scarelli of PSE, and Carmen Villa-Llera of the University of Warwick talk about their research – and what their hopes are for the future of economics.
Jul 21, 2023•26 min•Season 6Ep. 29
Is innovation our best hope for dealing with climate change and, if so, how can we stimulate the sort of innovation that we need to make the green energy transition? Philippe Aghion tells Tim Phillips that we need both carbon tax and industrial policy and, like a visit to the dentist, the pain gets worse the longer we wait.
Jul 19, 2023•18 min•Season 6Ep. 28
From the PSE-CEPR Policy Forum at the Paris School of Economics. The IFS in the UK and the IPP in France combine rigorous research with a commitment to communicate the results to media and public. How do they make sure their message cuts through the noise, and how do they safeguard their reputations for independence and authority? Paul Johnson and Antoine Bozio talk to Tim Phillips.
Jul 14, 2023•26 min•Season 6Ep. 27
From the PSE-CEPR Policy Forum at the Paris School of Economics. What caused inflation in the US, where will it settle, and how much unemployment will be the cost of bringing it back to target? Olivier Blanchard talks to Tim Phillips.
Jul 12, 2023•18 min•Season 6Ep. 26
In the first of a series of podcasts recorded at the PSE-CEPR Policy Forum at the Paris School of Economics, Esther Duflo talks to Tim Phillips about how development economics can respond to the challenges of the 21st century, the link between climate justice and corporate taxation, and why development economics is like cooking a ragoût.
Jul 07, 2023•24 min•Season 6Ep. 25
Is economics a young person’s game? Great mathematicians tend to peak early, but not great artists – so which category does a professor of economics fall into? Dan Hamermesh has investigated the productivity of economists as they grow old, and he tells Tim Phillips what he discovered.
Jun 30, 2023•18 min•Season 6Ep. 24
Voters fret that immigration overcrowds local schools, overwhelms hospitals, and that they will have to pay higher taxes as a result. Are those fears justified? Anna Maria Mayda and Mine Senses have separated fact from fiction, and they tell Tim Phillips about which US counties benefit most and least from the arrival of immigrants.
Jun 23, 2023•28 min•Season 6Ep. 23
Do Europe’s trade sanctions hurt Russia, or do they hurt European firms more? Gauging the impact of sanctions isn’t easy or reliable, but Jean Imbs tells Tim Phillips about a new way to estimate their effects, and what it tells us about the economies of Russia and Europe.
Jun 16, 2023•18 min•Season 6Ep. 22
When there are more women in the workplace, that means either more gender diverse teams, or more collaboration between women. There are more female economists now, so how is that reflected in the way researchers collaborate? And what type of teams produce the best results? Anja Prummer talks to Tim Phillips about gender diversity, homophily, and whether she should have chosen a male co-author.
Jun 09, 2023•18 min•Season 6Ep. 21
Digital technology, and AI in particular, is getting a lot of hype at the moment. Daron Acemoglu thinks that unchecked techno-optimism is concentrating power in the hands of a super-wealthy elite, threatening the livelihoods of the rest of us, and undermining democracy. Tim Phillips talks to him about why he wrote his new book called Power and Progress , co-authored with Simon Johnson, how we can redirect the path of innovation, and why he signed that letter to urge a pause in AI innovation....
Jun 02, 2023•28 min•Season 6Ep. 20
How do China’s government-owned commercial banks respond to informal guidance from The People’s Bank of China? Their reaction to recent guidance designed to cool off mortgage lending offers a fascinating insight into how the banking sector works in China. Michel Habib of the University of Zurich talks to Tim Phillips.
May 26, 2023•16 min•Season 6Ep. 19
In 2020 finance ministers threw their fiscal policy plans into the bin and did everything they could to protect and stimulate Covid-hit economies. How much of the spike in inflation did the Covid rescue cause? Galina Hale talks to Tim Phillips.
May 19, 2023•26 min•Season 6Ep. 18
Between the 16th and 18th centuries, at least 180,000 tons of silver and around 4,000 tons of gold were extracted from the Americas and transported to Europe. How much of western Europe’s economic transformation can be attributed to this windfall? Yao Chen tells Tim Phillips about new research that upends the conventional wisdom.
May 12, 2023•21 min•Season 6Ep. 17
When the political debate hots up in the world’s largest democracy, is this good for newspaper circulation? Guilhem Cassan talks to Tim Phillips about how to make a causal link from Indian politics to how many newspapers are sold, and what sort of papers they are.
May 05, 2023•20 min•Season 6Ep. 16
Emerging economies need to undergo a green energy metamorphosis, which for many of them has only just started. But can they transform without creating greenflation, or reducing output? Florencia Airaudo tells Tim Phillips about the sobering conclusions of a new analysis of possible policy options.
Apr 28, 2023•23 min•Season 6Ep. 15
There is more than one way to measure expected inflation. But which methods are most reliable, and how well did they predict the upward trend in European inflation from 2021 onwards? Ricardo Reis talks to Tim Phillips.
Apr 21, 2023•18 min•Season 6Ep. 14
How does the rate of tax that firms pay relate to their carbon emissions? If firms that pay less emit more, then taxation may be delivering a subsidy on pollution. If those that pay less emit less, then taxation may also be helping to protect the environment. Luigi Iovino and Julien Sauvagnat of Bocconi University tell Tim Phillips whether browner firms pay more or less tax – and why.
Apr 14, 2023•19 min•Season 6Ep. 13
Stress testing can potentially capture the impact of climate change on the health of the financial system. But Dirk Schoenmaker tells Tim Phillips that, in their current form, these exercises underestimate the impact of changes in our climate.
Apr 06, 2023•18 min•Season 6Ep. 12
When Thomas Hobbes published Leviathan in the 17th century, he argued that the state has absolute authority over its citizens. The principal that the state’s monopoly of institutionalised violence keeps the peace is now widely accepted – but is this true, or is it the checks and balances on that power prevent conflict? Gerard Roland talks to Tim Phillips.
Mar 31, 2023•19 min•Season 6Ep. 11
Bonus episode: At the American Economic Association’s annual meeting 2023 in New Orleans, CEPR got the chance to ask Larry Summers three big questions about the global economy in 2023 and beyond.
Mar 29, 2023•6 min•Season 6Ep. 10
What have we learned about how to create, manufacture, and distribute a new vaccine? Can countries cooperate to create a responsive and resilient supply chain if history repeats itself, and should the WTO have a role? Chad Bown talks to Tim Phillips.
Mar 24, 2023•29 min•Season 6Ep. 9
Every CEO, investor, and NGO needs an ESG strategy, and they need it now. But is that urgency making smart people ignore established insights from decades of economic research? Alex Edmans has identified 10 ways in which conventional ESG wisdom might be misguided, and he tells Tim Phillips what they are.
Mar 17, 2023•23 min•Season 6Ep. 8
We’ve reached a moment at which large language models like ChatGPT have clearly become useful, but for what exactly? Anton Korinek has discovered at least 25 ways in which economics researchers can use them today. He explains to Tim Phillips about how they are already making our research more efficient.
Mar 10, 2023•30 min•Season 6Ep. 7
Firms have discovered that global value chains are not as resilient as we assumed. They are reorganising these value chains and re-evaluating their approach to globalisation – but are the solutions they are considering worse than the problems themselves? Tim Phillips talks to Beata Javorcik, EBRD chief economist.
Mar 03, 2023•15 min•Season 6Ep. 6