Economists are always talking about The Pie – how it grows and shrinks, how it’s sliced, and who gets the biggest shares. Join host Tess Vigeland as she talks with leading economists from the University of Chicago about their cutting-edge research and key events of the day. Hear how the economic pie is at the heart of issues like the aftermath of a global pandemic, jobs, energy policy, and more.
…
continue reading
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.
…
continue reading

1
Powering Innovation: How Government Subsidies Accelerate Electric Vehicle Breakthroughs
26:08
26:08
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
26:08The automotive industry is at the forefront of a global shift toward sustainability, with nations setting ambitious electric vehicle (EV) adoption targets. But how do government subsidies and industrial policies shape the pace of EV innovation? Hyuk-soo Kwon, Assistant Professor at the Harris School of Public Policy, explores the impact of these po…
…
continue reading

1
Five Years Later: How COVID-19 Reshaped Our Economy and Lives
30:07
30:07
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
30:07It’s been five years since the COVID-19 pandemic transformed the world. In this episode of The Pie, Matt Notowidigdo, Professor at the Chicago Booth School of Business, explores the pandemic’s lasting effects on education, work, and daily life. Join us as we dive into the key economic shifts brought on by COVID-19 and discuss how society can better…
…
continue reading

1
Unlocking Higher Education: Undergraduate Re-Enrollment and Graduate Student Lending
36:15
36:15
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
36:15Why do so many students leave college before completing their degree, and how can we help them return? Lesley Turner, Associate Professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, discusses results from a mentoring experiment aimed at boosting undergraduate re-enrollment. Then, she examines the ripple effects of federal policies …
…
continue reading
Americans attend church less often than they claim. Recessions can improve our health. Pesticides pose hidden dangers. And perceptions of monetary policy shape our reality. In this special year-end episode of The Pie, we dive into some of the most compelling insights and conversations from the past 12 months.…
…
continue reading
How can policymakers make choices when confronted with uncertainty? What happens when the public loses confidence in scientific authority? Are scientists, including economists, overconfident? Nobel Laureate and UChicago economist Lars Hansen, a leading authority on uncertainty in economic decision-making, tackles these and related questions in this…
…
continue reading

1
Balancing Purse and Peace: Tax Collection, Public Goods, and Protests
37:55
37:55
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
37:55Many low-income countries face a dilemma: keep taxes low and remain unable to build state capacity, or raise taxes and risk political unrest. In this episode of The Pie, Ben Krause, Executive Director of the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics, shares insights from an experiment in Haiti demonstrating how the provision of public goods can boost…
…
continue reading

1
Pricing Pollution: Measuring Carbon Externalities for US Corporations
23:44
23:44
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
23:44A company’s value includes not just the goods and services it provides but also the societal costs it imposes. In this episode of The Pie, Lubos Pastor, Charles P. McQuaid Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at Chicago Booth, explores how to integrate the costs of corporate greenhouse gas emissions into traditional measures of corporate perf…
…
continue reading

1
Deadly Prescriptions: What Happens When Doctors Compete for Patients
26:15
26:15
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
26:15When some US states allowed nurse practitioners to prescribe controlled substances without physician oversight, a serious unintended consequence took hold: Doctors found themselves competing with those nurses for patients. Molly Schnell, BFI Saieh Family Fellow and assistant professor at Northwestern University, along with her colleagues—Janet Curr…
…
continue reading

1
An Extra Slice of the Pie, with James Robinson: History, Politics, and the Road to an Economics Nobel
1:34:02
1:34:02
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
1:34:02James Robinson, a University Professor with appointments in both UChicago’s Harris School of Public Policy as well as the Political Science Department in the Division of Social Sciences, is the university’s latest faculty member to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. On this episode of “An Extra Slice of The Pie,” Robinson joins Ben …
…
continue reading

1
Economics Meets Ecology: The Huge Costs of Ecosystem Declines
24:06
24:06
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
24:06Bats are considered a natural pesticide. When they began to die out due to an invasive fungus, farmers turned to chemicals to control pests. The result, as Eyal Frank of the Harris school of Public Policy describes on this episode of The Pie, was skyrocketing infant deaths. Tune in to learn more about the vast ramifications of ecosystem disruptions…
…
continue reading

1
How Do Buyouts Impact Hospital Performance? Evaluating the Role of Private Equity in Healthcare
20:07
20:07
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
20:07Private equity investors made some $200 billion worth of healthcare acquisitions in 2021, and $1 trillion worth in the 10 years leading up to 2023. In this episode of The Pie, Maggie Shi, professor at the Harris School of Public Policy, discusses how private equity impacts hospitals along multiple dimensions, including patient volumes, revenues, em…
…
continue reading

1
What Can the North Dakota Railroad War of 1905 Tell Us About Regulating Modern Monopolies?
29:28
29:28
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
29:28When the Soo Line threatened to expand into the Great Northern Railway’s territory in 1905, the two companies entered a fierce competition for marketshare in which the they rapidly constructed nearly 500 miles of rail tracks and over 50 new towns. In this episode of The Pie, Chad Syverson, the George C. Tiao Distinguished Service Professor of Econo…
…
continue reading

