EconTalk

Nobel Laureate Paul Romer talks with host Russ Roberts about the nature of growth, the role of cities in the economy, and the state of economics. Romer also reflects on his time at the World Bank and why he left his position there as Chief Economist.

Jill Lepore talks about nationalism, populism, and the state of America with host Russ Roberts. She argues that we need a new Americanism, a common story we share and tell ourselves. Topics include the rise of globalization and the challenge of knowing what is true and what is false in the internet era.

Robin Feldman talks about her book Drugs, Money, and Secret Handshakes with host Russ Roberts. She argues that the legal and regulatory environment for drug companies encourages them to seek drugs that extend their monopoly often with insufficient benefit for consumers. The prices for those drugs are then protected from new competition via the patent system. She also argues that the pharmacy benefit management system allows drug companies to exploit consumers...

Jacob Stegenga talks about his book Medical Nihilism with host Russ Roberts. He argues that many medical treatments either fail to achieve their intended goals or achieve them with many negative side effects; and that the approval process for pharmaceuticals exaggerates benefits and underestimates costs. He criticizes the FDA approval process for approving too many drugs that are not sufficiently helpful relative to their side effects...

Daniel Hamermesh talks about his latest book, Spending Time, with host Russ Roberts. He explores how we treat time relative to money, how much we work and how that has changed over time, and the ways economists look at time, work, and leisure.

Amy Tuteur talks with host Russ Roberts about her book, Push Back. She argues that natural parenting--the encouragement to women to give birth without epidurals or caesarians and to breastfeed--is bad for women's health and has little or no benefit for their children.

Amy Webb talks about her book, The Big Nine, with host Russ Roberts. She observes that AI is evolving in a handful of U.S. and Chinese companies. She worries that in the U.S., innovation may lead to social changes we may not ultimately like; in China, innovation may end up serving the geopolitical goals of the Chinese government with some uncomfortable foreign policy implications...

Jacob Vigdor talks with host Russ Roberts about the impact of Seattle's minimum wage increases in recent years. Vigdor has tried to measure the change in employment, hours worked, and wages for low-skilled Seattle workers. Some or all of the gains were offset by reductions in hours worked and a reduction in the rate of job creation especially for low-skilled workers.

Michael Munger talks with host Russ Roberts about whether real capitalism is unstable and leads inevitably to crony capitalism. They also discuss ways to prevent the descent into cronyism and speculate on their own blind spots.

Catherine Semcer talks with host Russ Roberts about the role of incentives in preserving wildlife in Africa. They discuss how allowing limited hunting of big game such as elephants, using revenue from hunting licenses to reward communities for habitat stewardship, has improved both habitat and wildlife populations while reducing poaching...