EconTalk

Terry Moe talks about his book The Politics of Institutional Reform with host Russ Roberts. He explores educational reform in New Orleans public schools in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. When policy-makers turned to charter schools for pragmatic reasons, students enjoyed dramatic improvements in educational outcomes as a result...

Gerd Gigerenzer talks about his book Gut Feelings with host Russ Roberts. He argues for heuristics--rules of thumb--over more complex models when making real-world decisions, and that many behavioral economics results that appear irrational can be understood as sensible ways of coping with complexity.

Susan Mayer talks about her book What Money Can't Buy with host Russ Roberts. Her research found that giving poor parents money had little measured effect on improving their children's lives. Also discussed is the role of education and parenting practices to help children in poor families.

Keith Smith talks with Russ Roberts about what it's like to run a surgery center that posts prices on the internet and that does not take insurance. He discusses the distortions in the market for healthcare and how a real market for healthcare might function if government took a smaller role.

Rory Sutherland talks about his book Alchemy with host Russ Roberts. He makes the case for the magic of advertising and branding in helping markets work well. Consumer choice, public policy, travel, real estate, and corporate decision-making are also discussed using insights from behavioral economics and decades of experience in the world of advertising.

Venkatesh Rao talks about Waldenponding with host Russ Roberts. Rao coined the term to describe retreating from technology akin to Thoreau's extolling the retreat from social contact. He argues it is overrated. Rao sees online intellectual life as an ecosystem that produces new knowledge and discourse. He encourages all of us to contribute to that intellectual ecosystem even when it can mean losing credit for some of our ideas and potentially some of our uniqueness.

Michele Gelfand talks about her book Rule Makers, Rule Breakers with host Russ Roberts. She distinguishes between loose cultures and tight cultures--the degree to which culture and regulation restrict behavior or leave it alone. She explores why some cultures are tighter than others and the challenges societies face when culture is too tight or too loose. She also applies these ideas of cultural tightness and looseness to corporate mergers and family life.

Susan Houseman talks about the manufacturing sector with host Russ Roberts. She argues that the data surrounding manufacturing growth is driven by computer production while the rest of manufacturing has been stagnant. She also argues that productivity has a small role in reducing manufacturing employment. Trade has been the main cause of employment reductions. These claims go against the standard narratives most economists have been telling for the last 20 years.

Andrew McAfee talks about his book, More from Less, with host Russ Roberts. He argues that technology is helping developed nations use fewer resources to produce more output, reducing energy use in total. This "dematerialization" portends a future that was unimaginable to the economists and pundits of the past...

Ryan Holiday talks about his latest book, Stillness Is the Key, with host Russ Roberts. Holiday explores how stillness--the cultivation of serenity and focus--can affect how we live and how we perceive life. Topics discussed include the performance artist Marina Abramovic, Winnie the Pooh, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Michael Jordan's Hall of Fame induction speech. Holiday also explains how he keeps track of information and how his system makes it easier for him to write his books.