Political Economy Forum

Senior Fellow Sean Bottomley of Northumbria University speaks to Nicolas Wittstock about the Court of Wards - a medieval legal institution in England. Sean's research uncovers the effects on property rights and investment this court had - especially when used by cash-strapped monarchs to raise revenue from their feudal subjects. 

Prof. Marius Busemeyer of Konstanz University speaks to Nicolas Wittstock about education and vocational training systems. To invest in and improve education is the object of almost every conversation surrounding the public policy implications of technological change. But how are education systems currently organized and what effects would adaptations have?

In this episode, Prof. Leticia Arroyo Abad and Prof. Noel Maurer speak to Nicolas Wittstock to present their criticisms of “persistence studies” - accounts of economic history that seek to explain present conditions by evaluating the causal effect of things that happened long ago.

Prof. Leticia Arroyo Abad and Prof. Noel Maurer speak to Nicolas Wittstock about their research on the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic - and its parallels with the 2020 Covid-19 epidemic.

In this episode, Victor Menaldo speaks to Nicolas Wittstock about his forthcoming book on productivity within the US technology sector. Robert Solow famously declared in 1987 that “you can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics”. Extending this observation to the technologies of the fourth industrial revolution, economists like Robert Gordon have voiced similar skepticism. Victor Menaldo presents preliminary results from his forthcoming book on productivity within the US technology sector.

In this episode, Prof. Carles Boix of Princeton University discusses his latest book - “Democratic Capitalism at the Crossroads - Technological Change and the Future of Politics” with Nicolas Wittstock. The two debate the effects of recent technological changes on the economic structure of rich societies - and what their political effects might be.

In this episode, Prof. Daniel Markovits of Yale Law School speaks to Nicolas Wittstock about the US labor market, education system, and economic inequality. In his book "The Meritocracy Trap", Prof. Daniel Markovits argues that the US meritocratic system favors richer children, while creating enormous educational demands. As a result, the middle and lower classes are increasingly locked out of meaningful economic engagement, while high-skilled workers are trapped in a constant cycle of education, fierce competition, and evaluation. 

In this episode, Prof. Enrico Moretti of the University of California, Berkely speaks to Nicolas Wittstock about the economic geography of the United States. In particular, they discuss why certain industries agglomerate in some cities, and why other cities struggle to attract innovative businesses. 

In this episode, Dr. Ralf Martin of Imperial College London speaks to Nicolas Wittstock about two recent papers that Martin co-authored. The conversation focuses on how consumer preferences can induce companies to invest in more climate-friendly technologies - and how governments seek to use the post-pandemic moment to increase investment in R&D.

In this episode, Senior Fellow Steven Feldstein of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program discusses his new book, The Rise of Digital Repression: How Technology is Reshaping Power, Politics, and Resistance, with Forum Affiliate Morgan Wack. The conversation touches on the recent spread and use of digital repression technologies around the world. Rooted in Steven’s own research, the episode and the book detail the real world consequences of extant technologies while debating the impending consequences of AI and big data while providing a look at active forms of resistance being undertaken by governments and civil society actors.