EconTalk

McKenzie on Prices

June 23, 2008, Featuring Richard McKenzie

Richard McKenzie of the University California, Irvine and the author of Why Popcorn Costs So Much at the Movies and Other Pricing Puzzles, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about a wide range of pricing puzzles. They discuss why Southern California experiences frequent water crises, why price falls after Christmas, why popcorn seems so expensive at the movies, and the economics of price discrimination.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (16)

Chris Anderson on Free

May 12, 2008, Featuring Chris Anderson

Chris Anderson talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about his next book project based on the idea that many delightful things in the world are increasingly free--internet-based email with infinite storage, on-line encyclopedias and even podcasts, to name just a few. Why is this trend happening? Is it restricted to the internet? Is there really any such thing as a free lunch? Is free a penny cheaper than a penny or a lot cheaper than that? The conversation also covers whether economics has anything to say about free.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (46)

Nye on Wine, War and Trade

May 05, 2008, Featuring John Nye

John Nye of George Mason University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about his book, War, Wine, and Taxes. The conversation covers the history of Britain and France's trade policy, why the British drink beer and why Ricardo's example of Britain trading wool for Portuguese wine is bizarre. Nye turns the traditional story on its head--he argues that France was more of a free trader than Britain and that the repeal of the Corn Laws was not the dividing line between Britain's protectionist past and free trade future. At the end of the discussion, Nye emphasizes the importance of domestic free trade for economic growth.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (5)

Bernstein on the History of Trade

April 28, 2008, Featuring William Bernstein

William Bernstein talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the history of trade. Drawing on the insights from his recent book, A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World, Bernstein talks about the magic of spices, how trade in sugar explain why Jews ended up in Manhattan, the real political economy of the Boston Tea Party and the demise of the Corn Laws in England. The discussion closes with the political economy of trade today and the interaction between trade and income inequality.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (23)

Coyle on the Soulful Science

April 14, 2008, Featuring Diane Coyle

Diane Coyle talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the ideas in her new book, The Soulful Science: What Economists Really Do and Why it Matters. The discussions starts with the issue of growth--measurement issues and what economists have learned and have yet to learn about why some nations grow faster than others and some don't grow at all. Subsequent topics include happiness research, the politics and economics of inequality, the role of math in economics, and policy areas where economics has made the greatest contribution.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (10)

Coyne on Exporting Democracy after War

April 07, 2008, Featuring Christopher Coyne

Christopher Coyne of West Virginia University and George Mason University's Mercatus Center talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about his book, After War: The Political Economy of Exporting Democracy. They talk about the successes and failures of America's attempts to export democracy after a war. In some cases, Japan and Germany, for example, after World War II, American efforts have led to stability and democratic institutions. In many other cases, Cuba, Somalia, and Haiti, for example, and so far, Iraq, American efforts have failed, often repeatedly and have sometimes made things worse. Coyne tries to identify factors that lead to an improved likelihood of success or failure. Ultimately, he concludes that a non-interventionist posture accompanied by unilateral free trade is more likely to benefit citizens under repressive governments.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (27)

McCloskey on Capitalism and the Bourgeois Virtues

March 31, 2008, Featuring Deirdre McCloskey

Deirdre McCloskey of the University of Illinois at Chicago and the author of The Bourgeois Virtues talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about capitalism and whether markets make people more ethical or less. They also discuss Adam Smith's world view, whether people were nicer in the Middle Ages, and the role of prudence and love.

[Note: We apologize for the poor sound quality of the phone connection in this podcast.]

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (23)

Marglin on Markets and Community

March 10, 2008, Featuring Stephen Marglin

Stephen Marglin of Harvard University and author of The Dismal Science: How Thinking Like an Economist Undermines Community talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the markets and community. Marglin argues that markets and commercial transactions undermine the connections between us. He wants people to pay more attention to what is lost and not just what is gained by the pursuit of material well-being. Topics discussed include the nature of community, the role that voluntary associations play in our lives, the costs and benefits of mobility, the role of insurance in reducing our dependence on each other, and the nature of knowledge.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (43)

Vernon Smith on Rationality in Economics

March 03, 2008, Featuring Vernon Smith

Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith of Chapman University and George Mason University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the ideas in his new book, Rationality in Economics: Constructivist and Ecological Forms. They discuss the social and human sides of exchange, the robust nature of equilibrium in experiments and the real world, the seeming contradiction between Adam Smith's two great works, the unpredictability of how innovation emerges and its rationality, what neuroscience might tell us about economic decision-making, and the challenges of small-group intimate exchange and our interactions with strangers in the extended order of the marketplace.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (13)

Sowell on Economic Facts and Fallacies

February 25, 2008, Featuring Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell of Stanford University's Hoover Institution talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the ideas in his new book, Economic Facts and Fallacies. He discusses the misleading nature of measured income inequality, CEO pay, why nations grow or stay poor, the role of intellectuals and experts in designing public policy, and immigration.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (46)