1
Understanding the Fed: How Perception Drives Market Reactions
25:15
25:15
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
25:15The Federal Reserve responded to COVID-era inflation with the fastest increase in the federal funds rate in 40 years. Importantly, the effectiveness of their response depends on how the public perceived it. In this episode of The Pie, Carolin Pflueger, Associate Professor at the Harris School of Public Policy, covers her recent talk to the Federal …
…
continue reading

1
Promises Delivered? The Economic Effects of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
24:55
24:55
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
24:55The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, a landmark piece of tax legislation from the first year of the Trump administration, overhauled the tax code for both individuals and businesses. In this episode of The Pie, Eric Zwick, Professor of Economics and Finance at the UChicago's Booth School of Business, discusses how the overhaul affected the economy, i…
…
continue reading

1
Creative Destruction: Why Innovation is Crucial for Growth
25:29
25:29
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
25:29The primary contributor to long-run growth is productivity: A country’s ability to raise residents’ standards of living depends on its ability to boost workers’ output. In this episode of The Pie, Ufuk Akcigit, The Arnold C. Harberger Professor in Economics and the College, describes his research on growth through technological progress.…
…
continue reading

1
Using Machine Learning to Predict—and Prevent—Police Misconduct
26:57
26:57
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
26:57In the wake of numerous high-profile incidents of police use of force, particularly against Black Americans, law enforcement agencies across the United States are confronting issues of officer misconduct. Whether such misconduct is preventable depends in part on whether it is predictable. In this episode of The Pie, Greg Stoddard, Senior Research D…
…
continue reading

1
What Went Wrong With Federal Student Loans?
25:41
25:41
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
25:41The United States is in the midst of a student loan crisis, with over 45 million borrowers owing more than $1.6 trillion in federal dollars. On this episode of The Pie, Constantine Yannelis, Associate Professor of Finance at the Booth School of Business, argues that federal policy is to blame: Decades of regulation and de-regulation have given way …
…
continue reading
How can we incentivize the private and public sectors to develop and deploy solutions to climate change, while accounting for uncertainties? This episode of The Pie covers a panel discussion among professors David Keith of the Department of the Geophysical Sciences at UChicago and founding faculty director of the university’s Climate Systems Engine…
…
continue reading

1
Using Cellphone Data to Observe Religious Worship in the United States
20:32
20:32
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
20:32What do location data from roughly 2.1 million cellphones say about religiosity in the United States? In this episode of The Pie, Devin Pope, Professor of Economics and Behavioral Science at the Booth School of Business, paints a new picture of who goes to church, how often, and the other types of activities they do (or don’t) partake in.…
…
continue reading
India’s government has big goals for economic growth. The former Governor of the country’s Reserve Bank, Raghuram Rajan, argues that India won't be able (and shouldn't try) to follow traditional methods of development. Professor Rajan, now of the the Chicago Booth School of Business, joins The Pie to discuss India’s untraveled path to prosperity.…
…
continue reading

1
ChatGPT: Who’s Adopting, Who’s Abstaining, and Why?
24:07
24:07
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
24:07A year-and-a-half after its launch, half of workers report having used ChatGPT on the job. On this episode of The Pie, Anders Humlum, Assistant Professor at the Chicago Booth School of Business, shares results from a recent, large-scale survey profiling the workers who are leading the generative AI curve.…
…
continue reading

1
Is College Worth It? Measuring the Returns to Higher Education
26:27
26:27
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
26:27College graduates earn more than those who didn’t attend college. Does this mean higher education boosts your income? Or, does college simply attract students who would’ve earned more anyway? Jack Mountjoy, an economist at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, discusses his research on the returns to higher education.…
…
continue reading

1
Fighting Traffic in Chicago: Lower Fares, More Trains, Fewer Buses
24:11
24:11
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
24:11American cities are overreliant on cars. Policies for reducing this gridlock and pollution range from changing public transit fares or frequencies to introducing new tolls. In this episode of The Pie, Milena Almagro, Assistant Professor of Economics at Chicago Booth, shares her research showing the optimal mix of these policies for cities dealing w…
…
continue reading

1
Which Companies Discriminate Most? Experimental Evidence on Callback Rates by Applicant Race and Gender
27:11
27:11
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
27:11A small number of companies are responsible for a substantial amount of the discrimination in today’s labor market. Who are they? In this episode of The Pie, Evan Rose, the Neubauer Family Assistant Professor in Economics discusses results from his recent experiment to measure discrimination among the largest employers in the United States.…
…
continue reading

1
Recessions: What Are They Good For? Possibly Your Health
26:38
26:38
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
26:38When the Great Recession hit in 2007, it produced the largest decline in US employment since the Great Depression. It also substantially reduced mortality. In this episode of The Pie, Matt Notowidigdo discusses how economic downturns can lead to valuable health gains that may even offset some of the negative consequences of recessions.…
…
continue reading