As the war in Ukraine continues, sanctions on Russian energy exports have led to a rise in global oil and gas prices. How might the supply disruptions, rising prices, and the growing political urgency in Europe to reduce reliance on Russian oil and gas shape our energy future? Are we likely to see environmentally harmful short-run effects as countries scramble for additional sources of hydrocarbons? Could the current crisis accelerate efforts to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels? David Victor at UC San Diego joins EconoFact Chats for a discussion of these issues. David is Professor and the Center for Global Transformation Endowed Chair in Innovation and Public Policy at UC San Diego. He is also co-Director of the University’s Deep Decarbonization Initiative.

The economic impact of the COVID recession has differed widely across groups of people. Pamela Meyerhofer joins EconoFact Chats to discuss some of these differential impacts, focusing on women's experiences in the labor force, as well as those of frontline workers -- those who were providing essential in-person services and facing the biggest risks at the beginning of the pandemic. Pamela is a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Montana State University.

COVID-19 has changed much of how we live. For many of us, it's also changed how and from where we work. What have been the effects of working from home on businesses and employees? Now, as many places re-open, will those who had been working from home continue to do so? Will they want to? Will companies be willing to accommodate them? How will working from home affect productivity and people's sense of isolation? This week on EconoFact Chats, Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University joins Michael Klein to discuss the far-reaching implications of working from home.   Nick is Professor of Economics at Stanford University and Co-Director of the Productivity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship program at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

In the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, an alliance of governments announced wide-ranging sanctions aimed at punishing President Putin, members of the Duma, and Russian oligarchs. What impact are these sanctions likely to have? How resilient will the Russian economy be to the withdrawal of foreign partners? And how responsive will President Putin be to hardships facing the Russian people, as well as to his more immediate circle? Christopher Miller joins EconoFact Chats to discuss these issues.  Chris is an Assistant Professor international history at The Fletcher School. He is the author of 'Putinomics: Power and Money in Resurgent Russia.'

Unusually frequent droughts and hurricanes are manifestations of climate change; and these events, along with associated wildfires and floods, have important economic consequences. This week on EconoFact Chats, Galina Hale discusses the costs of both, these extreme events, and the costs of a transition to a more environmentally friendly economy. Galina Hale is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She previously was an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

What are the ways in which public finance -- the study of government taxing and spending -- can and should address issues related to the inequitable racial impacts of government policy? This week on EconoFact Chats Bill Gale of the Brookings Institution discusses recognizing and analyzing racial disparities fostered by public policy and how public finance policies can better address past injustices. Bill is the Arjay and Frances Miller Chair in Federal Economic Policy and Senior Fellow in the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution. He served as president of the National Tax Association from 2019 to 2020.

Antitrust laws have been part of U.S. legislation since the Sherman Act of 1890, and the Clayton and Federal Trade Commission Acts of 1914. Does existing legislation provide a useful framework to check anti-competitive practices today? This week on EconoFact Chats, Dan Richards discusses the many forms of monopoly and monopsony power, how U.S. regulatory attitudes towards anti-trust have shifted, and what tools are available to address monopolistic practices today. Dan is a Professor of Economics at Tufts University.

Union membership has been declining for 60 years but there are incipient signs of a reemergence. Why did unionization decline and what might be prompting its return? How do unions affect wages, as well as the workplace environment? More broadly, what is the evidence on the effects of unions on overall productivity and public policy? Aaron Sojourner discusses these issues in this week’s EconoFact Chats episode. Aaron is Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. He served as senior economist for labor at the U.S. President’s Council of Economic Advisors for Presidents Obama and Trump.

This week on EconoFact Chats, Giovanni Peri, founding director of the Global Migration Center at UC Davis discusses the many roles that immigrants play in the US economy, how current labor shortages are linked to international travel disruptions and immigration restrictions, and what natural experiments like the Mariel boatlift of 1980 can tell us about the impact of immigration on the wages of native-born workers. Giovanni is Professor in the Department of Economics at University of California, Davis. He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

There has been a widening divergence in mortality rates across states over the past four decades. While this is partially explained by differences in education, income and “deaths of despair” -- those related to alcohol, drugs, or suicide -- there are also place-based effects beyond these factors. This week on EconoFact Chats, Ellen Meara discusses the effect of the health environment and state-level policies on mortality rates, and how the breakdown of social safeguards contributes to worse health outcomes. Ellen is Professor of Health Economics and Policy at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University and an elected member of the National Board of Medicine.