Brook on Vermeer's Hat and the Dawn of Global Trade

February 19, 2008, Featuring Timothy Brook

Timothy Brook, professor of history at the University of British Columbia and author of Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the expansion of global trade between Europe and the rest of the world, and in particular, North American and China. He discusses the differences and similarities between Chinese and Western attitudes toward trade and exploration and the implications for innovation and knowledge.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (7)

Collier on the Bottom Billion

January 28, 2008, Featuring Paul Collier

Paul Collier of Oxford University talks about the ideas in his recent book, The Bottom Billion, an analysis of why the poorest countries in the world fail to grow. He talks about conflict, natural resources, being landlocked, and bad governance, four factors he identifies as causes of the desperate poverty and stagnation in the countries where 1/6 of the world's poorest peoples live.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (13)

Don Boudreaux on Globalization and Trade Deficits

January 21, 2008, Featuring Don Boudreaux

Don Boudreaux, of George Mason University, talks about the ideas in his book, Globalization. He discusses comparative advantage, the winners and losers from trade, trade deficits, and inequality with EconTalk host Russ Roberts.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (21)

Edward Castronova on the Exodus to the Virtual World

January 07, 2008, Featuring Edward Castronova

Edward Castronova, of Indiana University and author of Exodus to the Virtual World, talks about his provocative thesis that a growing number of people around the world will be spending more and more time playing multiplayer games in virtual reality both as a form of escape and as a search for meaning. He talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about how this trend might affect government, religion, and our happiness.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (16)

Duggan on Strategic Intuition

December 24, 2007, Featuring William Duggan

William Duggan, professor of management at Columbia Business School at Columbia University, talks about his latest book, Strategic Intuition. Duggan critiques traditional methods of strategy and planning and suggests that the opportunism and adaptability are more productive detailed plans. He also discusses the nature of intuition and creativity along with insights into how the brain works to better understand problem-solving.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (7)

Sunstein on Worst-case Scenarios

November 19, 2007, Featuring Cass Sunstein

Cass Sunstein of the University of Chicago talks about the ideas in his latest book, Worst-Case Scenarios. How should individuals and societies cope with low-probability events with potentially catastrophic consequences? In this conversation with EconTalk host Russ Roberts, Sunstein discusses the uselessness of the precautionary principle as a guide to behavior and the psychological challenges we all face in coping with uncertain, risky events. He also speculates why we have chosen politically to treat terrorism and global warming so differently.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (20)

Waldfogel on Markets, Choice, and the Tyranny of the Market

November 12, 2007, Featuring Joel Waldfogel

Joel Waldfogel of the Wharton School of Business talks about the idea in his new book, The Tyranny of Markets: Why You Can't Always Get What You Want. He argues that when fixed costs are large, markets don't necessarily give people what they want and that, analogous to the political process, you can be hurt as the number of people with preferences that differ from yours gets larger. Host Russ Roberts challenges Waldfogel's claim that these phenomena are widespread and argues that in many cases, markets ultimately solve these problems. They discuss the amount of variety in newspapers, radio, and airline travel, along with how economics generally looks at fixed costs and consumer sovereignty.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (15)

Arnold Kling on the Economics of Health Care and the Crisis of Abundance

November 05, 2007, Featuring Arnold Kling

Arnold Kling of EconLog talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the economics of health care and his book, A Crisis of Abundance: Rethinking How We Pay for Health Care. Kling discusses whether we get what we pay for when we spend money on health care, why health care isn't like cars, and why health care insurance isn't really insurance. The conversation closes with a discussion of innovation in America's health care system and why America is so unlike everywhere else.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (18)

Ayres on Super Crunchers and the Power of Data

October 22, 2007, Featuring Ian Ayres

Ian Ayres of Yale University Law School talks about the ideas in his new book, Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart. Ayres argues for the power of data and analysis over more traditional decision-making methods using judgment and intuition. He talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about predicting the quality of wine based on climate and rainfall, the increasing use of randomized data in the world of business, the use of evidence and information in medicine rather than the judgment of your doctor, and whether concealed handguns or car protection devices such as LoJack reduce the crime rate. The podcast closes with a postscript by Roberts challenging the use of sophisticated statistical techniques to analyze complex systems.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (41)

Robert Frank on Economics Education and the Economic Naturalist

October 15, 2007, Featuring Robert Frank

Author Robert Frank of Cornell University talks about economic education and his recent book, The Economic Naturalist. Frank argues that the traditional way of teaching economics via graphs and equations often fails to make any impression on students. In this conversation with host Russ Roberts, Frank outlines an alternative approach from his new book, where students find interesting questions and enigmas from everyday life. They then try to explain them using the economic way of thinking. Frank and Roberts discuss a number of the enigmas and speculate on the future of economics and education. The topics discussed include tuxedos vs. wedding dresses, the level of civility (or lack thereof) in New York City, the difference between vending machines for soda and newspapers, the tragedy of the commons, and the economics of love.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (16)

