Researchers leave their ivory towers to experience real-world economics, including visiting a chain restaurant and a repair shop. The misunderstood Luddites and workers confronting technology are explored. The impact of self-driving trucks on truck drivers is discussed, as well as the decline of the Teamster labor market due to automation.
Moderately expensive chain restaurants are places where people from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds interact the most based on cell phone tracking data.
The negative perception of Luddites needs to be reassessed, as they had valid concerns about the impact of new technologies on their livelihoods.
Deep dives
Socioeconomic Diversity and Chain Restaurants
Using cell phone tracking data, researchers discovered that moderately expensive chain restaurants, such as Applebee's and Olive Garden, are the locations where people from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds are most likely to interact.
Reevaluating the Luddites
The Luddites, commonly associated with being anti-technology, were actually a group of English textile workers who had valid concerns about the impact of new technologies on their livelihoods. Development of the textile industry brought economic progress but also resulted in job loss, lower wages, and harmful labor practices. Author Brian Merchant argues that we need to reassess the negative perception of Luddites and recognize the importance of carefully considering the societal impact of new technologies.
Anticipating Job Obsolescence
Labor economist Kevin Lang and his colleagues studied how labor markets respond when workers anticipate the threat of being replaced by new technologies. Their research found that young workers are less likely to enter an industry if they expect technological advancements will render it obsolete in the near future. On the other hand, older workers may be more inclined to join an industry with higher wages believing it will persist until their retirement. This pattern can be observed in the trucking industry today, as the emergence of self-driving trucks raises concerns about the futures of truckers.
The world of economics has these two different sides. One one side, there are the economists in their cozy armchairs and dusty libraries, high up in their ivory towers. On the other, there's the messy world we're all living in, where those economics are actually playing out.
Sometimes, researchers will write about something that they themselves have never actually experienced. Sure, they've thought about it, theorized, come up with smart analyses...but that's not the same as getting out of that armchair and into the real world.
So, in this episode, we play our own version of Never Have I Ever. We dare two researchers to go places and do things they have never done before, in hopes of learning something new about the economic world around us.
(Okay, fine, it's maybe more like Truth or Dare...but go with us here.)
Today's episode was hosted by Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi and produced by Emma Peaslee with help from Willa Rubin. It was edited by Sally Helm, fact checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Maggie Luthar. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.