McCraw on Schumpeter, Innovation, and Creative Destruction

October 08, 2007, Featuring Thomas McCraw

Thomas McCraw of Harvard University talks about the ideas of Joseph Schumpeter from his book, Prophet of Innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creative Destruction. McCraw and EconTalk host Russ Roberts discuss innovation, business strategy, the role of mathematics in economics, and Schumpeter's vision of competition embodied in his most important idea--creative destruction.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (5)

Cowen on Your Inner Economist

September 10, 2007, Featuring Tyler Cowen

Tyler Cowen, of George Mason University, talks about his new book, Discover Your Inner Economist: Use Incentives to Fall in Love, Survive Your Next Meeting, and Motivate Your Dentist. Cowen, legendary blogger at MarginalRevolution.com, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the economics of parenting, reading, dentistry, art museums and education. Highlights include Tyler's favorite art museum and what to see there along with the challenges of being a tourist in Morocco.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (17)

Weingast on Violence, Power and a Theory of Nearly Everything

August 13, 2007, Featuring Barry Weingast

Barry Weingast, Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and the Ward C. Krebs Family Professor in the Department of Political Science at Stanford University, talks about the ideas in his forthcoming book with Doug North and John Wallis, A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History. Weingast talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about how violence shapes political institutions, the role of competition in politics and economics, and why most development advice from successful nations fails to lift poor nations out of poverty.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (10)

Henderson on Disagreeable Economists

July 30, 2007, Featuring David Henderson

David Henderson, editor of the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics and a research fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about when and why economists disagree. Harry Truman longed for a one-armed economist, one willing to go out on a limb and take an unequivocal position without adding "on the other hand...". Truman's view is often reflected in the public's view that economic knowledge is inherently ambiguous and that economists never agree on anything. Henderson claims that this view is wrong--that there is substantial agreement among economists on many scientific questions--while Roberts wonders whether this consensus is getting a bit frayed around the edges. The conversation highlights the challenges the everyday person faces in trying to know when and what to believe when economists take policy positions based on research. Is it biased or science?

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (21)

Bueno de Mesquita on Reagan, Yeltsin, and the Strategy of Political Campaigning

July 23, 2007, Featuring Bruce Bueno de Mesquita

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, professor at NYU, talks about the political economy of political campaigns and his forthcoming book, The Strategy of Campaigning: Lessons from Ronald Reagan and Boris Yeltsin. He talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the different strategies politicians pursue in attracting support from voters and party delegates, the persistence of negative campaigning, the cost to politicians of sticking to their principles and how the political choices of Reagan and Yeltsin intersected to end the Cold War and dissolve the Soviet Union.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (12)

Caplan on the Myth of the Rational Voter

June 25, 2007, Featuring Bryan Caplan

Bryan Caplan, of George Mason University and blogger at EconLog, talks about his book, The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies. Caplan argues that democracies work well in giving voters what they want but unfortunately, what voters want isn't particularly wise, especially when it comes to economic policy. He outlines a series of systematic biases we often have on economic topics and explains why we have little or no incentive to improve our understanding of the world and vote wisely. So, it's not special interests that are messing things up but the very incentives that lie at the heart of a vote-based system. This is a disturbing and provocative lens for viewing political outcomes.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (17)

Weinberger on Everything is Miscellaneous and the Wonderful World of Digital Information

June 18, 2007, Featuring David Weinberger

Author David Weinberger, a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Institute for Internet and Society, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the ideas in his latest book, Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder. Topics include the differences between how we organize and think about physical and digital information, the power of the internet to let us consume information in unique and customized ways and the implications for retailing, politics and education.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (2)

Dan Pink on How Half Your Brain Can Save Your Job

June 11, 2007, Featuring Dan Pink

Author Dan Pink talks about the ideas in his book, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future. He argues that the skills of the right side of the brain--skills such as creativity, empathy, contextual thinking and big picture thinking--are going to become increasingly important as a response to competition from low-wage workers overseas and our growing standard of living.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (5)

Shlaes on the Great Depression

June 04, 2007, Featuring Amity Shlaes

Amity Shlaes, Bloomberg columnist and visiting senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, talks about her new book, The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression. She and EconTalk host Russ Roberts discuss Herbert Hoover, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the economics of the New Deal and the class warfare of the 1930s.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (21)

Sunstein on Infotopia, Information and Decision-Making

May 14, 2007, Featuring Cass Sunstein

Cass Sunstein of the University of Chicago talks about the ideas in his latest book, Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce Knowledge. What are the best ways to get the information needed to make wise decisions when that information is spread out among an organization's members or a society's citizens? He argues that prediction markets can help both politicians and business leaders make better decisions and discusses the surprising ways they're already being used today. Deliberation, the standard way we often gather information at various kinds of meetings, has some unpleasant biases that hamper its usefulness relative to surveys and incentive-based alternatives.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (4)

Taleb on Black Swans

April 30, 2007, Featuring Nassim Taleb

Nassim Taleb talks about the challenges of coping with uncertainty, predicting events, and understanding history. This wide-ranging conversation looks at investment, health, history and other areas where data play a key role. Taleb, the author of Fooled By Randomness and The Black Swan, imagines two countries, Mediocristan and Extremistan where the ability to understand the past and predict the future is radically different. In Mediocristan, events are generated by a underlying random process that is normally distributed. These events are often physical and observable and they tend to cluster around the middle. Most people are near the average height and no adult is more than nine feet tall. But in Extremistan, the right-hand tail of events is thick and long and the outlier, the seemingly wildly unlikely event is more common than our experience with Mediocristan would indicate. Bill Gates is more than a little wealthier than the average. The civil war in Lebabon or the events of 9/11 were more worse than just a typical bad day in the Beirut or New York City. Taleb's contention is that we often bring our intuition from Mediocristan for the events of Extremistan, leading us to error. The result is a tendency to be blind-sided by the unexpected.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (10)

Rabushka on the Flat Tax

April 23, 2007, Featuring Alvin Rabushka

Alvin Rabushka of Stanford University's Hoover Institution lays out the case for the flat tax, a reform of the current system that would replace the 66,000 page U.S. tax code with a single rate and no deductions other than personal exemptions. An individual tax return would fit on a simple postcard. Rabushka discusses the economic changes that would come with such a reform and the adoption of the flat tax around the world since Rabushka and Robert Hall proposed the idea in 1981.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (8)

Kevin Kelly on the Future of the Web and Everything Else

March 26, 2007, Featuring Kevin Kelly

Author Kevin Kelly talks about the role of technology in our lives, the future of the web, how to time travel, the wisdom of the hive, the economics of reputation, the convergence of the biological and the mechanical, and his impact on the movies The Matrix and Minority Report.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (3)

Easterbrook on the American Standard of Living

March 05, 2007, Featuring Gregg Easterbrook

Author Gregg Easterbrook talks about the ideas in his latest book, The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse. How has life changed in America over the last century? Is the average person getting ahead or are the rich taking all the gains? Easterbrook argues that life is better for the average American in almost every dimension. The paradox is that despite those gains, we don't seem much happier.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (8)

Michael Lewis on the Hidden Economics of Baseball and Football

January 29, 2007, Featuring Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis talks about the economics of sports--the financial and decision-making side of baseball and football--using the insights from his bestselling books on baseball and football: Moneyball and The Blind Side. Along the way he discusses the implications of Moneyball for the movie business and other industries, the peculiar ways that Moneyball influenced the strategies of baseball teams, the corruption of college football, and the challenge and tragedy of kids who live on the streets with little education or prospects for success.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (5)

Boudreaux on Law and Legislation

December 11, 2006, Featuring Don Boudreaux

Don Boudreaux of George Mason University talks about the fundamental principles of economics and civilization: spontaneous order and law. Drawing on volume one of Friedrich Hayek's classic, Law, Legislation and Liberty, Boudreaux talks about the distinction between law and legislation, the appropriate role of judges, and how the fulfillment of our expectations allows us to pursue our goals and dreams.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (1)

Postrel on Style

November 27, 2006, Featuring Virginia Postrel

Author and journalist Virginia Postrel talks about how business competes for customers using style and beauty, going beyond price and the standard measures of quality. She looks at the role of appearance in our daily lives and the change from earlier times when style and beauty were luxuries accessible only to the wealthy. She also talks about her donation of a kidney to a friend and how that affected the intensity of her feelings about the policies surrounding organ donations.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (3)

Engerman on Slavery

November 21, 2006, Featuring Stanley Engerman

Stanley Engerman of the University of Rochester talks about slavery throughout world history, the role it played (or didn't play) in the Civil War and the incentives facing slaves and slave owners. This is a wide-ranging, fascinating conversation with the co-author of the classic Time on the Cross (co-authored with Robert Fogel) and the forthcoming Slavery, Emancipation, and Freedom (LSU Press, 2007). Engerman knows as much as anyone alive about the despicable human arrangement called slavery and the vastness and precision of his knowledge is on display in this interview.

MORE:

Readings and Links related to this podcast
Podcast Highlights

Posted by Russ Roberts. Permanent Link | Comments (3)

The Economics of Moneyball

October 23, 2006, Featuring Skip Sauer